Umpqua Watersheds: Benchmark Timber Sale

05/06/03

Benchmark Salvage Sale
Tiller Ranger District, Umpqua National Forest.
1997 Fire Salvage Logging Implementing Beschta Recommendations.

Perhaps answering the question... What does Beschta look like?

Below are pictures of 40 acres salvaged logged in 1997 that implemented some aspects of the 1995 Beschta Report recommendations. These pictures were taken on May 1, 2003, about 5 years after the salvage. As far as we know, this is the only example of post-fire salvage logging using some of Beschta recommendations.

On August 10, 1996, a lightening caused fire started to burn in the upper Jackson Creek drainage in Matrix land. Several days later the fire was contained at 220 acres. In May 1997, the Umpqua National Forest released the Benchmark Environmental Assessment to salvage log and thin 89 acres. Alternative 3 was implemented later that year. Units 1 and 2, 47 acres, were the heart of the fire and the fire salvage logging. These pictures are of unit 1.

The EA stated: "In an attempt to better maintain the viability of the Critical Habitat Unit, the removal of fire-killed snags and down wood follows the recommendations from "Wildfire and Salvage Logging", Beschta et al...1995."

Well, not exactly. The upper diameter/age limit was exceeded and replanting is abundant among the natural seedlings. But it does appear that only about 50 percent of the fire-killed trees were logged.

Paul Czemerys, Fuels Technician for the Tiller Ranger District, and part of the ID Team for the project in 1997, came with us on our May 1, 2003 visit and provided invaluable assistance.

Our review is far from complete, as we only spent a couple of hours touring the site.

In March of 1995, Dr. Robert Beschta, Oregon State University, and seven other scientists published "Wildfire and Salvage Logging. Recommendations for Ecologically Sound Post-Fire Salvage Logging and Other Post-Fire Treatments On Federal Lands in the West."

As Dr. Beschta points out, because B comes early in the alphabet, it became known as the Beschta Report.

The report recommends to leave:

at least 50% of standing dead trees in each diameter class;
all trees greater than 20 inches DBH or older than 150 years; and
all live trees.

Download the complete Beschta Report here.

General overview of a corner of the unit.

On the left is a seedling that was planted and then tubed to protect it from elk or deer browse. It is an Incense Cedar, a species naturally occurring in this area (and good for the Forest Service for not planting exclusively Douglas firs).

In the last five years, its growth has tangled itself inside the tube. If the tubes are not removed soon, the tree will likely be permanently deformed and stunted. This was a big problem all over the Benchmark sale.

We also saw a lot of natural seedlings that were doing well, that came from the green trees surrounding the unit (and a few green trees within the unit).

The Beschta Report recommends "Active reseeding and replanting should be conducted only under limited conditions.... In general, active planting and seeding has not been shown to advance regeneration... reseeding is associated with additional problems and costs. Therefore, such practices should be employed only where there are several years of evidence that natural regeneration is not occurring."

We wondered, if the EA identified Beschta as the preferred alternative, why did replanting happen?

Unsalvaged portion of the fire:

This is a picture of the Riparian Reserve that went into unit 1. It was left completely unsalvaged.

Paul pointed out that due to fire suppression, this forest could have been overstocked before the fire.

General overview of salvage. Apparently OSHA had no problems with allowing salvage logging while leaving dead trees scattered within the unit.

Paul asked one of the Timber Sale Officers about OSHA, and was told that OSHA was at the sale at least three times to observe the operation.

Patrick is sitting by a "tailhold" tree, girdled to fit a cable used in cable yarding. All of Benchmark was cable yarded. A short spur road was built on a ridgetop and later decommissioned -- but we did not see it.

Blowdown:

One thing that was obvious, and perhaps should be looked into more, is the prolific recent blowdown we saw. On the left is an old-growth Incense Cedar that blew over (see root wad on very left of picture, attached to the tree on ground). It was a live tree that had been left standing within the unit.

All the blow-down we saw appeared to be from just this past winter, as the needles were still green.

It would be interesting to check out if there were as much blowdown in the unsalvaged portions of the burn.

In this picture, all the standing trees you see in the foreground are dead -- fire killed. There was one live Sugar Pine that was left unlogged, and it is now the big tree you see laying on the ground.

It blew over -- this time the roots stayed in the ground, but it tore apart at the base of the tree, which is now a 20' snag seen at the far right of the picture.

It appears that a large percentage of dead wood (fuels) within the unit now comes from the blowdowns.

Here we are on the outside edge of the unit, out of the heavy burn, with many more green trees, and LOTS of recent blow-down.

Only live, green trees blew down because they have much more area to catch the wind than snags do.

We saw a couple of log decks that were not hauled away (maybe a half log truck load). About 25% (real rough estimate) of the fuels on the ground were from the salvage logging itself, and much of that was from these unhauled log decks.

On the left is a 95 year old tree (was it an Incense Cedar?), about 18" across, that was cut and left. It has the Superior Lumber brand on it.

Superior bought the sale and Huffman-Wright contracted to log it.

That's the end of the Benchmark Fire Salvage Logging pictures.

For the most up-to-date information on the Umpqua 2002 fires, see our Umpqua Fire Page.
For the most up-to-date information on the Siskiyou 2002 Biscuit fire, see the Biscuit Fire Page (off site to SREP).

Other Miscellaneous Information on the Benchmark Timber Sale.

Benchmark consisted of four units.

Units 1 and 2 adjoined each other, were center of the high-intensity burn and were salvage logged as seen above. As far as I could find, the EA never once mentions "soils" or "erosion". Beschta is expressly implemented to protect features of the NSO Critical Habitat Unit (CHU) the fire burned in.

Units 3 and 4 were thinning of green trees. Units 3 and 4 removed "green white fir and excess Douglas-fir to mimic the natural fire regime." The EA says that "The Benchmark Fire resulted in a mosaic of both high-intensity and low-intensity fire burn areas. In addition to those areas burned by the fire it is likely that the area of low-intensity fire would have covered a more extensive area if not for fire suppression efforts." Units 3 and 4 "Expands commercial harvest opportunities beyond the fire perimeter [that would be units 1 and 2] to include areas within the potential fire influence zone".

In other words, units 3 and 4 log trees (even old-growth and mature trees) that would have been killed if the fire wasn't suppressed.

The contractor chose to salvage log the dead trees in units 1 and 2 first, finishing it in 1997. But before units 3 and 4 were cut, Judge Rothstein ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to issue a valid Biological Opinion for Coho Salmon covering a group of timber sales that included Benchmark. Therefore, Benchmark has been enjoined by the courts and to this day, units 3 and 4 remain unlogged.

The End

	On August 10, 1996, a lightening caused fire started to burn in the upper Jackson Creek drainage in Matrix land. Several days later the fire was contained at 220 acres. In May 1997, the Umpqua National Forest released the Benchmark Environmental Assessment to salvage log and thin 89 acres. Alternative 3 was implemented later that year. Units 1 and 2, 47 acres, were the heart of the fire and the fire salvage logging. These pictures are of unit 1. The EA stated: "In an attempt to better maintain the viability of the Critical Habitat Unit, the removal of fire-killed snags and down wood follows the recommendations from "Wildfire and Salvage Logging", Beschta et al...1995." Well, not exactly. The upper diameter/age limit was exceeded and replanting is abundant among the natural seedlings. But it does appear that only about 50 percent of the fire-killed trees were logged.
	Paul Czemerys, Fuels Technician for the Tiller Ranger District, and part of the ID Team for the project in 1997, came with us on our May 1, 2003 visit and provided invaluable assistance. Our review is far from complete, as we only spent a couple of hours touring the site.
	In March of 1995, Dr. Robert Beschta, Oregon State University, and seven other scientists published "Wildfire and Salvage Logging. Recommendations for Ecologically Sound Post-Fire Salvage Logging and Other Post-Fire Treatments On Federal Lands in the West." As Dr. Beschta points out, because B comes early in the alphabet, it became known as the Beschta Report. The report recommends to leave: at least 50% of standing dead trees in each diameter class; all trees greater than 20 inches DBH or older than 150 years; and all live trees. Download the complete Beschta Report here.
	General overview of a corner of the unit.
	On the left is a seedling that was planted and then tubed to protect it from elk or deer browse. It is an Incense Cedar, a species naturally occurring in this area (and good for the Forest Service for not planting exclusively Douglas firs). In the last five years, its growth has tangled itself inside the tube. If the tubes are not removed soon, the tree will likely be permanently deformed and stunted. This was a big problem all over the Benchmark sale. We also saw a lot of natural seedlings that were doing well, that came from the green trees surrounding the unit (and a few green trees within the unit). The Beschta Report recommends "Active reseeding and replanting should be conducted only under limited conditions.... In general, active planting and seeding has not been shown to advance regeneration... reseeding is associated with additional problems and costs. Therefore, such practices should be employed only where there are several years of evidence that natural regeneration is not occurring." We wondered, if the EA identified Beschta as the preferred alternative, why did replanting happen?
	Unsalvaged portion of the fire: This is a picture of the Riparian Reserve that went into unit 1. It was left completely unsalvaged. Paul pointed out that due to fire suppression, this forest could have been overstocked before the fire.
	General overview of salvage. Apparently OSHA had no problems with allowing salvage logging while leaving dead trees scattered within the unit. Paul asked one of the Timber Sale Officers about OSHA, and was told that OSHA was at the sale at least three times to observe the operation.
	Patrick is sitting by a "tailhold" tree, girdled to fit a cable used in cable yarding. All of Benchmark was cable yarded. A short spur road was built on a ridgetop and later decommissioned -- but we did not see it.
	Blowdown: One thing that was obvious, and perhaps should be looked into more, is the prolific recent blowdown we saw. On the left is an old-growth Incense Cedar that blew over (see root wad on very left of picture, attached to the tree on ground). It was a live tree that had been left standing within the unit. All the blow-down we saw appeared to be from just this past winter, as the needles were still green. It would be interesting to check out if there were as much blowdown in the unsalvaged portions of the burn.
	In this picture, all the standing trees you see in the foreground are dead -- fire killed. There was one live Sugar Pine that was left unlogged, and it is now the big tree you see laying on the ground. It blew over -- this time the roots stayed in the ground, but it tore apart at the base of the tree, which is now a 20' snag seen at the far right of the picture. It appears that a large percentage of dead wood (fuels) within the unit now comes from the blowdowns.
	Here we are on the outside edge of the unit, out of the heavy burn, with many more green trees, and LOTS of recent blow-down. Only live, green trees blew down because they have much more area to catch the wind than snags do.
	We saw a couple of log decks that were not hauled away (maybe a half log truck load). About 25% (real rough estimate) of the fuels on the ground were from the salvage logging itself, and much of that was from these unhauled log decks. On the left is a 95 year old tree (was it an Incense Cedar?), about 18" across, that was cut and left. It has the Superior Lumber brand on it. Superior bought the sale and Huffman-Wright contracted to log it.