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National Forests

Started by Ron Scott, February 11, 2012, 10:50:14 AM

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ashes

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/10/us/tombstone-water-fight/index.html

This is the link to the article I was trying to show you guys. might have to copy and paste to view because I clearly am uncapable of posting the link.

I read about the use of explosives to remove trees and also the frozen cows. Itchy trigger finger?

Ron Scott

US Forest Service Workers Fell Day's Worth of Trees in a Second with Blasts

Missoulian (May 24) - A day's worth of logging took place in less than a second on a hillside above Hahn Creek as a blasting crew distributed about 100 pounds of explosive sticks among 37 dead pine trees that threatened a stretch of the Hahn Creek Road.

The decision to blast instead of saw was driven by several factors. Wednesday's project took out 37 trees with a crew of five working about 2 hours. It would take a single chain saw operator about 10 hours to do the same job, given the steep terrain and lack of maneuvering room for more co-workers.

Trees that have snapped midway up the trunk, or lost part of their roothold, or have tipped and tangled into surrounding timber, all may be too unsafe for a sawyer to tackle. A blaster can place a charge without ever moving the suspect tree.

The E-Forester
~Ron

Ron Scott

R4: Forest Service road crew provides road maintenance training to the Marine Corps

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest road crew personnel will conduct a two-day training session this week with the Marine Corps' Heavy Equipment Section to lengthen the life-span of the road network and maintain water quality. This high-elevation training site's 47,000 acres are located on the Bridgeport Ranger District, near Bridgeport, Calif., along Sonora Pass, in the Eastern Sierras. The Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center is one of the Corps' most remote and isolated posts. They conduct formal schools for individuals and battalion training in summer and winter mountain operations.

The Chief's Newsletter

P.S. Has anyone spent time with the USMC at Bridgeport, CA?
~Ron

ashes

Those guys came to Kirkwood ski area every year that I worked there to train. Mostly to learn to ski and get around for the new guys. It was always fun to have beers with the guys in the evening. The close proximity allowed me to see military aircraft fly around there pretty often.

It was funny to hear the responces when you asked the guys if they enjoyed the skiing. Some thought it was like a vacation, and some got tired of getting beat up on the ski hill every day.

All I met were really nice guys.

Ron Scott

Dixie National Forest Pulls Logging Plan

Utah Daily Herald, July 15th
Federal foresters have backed away from logging a high-country swath of spruce in southern Utah, handing a victory to environmental groups fearing for the survival of a rare hawk. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Utah Environmental Congress say logging would have removed old-growth forests north of Escalante that support a dwindling population of goshawks. They held up the logging plan in federal courts and took credit for the reversal by the U.S. Forest Service. Logging proponents say the decision leaves conditions in the dense forest ripe for a catastrophic wildfire in the area north of Escalante. "It's dying faster than you can think. Beetles are wiping it out," Bruce Chappell, a logger and log home builder in Lyman, told The Salt Lake Tribune.

The E-Forester


~Ron

OneWithWood

Never knew goshawks to be rare.  We have plenty of them around here and the forests are being logged steadily in a mostly sustainable fashion.  It xould be the escalante goshawks are in decline due to the maturation of the forest and loss of openings where mice thrive.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Ron Scott

R9: Michigan National Forests and The National Wild Turkey Federation join forces

The National Forests of Michigan (Huron-Manistee, Hiawatha and Ottawa) signed an agreement with the National Wild Turkey Federation to increase coordination in achieving wildlife habitat restoration and enhancement. The agreement includes jointly funding a biologist to help with program development and project completion, collaborating to find additional resources for projects, enhancing collaboration in the conservation of turkey habitat and preservation of our hunting heritage, implementing and promoting the use of stewardship contracts and restoration of fire-adapted ecosystems. Other opportunities for increased outdoors activities and volunteer projects include Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship and Wheelin' Sportsmen outreach programs.

The Chief's Newsletter
~Ron

terry f

    Ron, do you collect the America the beautiful quarters? If you do, go to a coin store and get a proof set to really appreciate their beauty.

Ron Scott

2012 Capitol Christmas Tree preparing for trek to nation's capital

The Blanco Ranger District of the White River National Forest is making final preparations for the harvesting and tour of the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree. The 73 foot Engelmann spruce will be harvested on Nov. 2 and begin its national tour to the nation's Capitol. There will be a celebration in the town of Meeker after the harvesting. An artfully painted Mack truck, which will transport the tree to Washington, D.C., arrived at the district office this past week. Visit the official website to learn more and track the tree's journey to the nation's Capitol.

The Chief's Newletter
~Ron

ashes

That's pretty cool Ron. I bet those guys are proud. 73' spruce is quite the Christmas tree.

Handymark

What is DBH on a 73' spruce? I wanna saw something.

Ron Scott

US Forest Service waives fees during Veterans Day weekend

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2012 –The U.S. Forest Service is waiving fees at most of its day-use recreation sites over the Veterans Day holiday weekend, Nov. 10-12. The fee waivers – the fourth this year -- are offered in cooperation with other federal agencies under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Day-use fees will be waived at all standard amenity fee sites operated by the Forest Service.  Concessionaire operated day-use sites may be included in the waiver if the permit holder wishes to participate.

The Chief's Newsletter
~Ron

Rocky_Ranger

Been on the road for three weeks and glad to be finally home; I see the Region 3 Regional Forester and Region 9 RF have either retired, or are going to at t he end of the year.  Also, I've never seen so many district ranger jobs open - I bet 15 - 20 positions across the country.  I seen a recent poll on leadership positions above the GS-14 level are in the 80% range for retirement elgibilities...
RETIRED!

Ron Scott

I talked with Region 9 Regional Forester Chuck Myers at the USFS Convention in Vail Colorado in September and he said that he was retiring the end of September but I haven't heard on the recruitment of a new RF as yet. I've known Chuck since he started on the Allegheny NF in 1978.
~Ron

Ron Scott

Watch for "Seeking the Greatest Good".

A new film produced for PBS by public TV station WVIA of Scranton, PA traces the life of Gifford Pinchot, founder of the Society of American Foresters and first chief of the US Forest Service. The full name of the movie is Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot.

Forest Timeline
~Ron

beenthere

May be getting around to that time agin when our 'leaders' start more talk about combining the USFS under the USDA with the BLM under the Dept. of Interior. Comes up every once in awhile and suspect there are good arguments either way, to save on duplication of management of federal lands.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Rocky_Ranger

Chuck Myers was and is an outstanding leader, as is Corbin Newman (RF in 3).  I worked for Chuck some in Region 8, and for Corbin in Region 3 for the past 2 1/2 years, two guys who epitomize the phrase "Leaders Intent".

Depending on the outcome of the election I can see the argument for DOI/DOA, BLM and USFS coming up again.  We'll waste a few million dollars to get back to the same place again.   :o
RETIRED!

Ron Scott

Yes I know Corbin for his good leadership. He also spent time in Region 9 and was Forest Supervisor of the Huron-Manistee National Forests headquartered here in Cadillac, MI after I retired.
~Ron

1270d

Rocky, would you be able to provide some info, or links to info on the current logging situation around flagstaff/winslow and the white mtns.  I had heard of a large salvage sale there being worked with ctl equipment. 

I used to live in prescott, and my wife is from the valley.


Rocky_Ranger

We have about 15,000 - 20,000 acres of salvage under contract right now under White Mountain Stewardship.  I've heard we have all the loggers except one in the State on the salvage.  We got about 8,000 - 10,000 acres of green we'll sell in 2013 in the White Mountains.  Then....Pioneer, the winners of 4-FRI, supposed to start on us on the west end (Black Mesa on us and northern Payson on Tonto NF) in Jan or late December of this year.  It's about 5,000 - 8,000 acres.  Then, in early summer the mill supposed to break ground at Winslow and ramp up to 30,000 acres/year - mainly around Flagstaff and haul to Winslow.  150 million dollar mill infrastructure to build, including a biodiesel plant just off I-40 at Winslow.  We're busier "than a cat covering up crap on a marble floor" right now.........  I'd talk to Pioneer or to Future Forests folks to get a better handle on who's going to be doing what......  The new Vaagan mill is set to start operations in less than two weeks; got 1,000 loads of logs on the yard as we speak.  High-speed, small log Hew-saw mill - anticipated output is 1.0 - 1.5 million bd.feet per week (they say it should do up to 2.0 million bd.feet/week when the bugs get worked out of it... 
RETIRED!

beenthere

For what product market are they going to be milling? Dimension? specialty? i.e. what is the solid wood product? and what other products....you mentioned biofuel as one.
How many federal dollars going into this?
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Rocky_Ranger

Lots of dimensional lumber for overseas markets, pellets stock - the mill (pellet) in Show Low supplies 17% of the US consumption - and that's a lot of pellets (Home Depot "Heats" and Lowes "Greentree").  A pallet mill, on-site, mainly going to Mexico with raw stock, Bioenergy (27 Megawatt) power plant in Snowflake AZ.  4-FRI supposed to be specialty products such as glued joint material to make window and door jambs, and the big biodiesel plant coming on-line in 2014.  No federal $ except for the prep done by USFS, except still some remnant payments to Stewardship for service associated work.  We also have three other smaller mills in the area (2 - 6 million board feet/year processed).  It's not as dynamic as the south for timber production yet (meaning, not hotly contested stumpage bidding), but we have one of the largest programs in the country right now.  4-FRI does get planning $ since it is a "Collaborative Forest Landscape Project", but will fly on its own as far as implementation. 4-FRI first contract is 300,000 acres, and has already been let!
RETIRED!

1270d

Are all the harvesting contracts pretty well sewn up?  Or is it an ongoing bid/purchace system for stumpage?   The only type of logging I was able to see was a whole tree chip job somewhere up on the rim and a treelength operation just south of prescott.

I heard some talk on our lakestates grapevine that ponsse was supplying several ctl systems to a contractor in operating in the southwest out of montana.  Presumably Pioneer.  I guess you can gather that I would be interested in a little research into moving back to the state.  Purely a twinkle in the eye right now though.  I was in construction there till that dried up.  I do love that country, and doing this job there seems like it would be great.
besides being that much closer to elk hunting.

Rocky_Ranger

I'd give Pioneer a call at 406 655-0624, and ask them to give you Mr. Johnson's (Marlin's) number.  He's the one responsible for the woods operation.  That number is the best one I have
RETIRED!

1270d


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