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| 10/24/2008 8:17:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Town of Presque Isle supervisor Charles Hayes (right), president of the 40-member Carlin Lake Association, meets with DNR representatives including (from left) Northern Highland-American Legion state forest superintendent Steve Petersen, senior forester Kelly Martinko and forester-ranger Susan Brisk.
Eric A. Johnson photo |
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| The DNR’s Boulder Junction-based Trout Lake Forestry office is in the process of bidding an 85 percent “coppice with standards” logging contract for an aspen- and birch-heavy 31-acre state-owned tract (boxed section with diagonal lines) along Hwy. P in Presque Isle. Under the forestry management plan for Tract 12-08, short-lived aspen and white birch nearing the end of their natural lives would be logged, while hardwood species including basswood, white ash, yellow birch, maple, oak, balsam fir and spruce would be preserved to steer the tract toward a greater population of longer-lived tree species. Two springtime “vernal pool” wetlands containing tamarack, spruce, maple, birch and ash would be preserved on Tract 12-08 as habitat for ducks, frogs, salamanders and other wildlife. |
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PI board's hopes for 'buffer zone' on timber harvest dashed by DNR
Denial based on environmental considerations, boundary integrity
Gathering at the intersection of Hwy. P and Carlin Lake Road on Monday morning, Presque Isle town supervisor Charles Hayes, also president of the 40-member Carlin Lake Association, met with local DNR officials to discuss town and association concerns with Trout Lake Forestry's plans for timber cutting on a 31-acre tract of state-owned land in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest (NH-AL).
The 65-70 year old forest stand (Tract 12-08), donated years ago to the DNR, is heavily populated by short-lived aspen and white birch nearing the end of their average lifespan.
Misconceptions
In a pre-meeting interview with The Lakeland Times, Woodruff-based NH-AL superintendent Steve Petersen said DNR logging operations are often misunderstood by the general public.
"A lot of people think that we're motivated by money" he said. "This isn't about the money. This is about the next forest that will be here. We're trying to regenerate the forest ... My charge is State Statute 2804, which says we manage our forests for present and future generations for multiple benefits. I have to look down the road ... and weigh that against the consequences of doing nothing here - the structural and biological things that are going to happen. We aren't going to have the type of forest we desire. People look at this and say, 'This is beautiful.' Do you want that again, because it's not going to stay like this.
"Those are the decisions that we make. It's driven by how it relates back to 2804 and how it relates to our [NH-AL] Master Plan ... It's not driven by the finances. It is driven by what's best for the forest and looking beyond tomorrow - looking to what forest will we have here 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now. Those are the decisions that we make."
Petersen said Statute 2804 charges state foresters with overseeing the ecological, economic and social considerations of forestry management.
"Economics is a part of it, but we don't drive around seeing dollar signs out the windshield," he said.
Senior forester Kelly Martinko told The Times that she takes her forestry management duties under Statute 2804 very seriously.
"I take it as a serious responsibility to find a way to sustainably manage these resources...," she said.
The timber harvest plan
The DNR's timber harvest plan at the Tract 12-08 site calls for logging trees near Carlin and Papoose Lakes along Hwy. P near Carlin Lake Road, Pinecone Road and Pace Road (S19, T43N, R5E).
In an effort to preserve soils and roads, the two-year logging contract currently being bid for Tract 12-08 calls for timber harvests in the winter of 2009 and 2010, or during extremely dry conditions.
Martinko said winter is the "ideal time" for the Tract 12-08 harvest, noting roadbeds are frozen, there are fewer residents to disturb with logging operations and cut aspen tend to "regenerate more profusely."
Plans call for a forest-regenerating 85 percent "coppice with standards" harvest of timber on the aspen-heavy tract, which will include all marketable mature aspen and white birch, two short-lived species nearing the end of their average 75-80 year life span.
Uncut species will include basswood, white ash, yellow birch, maple, oak, spruce, balsam firs, hemlock and white and red pine.
Two large wetland areas, featuring tamarack, spruce, maple, birch and ash, will be left undisturbed.
The preserved wetlands contain springtime vernal pools that are considered a critical habitat for a variety of wildlife species, including ducks, frogs and salamanders.
The forest re-generating timber harvest is part of the NH-AL's current 15-year master plan for forest management, which was approved by the DNR in October 2005.
"These trees have a system for the way they regenerate," Petersen said. "Aspen will root-sprout. Once these trees are removed and sunlight hits the ground, hormones are released in the roots and they send up shoots. Birch needs a lot of sunlight and bare mineral soil. Those are things we're thinking of here."
Another consideration of the harvest, he noted, is "steering" the tract toward a greater percentage of longer-lived species by preserving existing hardwoods on Tract 12-08.
"A lot of these really beautiful scenic roads that we have on the [NH-AL] property are the result of forest management - steering the composition," he said. "On this tract, by taking the aspen and leaving the maple behind, leaving the ash behind, leaving the oak behind, we can skew our composition toward those longer-lived species. By leaving that crown cover, that'll shade the aspen out and we won't see them come back quite like that. We can manipulate the composition of future forests by the way we prescribe our cuts now ... It's not something we can leap into - wave a wand and suddenly we now have a forest of longer-lived species. It's something that we have to take incrementally."
The Presque Isle timber sale for Tract 12-08 is one of 30 proposed harvests currently being bid by the DNR for the 232,000-acre state forest.
Bids will be opened on Friday, Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. at the Boulder Junction Community Center, 5386 Park St. (Hwy. M).
Peterson said income generated by DNR forestry timber harvests statewide, more than $80 million annually, are deposited into the DNR's Forestry Fund.
The Forestry Fund, he said, supports a variety of DNR forestry operations, including general forestry and urban forestry projects, wildland firefighting efforts and wildlife management on county forest lands.
Tract 12-08 timber harvest
In response to a Sept. 11 informational letter from Brisk about the planned state land timber harvest, Presque Isle supervisors - Hayes, George Nelson and town chairman Jack Harrison - sent a reply letter "anticipating" DNR "cooperation" with town ordinances calling for the creation of a 100-foot cutting buffer from the centerline along public roads.
In their letter, supervisors also asked for "good neighbor" buffer zones along the lot lines of developed residential properties bordering the 31-acre logging tract, noting their feeling that "any projected economic or ecological benefit obtained by cutting to the lot line ... is more than offset by the real problems it will cause the homeowner."
At Monday's on-site meeting, Hayes questioned Peterson, Brisk and Martinko whether the DNR would be able to "show consideration" for town ordinances and neighboring property owners.
Petersen told Hayes that the DNR falls outside the town's jurisdiction.
"The town cannot regulate us," he said.
As a practical consideration, Petersen said the "over-mature" aspen and birch tract is reaching the end of its natural life cycle.
"You can't hold back the hands of time," he said, noting a number of aspen on the tract and nearby private lands tipped or fell during a severe July 11 storm, blocking roads and contributing to power outages that extended up to 36 hours in some cases. "We're pushing the life expectancy of these trees. You can't legislate against biology."
Martinko, meanwhile, said leaving narrow buffer strips is a problematic forestry practice, as it makes the buffer trees vulnerable to "wind throw."
Brisk agreed.
"The soils that we have makes these trees have shallower root systems, which makes them subject more to wind throw," she noted. "Leaving a [buffer] corridor wouldn't be the best idea ... These trees are ready to go ... Corridors aren't the solution to every timber sale ... These aren't the way to manage our timber."
Petersen said the practice of leaving roadside buffers, a common forestry practice in the 1950s, failed to stand the test of time.
"We learned our lesson that that didn't work," he said. "Those buffers, we had to go in years later ... It fragments the forest. It compromises what goes on ... You can't stop the march of time in that 100-foot buffer. It's going to change..."
The DNR, Brisk noted, is planning to "mitigate the aesthetics" on the tract by preserving the two sizeable wildlife habitat wetland areas, which will be visible from roadways bisecting the tract.
Considerations of future forestry aesthetics, she said, are also important.
"You can't have all mature trees," Brisk noted. "You have to think about the next generation."
Martinko said timber harvests like that proposed for Tract 12-08 are part of the DNR's 15-year NH-AL Master Plan for forest management, which contains forestry, recreational, water, scenic resources and wildlife objectives looking 50-100 years down the road.
"We've got to rotate it if we want trees again ... for our children and grandchildren to see," she said, noting "a lot of data" goes into the DNR's timber harvest plans. "...It isn't just a matter of throwing darts at a board."
In regard to calls for providing relief for neighboring landowners, Petersen said the DNR was unwilling to provide for a buffer zone along property lines, citing the state's need to maintain control of its property lines
"Property lines are property lines," he said. "We need to maintain integrity of ownership ... Our [property] lines are bright and I'm not going to make them fuzzy," he said.
DNR's decision "disappointing"
With Petersen's decision to cut to the property line edge of its harvest tract and not observe the town's 100-foot cutting buffer ordinance along Hwy. P, Hayes left Monday morning's on-site meeting empty-handed.
"I'm not surprised," Hayes told The Times. "It's disappointing ... As a layperson, it's hard to believe that they can't give ... any relief at all."
Martinko told The Times that the DNR wanted to be "upfront" about its decision and the reasoning behind it, even if the answer "may not be what people want to hear."
"Honesty leads to integrity and integrity helps build trust," she noted.
Eric Johnson can be reached via email at ejohnson@lakelandtimes.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Sunday, October 26, 2008
Article comment by:
tom
its all about money and money is what's turning the Northwoods of Wisconsin into what you see now.
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