2022 Western Region COFE Seminar

Click on any of the green buttons below to view the recording for that panel/speaker.

8:00 Introduction to WR.COFE & Seminar – John Sessions, Chair, Kevin Lyons, Moderator, Western Regional COFE & OSU FERM Department and Seminar Moderator

Company Perspectives on Forest Operations Challenges resulting from 2020 fires

8:15

Overview of Archie Creek Fire – Roseburg Forest Products will provide an overview of property ownership of the Archie Creek fire in relation to nearby communities. The challenges of the checker board ownership for fire salvage and the cooperation that resulted will be summarized. Michael Williams, Roseburg Forest Products

8:35 Panel Overview: Lone Rock is a timber management and logging company that manages approximately 150,000 acres of timberland in SW Oregon. During Oregon’s 2020 Labor Day fire storms Lone Rock lost 6,000 acres in the Archie Creek Fire (Douglas County) and 2000 acres in the South Obenchain Fire (Jackson County). Long before both fires were completely contained, Lone Rock began planning and implanting salvage harvest of the mature burned timber located within the fire scars.

Panel Discussion: The Lone Rock Timber/Logging Co. Salvage Harvesting Effort After the Archie Creek Fire

1. Engineering/Survey – Methods and tools employed to re-establish pre-fire road construction layout and property lines obliterated by the fire. Daniel Saily and Weston Addington, Lone Rock Timber Mgmt.
2. Timber Cutting – Differences between timber falling in the green vs. black; discussion on the importance of communication between cutting and logging crews. Bob Henry, Lone Rock Timber Mgmt.
3. Road Construction – Emergency re-establishment and construction of road access; repairing heavily damaged road systems in the off-season. Keith McCracken, Lone Rock Timber Mgmt.
4. Logging – Post burn logging methods and safety difficulties encountered on exceptionally steep and difficult terrain. Eric Parazoo, Lone Rock Timber Mgmt.

9:45 Sponsor Update

9:55 Break (Refreshments Provided)

10:25 Triad Machinery Update – Terry Haskin, Triad Machinery and Kushiah McCullough, Tigercat

Overview of 2020 Fires on Weyerhaeuser Land – Doug Mays, Weyerhaeuser

10:35 Panel Overview: In fall of 2020, Weyerhaeuser lost approximately 125,000 acres to 4 fires across Oregon. Weyerhaeuser’s targeted merch acres impacted by the fires was 45% of the overall burn acres. This was an extraordinary challenge for Weyerhaeuser to size up and reallocate resources to achieve their goals and was the largest salvage recovery effort since the Mount St. Helens eruption.

Panel discussion: Three topics of engineering, slope stability and harvesting will be covered by Weyerhaeuser supervisors and methods used to overcome these challenges during the Oregon salvage effort.

1. Engineering: Processes and tools to permit, layout and meet state regulations on a tight timeframe with limited engineering capacity. Andy Weathers, Weyerhaeuser
2. Geology: High burn severity required increased focus of slope stability for both downstream public risk but also for worker protection. Jason Hinkle, Weyerhaeuser
3. Logging: Post burn cutting and logging required increased capacity and expanded mechanization, including unique helicopter grapple logging opportunity to accomplish goal. Darrell Holthusen, Weyerhaeuser

11:50 Papé Machinery Update – Chris Rhoades

12:00 LUNCH

12:45 Raffle drawing

1:00 Announcements: OSU Student Scholarship Awards – Jerry Sedlak Memorial Scholarship – Kevin Lyons, Moderator

Post-fire Hydrology

1:30  Modernizing Our Understanding of Salvage Logging Effects: Water Repellency, Mulch and Stream Buffers – Pete Robichaud, USDA Forest Service

1:45 Post-fire salvage logging and effective mitigations for soil erosion and sediment delivery – Cajun James, Sierra Pacific

2:00 Erosion rates from forest roads affected by the August Complex fire in Northern California – Zach Gigone, Humboldt State University

2:15 Group Discussion

2:30 Break (Refreshments Provided)

3:00

Managing danger trees along public highways – Joel Zeni, Suulutaaq Inc., Oregon Branch

3:20

New OR-OSHA rules – Updates on smoke and heat rules and simple solutions. OSHA inspections and investigations – Pre-planning and how to manage for success – John Meyers, Director of Environmental Health and Safety, Roseburg Forest Products

4:00 Wrap Up and adjourn – Kevin Lyons