It's been a long week for me.

[Tillaway]

I just got back from work last night and had to catch up with the posts.

Our work progresses slowy.  It has gotten a bit hot (nearly 100 degrees) in the woods so things start to slow down a bit during the afternoon.  Fortunately I have been completing my field work by 1:00 pm so I have been missing the worst of it.  Usually under these conditions you dash from shadey spot to shadey spot and wished you had gone to work earlier.

The rest of the crew have just completed marking a 90 acre unit and was ready for final approval from the USFS inspectors, when he shows up and says " You will never guess what.  There is a California Spotted Owl nesting on the adjacent ownership so we will have to throw out most of the unit."  The CSO is not on any list... yet.  The FS has to be over protective of everything... right to the ridiculous point.  If this was a Northern Spotted Owl, the unit is far enough away from the nest so as not to require any protection... if we were on private land. CSO's on private land on not even surveyed for, since they are not listed.  If we had known this it would have saved us allot of work.

I got a few pictures.  I have been packing around a disposable camera and shooting a few pictures that may intrest you all.  In fact I have pictures of.... A Brand New Portable Sawmill and the very first cut in the first log.  I just hope they turn out.  The film is in being processed as I type.  

[Kevin]

Tell us which mill Till.

[Tillaway]

Lucas 613... I was thinking about having people try to guess whats in the box. ;D

[Paul_H]

Tillaway,
We have to deal with the Spotted Owl nightmare in our area too.Probably not as long as you have had to.The problem we have is trying to get cooperation with the powers that be.When we try to find out the areas of concern to the enviroment ministry,they say  "tell us where you want to put your blocks".  We say  "where are your areas of concern,so we can plan accordingly"  they say   "tell us where you want to put your blocks". :   Bottom line,they have no idea,but have been directed to protect the Owl.

Do you have similar frustrations,or is it all smooth sailing :D

[Tillaway]

Paul,
In California we have to contract a biologist for a assesment of suitable habitat.  If there is any on the harvest plan area or neighboring property then we have to survey for them.  There is a data base available here that has the previous locations of owls.  Everyone trying to harvest timber on the western half the state has to address Spotted Owls, so there is allot of data available.  Sounds like you don't have any available at all.  
The EM want to know where you want to put your blocks so they can survey for the Owls.  Or more than likely you can survey for them.  What kind of license do you operate under?  I have worked in B.C. setting up cut blocks, but I was near Prince Rupert.  There was no Owl problem up there at the time.

How many Owls you find is directly proportional to how hard you look.  One school of thought here is to not look too hard... you don't find any you don't have a problem.  The other is to look real hard and find them everywhere.  The companies that look real hard and continuously monitor them have the ability to get a "take" permit.  This allows them to operate in known habitat.  The companies that do this actively recruit Spotted Owl habitat in their normal operations.  You do this now with your wild life protection zones.  When I was laying out cut blocks we used muskegs for the WLPZ's.  This would not be acceptable for Owl habitat, you need to leave a Hectare or two patch of older cull trees with some decent younger trees coming up underneath.  You need to have at least 40% crown cover in the patch to be attractive to the owls.

[Paul_H]

Tillaway,
We have a TS Major Licence in this area.About 7500 M3 per year.Half the chart area for this licence is in Owl habitat.The other half is in Hem-Bal,so no concerns there.

In the whole Timber Supply Area for our district,Owl habitat is mostly over on the East side,running North/South.There are 2 other Majors in the vicinity,as well as the Small Business Program.I believe there were studies done by the Ministry,but I phoned our consultant to confirm,should hear back from him tonight.
Do you have any problems leaving snags in WTPs(wildlife tree patch).We can't leave any snags that could reach our block,so they are fell in the WTP.There are incentives for leaving the patches,and a certain amount of flexability.
The two blocks we logged in 2000,met the same guidelines you've mentioned,and it went quite well.Some windfall,but minimal.

[Tillaway]

TS Major... I worked on one of those but mostly on one of the few FL's in the Province.  I'm not sure what the exact difference is between a FL and a TFL.  I believe the cut on the FL was 75,000 M3 minimum.  I can't remember the maximum cut, about double I think.

We leave as many snags as possible.  California is mostly... OK ..nearly all ground based, so you don't have the OSHA concerns about snags being left in the areas of operation.  The logger can cut any they feel are a hazard.

Do you run a grapple yarder?  I had never seen one before until I went to work in B.C.  They are rarely used, more like experimented with in Washington and Alaska.

[Paul_H]

A Forest Licence(FL) is a renewable licence.We are amalgamated with Weyehauser on a small one.(17000 m3)
A Timber Licence (TL) is an old type dating back to the early 1900s.Once it is logged and planted,it reverts back to the Crown.MacMillan Blodell had several of these in our area.Most have under 10 years left.
A Tree Farm Licence(TFL) is an ongoing tree farm operated by a licencee.TFL 38 in our area is operated by Interfor.

A TS major is a licence with a quota under 10000 m3 per year.

There are a lot of Grapple Yarders running in our area.We have a 122 Madill that we run with a Johnson drop carriage,but mostly with the grapple hanging on it.Our loader is a 330LL Cat.
I went to Oregon in 1995 on a 3 day course on Skyline logging,put on by Ed Aulrich(?)of Corvalis.They do a lot of Skylineing with intermediate supports.It was well worth the trip.We haven't done much skyline since the Grapple yarder,but still use backspars occasionally.
I will try to get some pictures taken this week.