|
Saving the forest for the trees |
|
|
Saturday, 22 August 2009 |
Fuels reduction to include Mammoth’s oldest relic
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Mammoth Times Photo/Catherine Billey The forest service has already marked the trees that are slated for removal as part of the fuels reduction project near Mill City in Old Mammoth.
The overgrown forest around it is a reminder that even a solid steel relic, made in Europe and shipped around Cape Horn to power Mammoth’s stamp mill, is subject to the modern practice of fuels reduction to keep the surrounding area wildfire safe.
“The Mill City fuels reduction project is approximately 58 acres that will be thinned this year around the Mill City cabins and Old Mammoth Road in that area,” said Sue Farley, Interagency Vegetation Management Planner for the Bureau of Land Management and the USFS.
Work is scheduled to begin Aug. 17 by a private contractor, Patty’s Forestry, Inc., from Lindsay, Calif., for an anticipated completion date in November.
“They’ve got a lot of trees marked,” said Mill City summer resident and former Mono County Sheriff Digger Wilson. “You can’t see the forest anymore because of the trees.”
On a recent visit there, aqua blue spray paint used by the forest service could be seen on the trees slated for removal by the contractor.
Because thinning the forest will include the area near the historic stamp mill site, an archaeologist was called in to evaluate the area.
All that remains of the former stamp mill are the wheel, some rock foundations, and a flume that supplied water to the Knight water wheel via what is now a dry creek bed.
Farley explained how the thinning will work. “Generally they focus on the smaller tress in the understory that maybe aren’t as healthy or vigorous or have damage, and try to retain the largest, healthiest trees on the site. The idea is to reduce the amount of foliage in the understory for the big trees to be able to do better if a fire comes through.”
The archaeologist will also confer with contractors to ensure they understand the protective recommendations.
“The archaeologist has recommended and we’ve adopted measures to protect all those historic features. So, sometimes that means a buffer where we don’t do anything at all and other times it means using hand equipment,” Farley noted.
“So what they’ll do is they’ll fall those trees, they’ll limb them and then the bowl of the trees – the main stem of the tree – they’ll cut that up and haul it away for firewood. The limbs that are left behind will either be chipped or piled and burned – if we have a good weather window. That doesn’t happen very often, so it’s more likely that we’ll chip the material.”
Farley noted that the area is also a preferred habitat for goshawks (raptors), therefore the forest service evaluated the area to ensure that none were nesting in the area targeted for fuels reduction.
“We also scheduled the work to begin mid-August so that all of these smaller migratory nesting birds will have fledged the nest,” Farley said. |
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 28 August 2009 )
|
