2024 Summer Western Forester

SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FORESTERS

Volume 69 Number 3

Oregon • Washington State • Alaska Societies

Western Forester July/August/September 2024

Trends in Forest Health Monitoring and Assessment Research: A Decade in Review

By Damani Eubanks Forests cover over 30 percent of global land area and play an essential role in climate regulation and nutrient cycles. They also provide important ecosystem services, such as lumber, food, energy, and clean water.

Resilience of global forest ecosystems and production of goods and services depends on responses of tree communities to various biotic and abiotic stressors. As a result, researchers, managers, landowners, and governments are increasingly interested in forest ecosystem responses to increased climate change and other human disturbances, along with methods for defining and quantifying forest health.

Forest health assessment is an interdisciplinary field at the crossroads of ecology, conservation, forest pathology, land management, and public policy. Due to its complex nature, defining forest health has been challenging, with definitions differing among stakeholders. Older definitions were often contradictory, relying on utilitarian concepts focused on human needs, or purely ecological concepts focused on biotic and abiotic factors. Newer definitions try to include both perspectives to address multiple issues. For example, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines forest health as “The combined presence of abiotic and biotic stresses and how they affect tree growth and survival; the yield and quality of wood and non-wood forest products; wildlife habitat; and recreation, scenic or cultural value.”

Other research groups and government agencies have adopted

IN THIS ISSUE

Forest Health Update Alaska Spruce Beetle and Western Blackheaded Budworm Updates

4

Oregon’s Response to the Shiny Green Menace

8

Innovative Tool for Forest Health Approved by New Legislation

10

PHOTO CREDIT: USDA FOREST SERVICE REGION 6 AND USDA FOREST SERVICE PHOTO BY VICTORIA SMITH-CAMPBELL

Assessing the health of a forest draws upon multiple disciplines that include forest pathology, remote sensing, ecology, and entomology.

definitions that combine utilitarian and ecological perspectives as well, but a lack of consensus on measures complicates comparing data and management outcomes across space and time. Despite these challenges, the importance of tracking and mitigating the effects of climate change and disturbance on forest ecosystems only increases. Collaboration between research, management and policy is needed to tackle these complex issues, and my passion for seeing this collaboration in action led to forest health becoming the focal point of my research.

In Research Metrics for Assessing Forest Health: A Systematic Review (under review), I synthesized current knowledge and trends in forest health assessment, focusing on metrics, methodologies, and alignment with established biological and management concepts. The review included 204 papers published globally between 2012-2022. The goals of analyzing forest health assessment methods include informing management and policy decisions, improving responses to health declines, and identifying uses for new technology. The end goal of this paper is to provide an interdisciplinary framework for forest

Western Forester Society of American Foresters PO Box 82836 Portland, OR 97282 (503) 224-8046 https://forestry.org/western-forester/ EDITOR: Andrea Watts, wattsa@forestry.org SAF NWO MANAGER: Nicole Jacobsen, nicole@westernforestry.org Western Forester is published four times a year by the Oregon, Washington State, and Alaska Societies’ SAF Northwest Office The mission of the Society of American Foresters is to advance sustainable management of forest resources through science, education, and technology; to enhance the competency of its members; to establish professional excellence; and to use our knowledge, skills, and conservation ethic to ensure the continued health, integrity, and use of forests to benefit society in perpetuity.

STATE SOCIETY CHAIRS Oregon: Amanda Sullivan-Astor, CF (503) 983-4017, aastor@oregonloggers.org Washington State: Samantha Chang, NorthPugetSAF@gmail.com Alaska: Mitch Michaud, mitchmichaudak@ gmail.com

health to guide future research. Here I outline the main findings of that study, specifically highlighting research conducted in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon and Alaska), and discuss implications for future work.

Analysis of forest health metrics Analysis of the 204 papers yielded 331 unique forest health metrics, separated into two categories: field-assessed metrics and remote sensing metrics. The most frequently used field-assessed metrics were crown defoliation, tree species diversity, insect/pathogen damage, and tree growth. These metrics represent key forest health concepts (biodiversity, individual tree health, productivity) and are easily measurable in the field. The most frequently used remote sensing metrics were normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), leaf area index (LAI), and crown size. Reflectance-based indices like NDVI and EVI can be used to estimate vegetation health, growth and structure over large areas. LAI and crown size are often measured with LiDAR or aerial photography and focus on forest structural diversity. These common forest health metrics are popular with researchers for several reasons, including strong support from previous research, data availability, and comparability across temporal and spatial scales.

While some metrics were common, most of the 331 identified metrics only appeared a few times. Key broad concepts like biodiversity, tree growth, and ecosystem services were represented by dozens or even hundreds of different metrics. Such variation can be problematic when comparing forest health across study areas, replicating studies, and communicating results to stakeholders. If researchers, agencies, and forest managers are not using the same metrics it can cause confusion, impede comparisons, slow communication, and negatively affect decision-making for management and conservation activities. There have been many calls for increased standardization in forest health monitoring and assessment research to address these concerns.

Growth within the field and the proliferation of remote sensing There has been a significant increase in studies that address forest health, with an average 12.6 percent annual growth from 2012-2022, compared to 7.8 percent annual growth from earlier decades. A total of 1,888 papers that contained the phrase “forest health” were screened for this analysis, highlighting the importance of the topic. One factor that has fueled this increase in publications is use of remote sensing technology in forest health research. Of the studies pub-

NORTHWEST SAF BOARD MEMBERS District 1: Ed Morgan (303) 476-1583, edmorgan4@msn.com District 2: Ron Boldenow (541) 350-5356, rboldenow@cocc.edu Please send change of address to: Society of American Foresters, 2121 K Street NW, Suite 315, Washington, DC 20037 membership@safnet.org Anyone is at liberty to make fair use of the material in this publication. To reprint or make multiple reproductions, permission must be obtained from the editor. Proper notice of copyright and credit to the Western Forester must appear on all copies made. Permission is granted to quote from the Western Forester if the customary acknowledgement accompanies the quote.

Other than general editing, the articles appearing in this publication have not been peer reviewed for technical accuracy. The individual authors are primarily responsible for the content and opinions expressed herein.

IMAGE COURTESY OF DAMANI EUBANKS

Forest health assessments have always required a field survey component, but with remote sensing methods becomes more widely available and affordable, these tools are being used in conjunction with field surveys.

Next Issue: Restoration and Vegetation Management 2 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

lished between 2012 and 2016, other stakeholders this discononly ~25 percent used remote nect will continue, resulting in sensing methods, but in the last less effective forest management, five years that figure grew to and research materials that never nearly half of all studies using reach their intended audience. some form of remote sensing For example, forest thinning is technology. These innovative a common management practechnologies, including satellite tice with numerous benefits, imagery, unmanned aerial however, without proper local vehicles (UAVs), lidar, and aerial knowledge and context, thinning imagery can collect data quickly can result in negative outcomes, and accurately over larger scales such as loss of wildlife habitat or with less human effort. increases in carbon emissions.

Although this new techFuture work must foster colnology offers many benefits, laborative relationships between traditional field surveys are researchers, managers, and other still essential for forest health stakeholders to make informed assessment. In particular, field management decisions and track TABLE COURTESY OF DAMANI EUBANKS the effects of management activdata are necessary for calibratForest Health Metrics/Indicators identified by the FIA Forest ing and ground truthing remote ities over time. One way I have Health Monitoring and International Co-operative Programme sensing data. Additionally, seen this manifest successfully is Forest Health Network Programs, along with the number barriers to widespread adoption of uses of these metrics in reviewed literature. While many through work of forestry boards of remote sensing include the at the local and state level in of these indicators are relevant to forest health monitoring specialized expertise and adMaryland. The county and state across the United States, certain indicators, such as ozone damage and browse impact, are more relevant to other vanced computational methods forestry boards host a biannual regions than others. For example, the Northeast has more needed to analyze this data. meeting, collecting managers, forest health concerns around ozone damage than the Pacific Looking forward, as the techresearchers, landowners and Northwest. nology becomes more accessipublic agencies in the same room ble, combining remote sensing to discuss collective issues. As scale monitoring and informed decision and field survey data will likely become forests across in the Pacific Northwest making that also consider local threats standard for rapid, accurate forest health and across globe experience health and variation. Research coming out of assessments. declines, disease outbreaks, wildfires, the Pacific Northwest is already using and forest loss, it is imperative that forest tools like remote sensing and advanced Forest health research in the Pacific health assessment continues advancing Northwest United States computational models to tackle these to address these critical threats to one complex issues.

Fourteen studies included in this of the most essential ecosystems on our review used data collected in the Pacific The future of forest health research planet. WF Northwest. The focus of these studies Forest health monitoring and assessreveals some interesting regional patDamani Eubanks is a PhD candidate ment research is on the rise, and new terns within forest health research. Key at the University of Maryland in the Neel technologies, such as remote sensing concepts like biodiversity and climate Ecology Lab in the Department of Biology. and advanced statistical modeling, offer change appear in these studies, which He can be reached at deubanks@umd. very promising potential for current and are similar to global patterns. However, edu. future research. However, there are still studies in this region show an added issues within the field, such as a lack focus on wildfire, insect and disease of standardized methods and metrics, damage, management treatments, and and a disconnect between research and Editor’s Note certain keystone tree species like pondermanagement activities. Researchers have osa pine and Douglas-fir.

In the Western Forester April/May/ lamented that management and policy Given the economic, ecological and June 2024 issue, two corrections are decisions are made without the latest cultural importance of forests in this reneeded for the “The Lay of the Land: research, while managers, landowners, gion, research on wildfire and pests, such Carbon in the Last Frontier.” The and decision makers have expressed as mountain pine beetle and balsam article mentions that the Yukon Flats that research is often not communicatwoolly adelgid, and diseases that include NWR changed the fire management ed in an accessible or useful way. Only needle cast and root rot is critical. options in 2003; this change occurred ~25 percent of the studies in this review Researchers, along with governments included management suggestions or in 2023. Permafrost is defined as at the national and international level implications. Without collaboration being frozen at 32oF, not -32oF. continue to develop methods for largebetween researchers, managers, and

This publication is a benefit of your membership in your SAF State Society WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 3

Alaska Spruce Beetle and Western Blackheaded Budworm Updates

By Jason E. Moan and Elizabeth E. Graham

S

outhcentral Alaska, an area bounded in the north by the Alaska Range and containing more than half of Alaska’s human population, has been battling Jason Moan an ongoing spruce beetle outbreak since around 2016. Over that time, this outbreak has impacted nearly 2.2 million acres of forest land and affected many aspects of life Elizabeth Graham including infrastructure, recreation, and public safety.

In 2023, aerial surveyors from the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection (DOF) mapped spruce beetle activity on roughly 90,000 acres statewide, nearly all of which was associated with the outbreak. These 2023 spruce beetle data follow the generally downward trend in acres affected since a peak in 2018 when around 593,000 acres were impacted.

While the spruce beetle activity has subsided in many of the areas that were

most heavily impacted early in the outbreak, it remains active in three separate parts of the region. The Kenai Peninsula, for example, continued to see scattered outbreak-level activity within the Kenai Mountains, between Skilak Lake and Tustumena Lake, and scattered elsewhere.

In the northern part of the region, beetle activity continued to build in the upper Susitna River valley, near its confluence with the Tyone River, forming an eastern outbreak front.

The third and northernmost extent of the outbreak has been highly concerning to land managers on both sides of the Alaska Range. This portion of the outbreak is within the Alaska Range, a transitional area between Southcentral and Interior Alaska, and has primarily affected forests in the Nenana and Yanert Fork River valleys and adjacent drainages between roughly Cantwell and Healy.

Although spruce beetle exists throughout the range of spruce in Alaska, outbreaks have historically been uncommon in Interior Alaska, due in large part to extremely cold winter temperatures in that region.

Early 2024 saw a substantial cold snap across much of the Interior and Southcentral, including within the northern extent of the outbreak. There, recorded

WCLA C R E D I T UN I O N

RATED 4TH BEST PERFORMING CREDIT UNION NATIONALLY

BY THE S&P 2023 GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORT 800-422-0074 | LOGGERSCU.COM 4 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

low temperatures ranged from -30oF to -40oF or colder over several days. At those temperatures, mortality of a portion of overwintering spruce beetles would be likely.

The Division of Forestry & Fire Protection and USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection conducted a smallscale early season assessment in this part of the outbreak; within a limited number of study trees sampled, it was apparent that there had been some overwinter mortality of beetles above the presumed snowline while live beetles were observed in samples near ground level.

With the wide geographic extent of this outbreak within the Alaska Range and temperature variability throughout, these observations may or may not translate to an overall decrease in the beetle population. The outbreak will continue to be closely monitored, but any potential lasting impact from the winter of 2023/2024 likely won’t be apparent until 2025.

Western hemlock mortality In Southeast Alaska, spruce beetle activity has been minimal, however, a major defoliation event has taken place over the last five years, impacting over 1.4 million acres and causing significant impacts on the landscape. Hemlock sawfly and western blackheaded budworm were the two primary species responsible for the damage, with consecutive outbreaks happening between 2018 and 2023. Both species feed primarily on western hemlock but will also feed on Sitka spruce and other conifers when in outbreak.

Notable outbreaks have been reported from the Olympic Peninsula through British Columbia and Southeast Alaska over the last hundred years. In Southeast Alaska, where there is a lack of wildfire and bark beetle activity, these two species serve as main disturbance

have not been well studied. This outbreak event, however, has provided an opportunity for the initiation of multiple collaborative projects to further research this significant event through time and its effect on stand structure and understory dynamics.

More detailed information on these outbreaks, ongoing research efforts, and many other aspects of forest health in Alaska can be found in the annual Forest Health Conditions in Alaska report.

The 2023 Forest Health Conditions in Alaska report is currently in preparation; previous reports can be found at https:// tinyurl.com/mr3rfpyr. WF

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Defoliation, topkill and mortality associated with the western blackheaded budworm outbreak on Mitkof Island in the Tongass National Forest.

agents with defoliation events occurring semi-cyclically. Populations of hemlock sawfly rose in 2018, continued into 2019, then crashed in 2020. Hemlock sawflies feed on older foliage, stripping the trees of their inner crowns. The western blackheaded budworm outbreak began in 2021 following the hemlock sawfly outbreak. Caterpillars of this species feed on the new foliage of hemlock trees, and in many cases across the region, the affected trees had already been defoliated during the hemlock sawfly outbreak.

These back-to-back outbreaks resulted in mortality of western hemlock in several areas, most notably the western side of Admiralty Island and the central portion of the Tongass National Forest. Mortality associated with the defoliation event can be concerning, but it can also serve a positive role in the forest by thinning and creating gaps in stands, as well as providing additional light and nutrients to the forest floor.

The outbreak began to wane in 2023, with decreased activity throughout most of the area, however active defoliation was recorded in the northern portion of the panhandle. Ground surveys in 2024 found little defoliator activity.

A recent study conducted by Howe et al. 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1111/ ecog.07370) showed that outbreaks are driven by host availability, a limited range of temperatures, and minimal precipitation. This is demonstrated by the northern shift in activity over the last

century as suitable climate has shifted.

As the climate continues to change, it will be difficult to predict the cyclicity or magnitude of future outbreaks.

The impacts of previous outbreaks

Jason Moan is the Forest Health Program Manager for the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection and can be reached at jason.moan@alaska.gov.

Elizabeth Graham, PhD is a Forest Entomologist with USDA Forest Service, State, Private, and Tribal Forestry, Forest Health Protection in Juneau, Alaska. She can be reached at elizabeth.e.graham@ usda.gov.

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 5

State and Federal Entomologists Keeping Their Eyes on Three Important Invaders

By Karen Ripley

T

hroughout 2024, state and federal entomologists from the Forest Service, Oregon Departments of Agriculture and Forestry, and Washington Department of Natural Resources have had their eyes on three important invasive insects: the emerald ash borer, the Mediterranean oak borer, and the California fivespined Ips. Emerald ash borer

PHOTO CREDIT: USDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

The emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis) was detected in July 2022 in Forest Grove, Oregon, making Oregon the 36th state to become infested. In 2023, it was initially detected in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, so this insect with the potential to kill over 95 percent of the ash trees (genus Fraxinus) has gained a strong foothold on the West Coast.

Current efforts to respond have followed existing readiness plans in

Oregon. The known infested area occupies approximately 10.4 square miles, centered on Forest Grove, and includes urban areas with diverse planted ash trees and natural riparian areas with native Oregon ash (Fraxinus latifolia).

Ash, olive, and white fringetree plants and products have been quarantined in Washington County. This year, many infested trees are being removed and efforts to contain and slow the spread of the beetles include establishing girdled (over 220) and pesticide-treated (over 280) trap trees within and surrounding the infested footprint to capture and reduce dispersing beetles.

Four biocontrol release sites have been established and three USDA-approved wasps are being introduced in the area. Wasps from releases in 2023 have been recovered from beetle larvae this year, so the released insects are establishing. They will not likely reduce the significant wave of tree mortality that’s expected as EAB spreads through towns and the forested landscape, but they are anticipated to mitigate damage, reduce pressure, and contribute to future balance for any surviving ash saplings.

It’s recommended that foresters stop planting ash and prepare for nearly complete ash mortality in their native forests.

Oregon State University has developed an extension bulletin (in press) that’s based on ash assessments developed in the eastern United States to inventory ash forests, aid management deci-

sion-making, and document the impacts as EAB becomes more widespread.

Mediterranean oak borer Just as Oregon white oak (OWO) (Quercus garryana) is being considered as a potential climate-smart replacement tree species for some Oregon ash forests, a new pest capable of killing white oaks has been detected killing trees at two sites in Multnomah and Clackamas counties, Oregon. The Mediterranean oak borer (MOB) (Xyleborus monographus) is an ambrosia beetle that carries pathogenic fungi (primarily Raffaelea montetyi and Fusarium solani).

PHOTO CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES (UC ANR)

PHOTO CREDIT: USDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Originating from Europe and north Africa, it kills weak or injured oak trees and several other broadleaf trees in its home environments. It was initially detected in insect traps in Oregon in 2018 and killing trees in California in 2019. (The beetles that kill valley and blue oaks in California are from different parts of Europe than the beetles collected in Oregon, so multiple introductions have occurred, and the exact transmission pathway is not known. They were moved from the initial infestations in Napa and Sonoma counties to Sacramento County, likely in 6 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

firewood). Fewer than 100 infested trees are known in Oregon; all are Oregon white oak.

Current response efforts include a trapping survey around high-risk sites and OWO habitats to detect any additional MOB infestations that might be present. The signs of infestation include sections of the crown with foliage that wilts, reddens, and dies, and abundant greyish, white boring dust “frass” that’s kicked out by the small (1/8” long) tunneling beetles. Black stained tunnels, including trellis-like intersections, are most concentrated in the sapwood but also occur in the heartwood of smaller (6-12” diameter) branch pieces. Infestations that have progressed down from the upper branches or originated independently at the base of the tree have killed host trees within 2-4 years.

While limited by the availability of relatively few infested trees, other current investigations include the dispersal flight timing of MOB (apparently year-round in Oregon when temperatures exceed about 60oF), the locations of initial and progressing attacks on trees, the most effective rates and delivery systems for ethanol and other lure components, whether there are native or introduced biocontrol organisms present, whether the chemical piperitone works as a repellant for MOB, and the rates and efficacy of insecticide/ fungicide treatments intended to protect uninfested trees and save infested trees.

Management insights are limited, and no one is recommending the removal of OWO as a prevention strategy. Without better information about the size and location of infested areas in Oregon, there’s currently no regulatory requirement to remove infested trees. Infested trees seem to be associated with stem wounds, decay, and root injuries, so avoiding injuring OWO and providing supplemental water to high-value OWO during summer drought seem prudent.

California fivespined Ips Like many other bark and wood boring insects that take advantage of drought- or heat-stressed trees, the California fivespined Ips (CFI) (Ips paraconfusus) has expanded its range. In this case, it’s spread from Oregon and California into Washington since 2010. It’s now been detected in 13 Washington counties including King and Mason in western Washington and

ash borer, Mediterranean oak borer, or California five-spined Ips, respectively, take photos of the crown and close-up symptoms like boring dust or insect tunnels and submit a report through the Oregon or Washington Invasive Species Councils’ websites. A specialist will review the report and determine how to best respond. WF PHOTO CREDIT: CHRISTINE BUHL, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY, BUGWOOD.ORG

Grant, Benton, and Walla Walla counties in eastern Washington. CFI infests primarily ponderosa pine in Oregon and has been collected from ponderosa, shore, and Austrian pines in Washington.

Like other Ips species, CFI can rapidly increase its populations in fresh slash pieces that are greater than 3 inches diameter, then additional generations that same year are capable of killing live trees or the tops of live trees nearby.

This has been most apparent along the Columbia River Gorge where fires, storm damage, and drought conditions have likely contributed to the persistence of Ips success. New, naive host species such as shore pine and Austrian pine may also be factors in the Puget Sound area where CFI is outcompeting the native Ips pini, which has generally not been considered a significant tree killer in western Washington.

Ips damage has historically been kept low by minimizing fresh slash that’s available in the spring, avoiding injuring or stressing pine trees during forest management operations, and providing a green chain of attractive pine slash that’s available through the summer flight seasons. Now that Ips mortality may be becoming more of a feature of pine habitats in western Washington, local foresters and arborists may need to emulate their eastern Washington colleagues and heed such practices more deliberately.

With these recent beetle invasions, the importance of avoiding transporting firewood from potentially infested trees is more prominent than ever. The encouragement for recreationists to “Buy it where you Burn It” and for forest landowners to confine their firewood to local sources has never been more relevant and important.

If you suspect your ash, white oak, or pine trees are infested with emerald

Karen Ripley is Region 6 forest health monitoring coordinator with the USDA Forest Service. She can be reached at Karen Ripley karen.ripley@usda.gov.

Additional Resources Emerald Ash Borer For those who live in or very close to an EAB-infested area, Oregon State University Extension produced a publication that provides thorough guidance on how landowners can protect their trees in EAB-infested areas. (https://tinyurl.com/3hk68z69) Guidelines to Slow the Growth and Spread of Emerald Ash Borer, which was published by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, offers general guidance for preparing, dealing with, and recovering from EAB infestation. (https://tinyurl. com/9h227744) Washington State University Extension produced two publication relevant to managing EAB in Washington State: Managing Emerald Ash Borer in Washington State and Emerald Ash Borer and Its Implications for Washington State (https://tinyurl. com/yxdbdhjn and https://tinyurl. com/y58a549a). The latter document is a very deep, thorough assessment of EAB and its implications for Washington State and is relevant to the whole Pacific Northwest.

Mediterranean oak borer The Oregon Department of Forestry has prepared a fact sheet on MOB, which is available at https://tinyurl. com/MOB-oregon.

California fivespined Ips The best article about the current CFI situation is in the 2023 Washington Forest Health Highlights on pages 25-26 (https://tinyurl.com/ he4czxwn).

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 7

Oregon’s Response to the Shiny Green Menace

By Alison Herrell, Lilah Gonen, Scott Altenhoff

E

merald Ash Borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis) is the most destructive and costly forest pest in US history and was detected in Forest Grove, Oregon, in Alison Herrell June 2022. This invasive insect has been wreaking havoc across the Midwest and East Coast for over two decades, so it was only a matter of time before it made its way to the West Coast. Although Lilah Gonen the insect can only fly a few miles on its own, it can travel undetected in wood waste and forest products, which is likely how it jumped from the Denver metro to the Portland metro within just a few years Scott Altenhoff despite national efforts to reduce movement of firewood. EAB larvae feed on the vascular tissue of trees, effectively girdling them to death. Early infestations are hard to detect, so populations tend to build up undiscovered before exploding out of control, leaving large swaths of dead, brittle, high risk trees in their wake within just a few years.

Oregon’s Response Plan In 2018, four years before EAB was detected in Oregon, the state began conducting a statewide vulnerability assessment and drafted an EAB Readiness and Response Plan. As soon as the pest was detected in 2022, a statewide EAB Taskforce was created. This taskforce is led by the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), and Oregon State University (OSU Extension) to create an interagency, community-based response.

Oregon’s approach to EAB draws heavily on lessons learned from other states. Our coalition partners actively share information and insights via strategic communications and presentations

PHOTO CREDIT: MATT MILLS AND ALISON HERRELL, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

A residential street in Forest Grove, Oregon, very near the original detection before (top) and after (bottom) removing trees highly infested with EAB.

throughout the region. These combined efforts highlight a dynamic, community-centered approach that leverages education, strategic planning, and interagency collaboration to tackle the threat of EAB. While Oregon does not expect to eradicate EAB, our coalition’s aim is to slow its spread so that communities have more time to prepare and respond. So far, our early efforts and investments are really paying off. As of July 2024, EAB has been contained to an 11-mile radius spanning two cities in northwest Oregon, Forest Grove and Cornelius. Moving forward, the key to EAB containment will be to maximize public awareness about the risks of transporting infested firewood while focusing on early detection and rapid response.

Funding Opportunities Funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduc-

8 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

tion Act (IRA) has been critical to the success of these early efforts, which have focused on public education and engagement, planning and network building, and on the ground tree work.

In Forest Grove, ODF provided funding from the BIL for the removal and replacement of infested ash trees, in both natural and residential areas. In the city of Cornelius, ODF conducted a community-wide ash tree inventory and identified large, healthy trees suitable for systemic treatment with emamectin benzoate. City staff were then able to use this information to secure a local grant to treat these significant trees.

ODF’s Urban & Community Forestry (UCF) program has also leveraged federal and state funding by increasing staff capacity from two to nine people.

Two new staff members were hired in 2023 to focus entirely on supporting the state’s EAB response. They are funded by

the BIL, alongside three staff members funded by the IRA and two staff members funded by the State of Oregon to support all statewide community and urban forestry efforts.

The UCF program also received $26.6 million in IRA funds from the U.S. Forest Service to stand up two subaward programs that offer $10 million explicitly devoted to the nine Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon, and $12.5 million available to all eligible entities in the State of Oregon. Both funding opportunities aim to promote community and urban forest investment and tree equity for overburdened and underserved communities.

This initiative strives to support Tribal, rural, and urban communities by providing benefits beyond individual project or program investments. While not specifically aimed at supporting EAB projects, the goal is for significant funding to be allocated toward invasive species preparedness and response measures, including tree inventory, tree planting, tree species diversification, and workforce development, to name just a few.

Shaping our Future In addition to supporting our community partners, ODF has partnered with

PHOTO CREDIT: LILAH GONEN, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

Students from the Climate Justice Leadership Program at Centro Cultural get real-world experience learning how to identify ash trees and EAB damage in the field. This multi-week training culminated in the students presenting on the EAB response plan they developed for the Centro Cultural campus.

PHOTO CREDIT: JIM GERSBACH, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

Oregon’s EAB response strategy relies heavily on public education, community engagement, and network-building. This photo shows ODF UCF staff teaching a class on strategies for managing EAB in both urban and natural areas.

several workforce development programs including a regional community college, a conservation apprenticeship program, and a climate justice leadership program at a local Latino-centered community center. These initiatives have focused on ash tree identification, inventory, and EAB response planning. Additionally, they aim to broaden young people’s career horizons within urban and community forestry beyond conventional job titles, emphasize diverse opportunities available in the field, and offer hands-on and practical experience. We believe that by incorporating our future natural resource managers in the decision-making process, the future of our trees will be in good hands for the years to come.

What’s next?

Even though EAB is new to Oregon and still relatively contained, over 20 years of data indicate that the entire state will be dealing with this pest soon. Luckily, we have the tools in our power to minimize its impacts as much as possible.

While EAB is a serious pressing issue, we in Oregon are uniquely well-positioned to respond because we can leverage recent, monumental federal investments in urban and community forestry as well as decades of EAB research, experience, and documentation from urban foresters,

PHOTO CREDIT: LILAH GONEN AND ALISON HERRELL, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

Ash Creek, LLC Conservation and Restoration Apprenticeship program alongside Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation and Oregon Department of Forestry get hands-on experience inventorying native Oregon ash trees in natural areas adjacent to known EAB infestation.

arborists, and natural resource managers across the country. WF Alison Herrell is a community assistance forester with the Urban & Community Forestry Program and can be reached at alison.e.herrell@odf.oregon.gov. Lilah Gonen is a community assistance forester with the Urban & Community Forestry Program and can be reached at lilah. gonen@odf.oregon.gov. Scott Altenhoff is the program manager of the Urban & Community Forestry Program and can be reached at Scott.R.ALTENHOFF@odf. oregon.gov.

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 9

Innovative Tool for Forest Health Approved by New Legislation

By Korina Stark

S

mall forest landowners (SFLO) in Washington State care for about 2.9 million acres. This acreage is divided almost in half by the Cascade Mountain range, with the westside’s coastal forests typically wetter and with more growth than the 1.4 million acres on the eastside where there’s more snow in the winter, hotter, drier summers, and slower growing, smaller trees.

Like many SFLO on the eastside of the state, I have several slash piles on my property; most are about 15 feet wide, some have been hanging out since before we acquired the property a few years ago, and many are now home to squirrels, chipmunks, and a host of other wildlife.

I should mention that our property is about halfway between Leavenworth and Plain in Washington State’s Chelan County—smack in the middle of one of the nation’s high-priority firesheds—so it gets hot, and it gets very, very dry. Spring and autumn are the windows when real work gets done because snow isn’t

blocking the way and the burn ban isn’t in effect.

Thinning, limbing, and brush removal are all a critical part of our stewardship plan, both for forest health and wildfire prevention. And it is a constant, not a one-and-done activity. In addition to the legacy slash piles we ‘inherited,’ we are generating new piles every season as we work to prevent overcrowding (so common in our area), remove copious lower limbs, and cut back brush. Our slash piles dry out incredibly quickly. By way of example, the four-to-six-inch diameter logs we cut for firewood and stacked two short weeks ago are already cracking/splitting.

Chipping and mulching, masticating, hauling and dumping—all are cost prohibitive methods of slash removal for us, as they are for many SFLO. In our climate, chips don’t rot and degrade quickly as they do on the westside, rather, they can create prime conditions for ground fires in summer and long smoldering burns or ‘zombie fires’ in winter. When considering the option of openly burning the piles, I neither wanted to be responsible for starting a wildfire, nor to torch the critters who had made these piles their home. Furthermore, I’d seen and smelled the smoke from standard open

pile burns on local area properties each fall and knew how it negatively impacted air quality in a similar way to the all too frequent wildfires.

This led me to explore place-based biochar production using flame-cap kilns such as the Ring of Fire Kiln and a smaller version, the Oregon Kiln. I was drawn to the inherent safety of the approach, the low emissions, as well as the value of creating biochar on-site that could be used to improve forest and soil health while sequestering carbon. Our soils have a lot of sand and clay in them, unlike the rich humus of our western rainforests, and I’d read about how the addition of biochar to the soils could help with drought resistance, nutrient transfer, and improved mycorrhizal networks.

But there was a problem: in Washington State, flame-cap kilns had been interpreted as burn barrels, and burn barrels are illegal—largely because they’re used to burn trash. At a glance, one could see how this misinterpretation took place: they’re both typically made of metal, cylindrical, and have a fire inside. However, they’re different in multiple ways because of how the kiln is designed to convert biomass into biochar and due to the safety measures built into the biochar production process. The herculean effort spearheaded by the Washington Farm Forestry Association (WFFA) to introduce and pass SSB 6121 earlier this year (https://tinyurl.com/3284vc8u) allows SFLO to now make biochar from clean woody biomass using flame-cap kilns. I was excited to try out this new option for dealing with our slash piles.

Putting SSB 6121 into action This spring, with the aforementioned legislation signed into law and well before the summer burn ban was likely to start, we planned a demonstration on our property. I’d already been in conversations with the wonderful Joe Hill at the Cascadia Conservation District (CCD), and they were able to procure a Ring of Fire Kiln for use. They had a portable water tank available, and I had the slash piles! About a month before the demonstration, I pulled several smaller pieces (one to four inches in diameter and up to six feet long) from a conveniently located pile into a staging area and covered them with a tarp. During the spring we receive heavy dewfall and I wanted to make sure the material for our first load-up would

10 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KORINA STARK

When using a Ring of Fire Kiln, it’s recommended to have on-site at least three to four people to assist with assembling the kiln, feeding the kiln throughout the day, and quenching and raking out the resulting biochar.

come well below a 20 percent moisture reading. (For more information about the Ring of Fire Kiln, visit https://ringoffire. earth.)

On the day of the demo, we gathered: myself, Joe and others from the CCD and Cascadia Prescribed Burn Association (PBA), some friends and neighbors, and WFFA members from the Kittitas Chapter. The local fire chief was also in attendance. First, we assembled the kiln, basically metal sheeting with an additional layer as a heat guard, and then made sure that we pushed dirt up all around the bottom to seal it. This step is important, because you don’t want air coming in from the bottom (unlike a burn barrel).

There are multiple reasons to prevent air intake at the bottom: first, the resulting oxygen-starved environment allows carbon atoms to bond to each other instead of becoming carbon dioxide (and entering the atmosphere), and second, it means that fresh air is only interacting at the top, hence the name: flame-cap kiln.

The airflow and flame at the top serve an additional function: the countercurrents burn off most of the smoke and volatiles, which means that the emissions are WAY less than burning a slash pile in the open.

Driving up the Forest Service road to our place, you wouldn’t have known we were processing slash piles unless you came right on up to the demo site. For context, after spending an entire day with the kiln, my flannel shirt didn’t smell like a campfire afterwards. It was impressive.

The sides of the kiln are effective heat reflectors, keeping things very hot inside.

The interior heat is important as well: it makes those bonds between the carbon atoms stronger and more durable (also called ‘recalcitrant’), which enables long-term carbon sequestration. The

heat also means that you can process more material, more quickly, in a much smaller footprint. The standard Ring of Fire Kiln is about seven feet in diameter, less than half of many of our slash piles.

After using a propane torch for about 60 seconds at the beginning to top-light the material piled inside, we didn’t need any additional fuel to get the fire started. We blew through the material from more than one of my slash piles in a few hours that day, loading the kiln and keeping the flame near the top as the material compacted in the kiln.

About halfway through the demo session I wandered over to talk to the fire chief, and asked what he thought about the lack of smoke. While the lack of smoke was interesting, I learned about two other qualities that were even MORE notable: that it was hot enough to properly burn all the material, and that there

were essentially NO embers. I smiled. We weren’t going to be starting any forest fires that day, especially once we moved to the next step: quenching.

One of the key differences between a typical slash pile burn and what we were doing is that we had an additional intent: to make biochar that we could spread around the property to improve soil health and increase drought resistance.

To get biochar as a resulting product, you have to quench the burn before everything starts transitioning to ash, otherwise the lattice-like structure of the char is lost. That structure, which looks a lot like bleached coral except it’s black and smaller scale, delivers a lot of surface area which aids in nutrient transfer, as well as “pores” to hold both water and microbes. As we quenched with water from the tank, we started disassembling the kiln and raking out the char, checking

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 11

for areas that were still burning and spot quenching them. The goal is to ensure you can run your bare hand through all of it—Smokey Bear would be proud!

After returning to inspect the site a day later, it was also clear that the soil below the burn site wasn’t impacted, unlike the areas underneath the traditional open pile burns that had been done in other locations on the property (before we came into it) where the clay-rich soils

had solidified just like pottery does when it’s fired. Today, some of the biochar we made is at home, where I’ve mixed it with compost to use in our garden, and the rest is getting distributed in the forest with a focus on those areas where the soils are thinnest, most exposed, most at risk from noxious weeds and invasive species, or have younger trees.

So, to recap, we were able to: • Process more biomass in a smaller

OSAF Member Celebrates 70 years of SAF Membership Congratulations to Bob Perske on his 70 years of membership in the Society of American Foresters! Robert “Bob” Perske was born in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota in 1927. He turned 18 just after World War 2 ended and enlisted in the US Navy. From 1945-1948, Perske served on several bases, eventually serving sea duty on a destroyer as a gunnery mate. Just before discharge, a buddy convinced Perske that forestry would be a good field. Perske enrolled at St. Cloud State Teachers College where he stayed for two years before enrolling at the University PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK BUCKBEE of Minnesota, earning a Bachelor of Science in forestry in 1953.

Perske joined SAF in 1953 as a professional member but says that he joined earlier as a student but let his membership lapse for a year or so. He began his long career with the U.S. Forest Service at Cave Junction, Oregon, as a fire control and timber assistant, which means cruising in the winter and spring, and fire fighting in the summer and fall. Perske and his wife, Beatrice, and their two kids did a lot of school moves! Bob moved to the Forks, Washington Ranger District, then to the Lake Quinault Ranger District on the Olympic National Forest, working as a road and timber forester. In 1961, Bob was selected as the district ranger for the Darrington Ranger District on the Mt. Baker National Forest.

Not letting any moss to grow on himself, Perske moved to Mapleton, Oregon to be its district ranger. In 1971, Bob transferred to the Umpqua National Forest as its fire, wildlife and range staff supervisor. There he spent 11 years before retiring in 1982. Yet Perske was not quite ready to stop working and served four summers on aerial patrol for the Douglas Forest Protective Association in the mid-’80s. Perske says that he always believed that the SAF is a worthwhile professional organization. He served in miscellaneous roles at local chapters, and always appreciated the national, state and chapter publications. Perske, now 96, lives at Riverview Terrace in Roseburg and gets out to breakfast regularly with his son, Dean.

12 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

footprint than a standard slash pile • Do it more quickly and completely with low to no smoke and fewer emissions • Do so with reduced wildfire risk as there were no embers, the fire was contained, and the char fully quenched • Avoid creating a burn scar at the demo site, and create a soil amendment that should help the forest be more drought resistant in coming years • Not roast our wildlife friends, rather, we pulled slash from the old piles and left small wildlife habitat piles in their place • Share a fun day with friends old and new If kilns aren’t your thing and you’d like to stick with burn piles, top-lit conservation burn piles are worth exploring; you’ll find they burn much cleaner than a standard, bottom-lit slash pile with less risk of a burn scar beneath and will yield beneficial biochar if you quench the pile before it turns to ash.

For folks with larger acreages and larger diameter logs wanting to explore an air curtain burner, the next size up for this approach, keep your eyes out for a bill likely to be introduced in the next legislative session that should help make air curtain burners more affordable to operate from a permitting perspective.

As we saw with the two bills initiated by the WFFA that made it all the way to the Governor’s desk this past session, it takes the participation of this community and a broad coalition to move things forward; every email and phone call matters.

If you’d like to dive deeper, check out the ‘hot off the press’ General Technical Report regarding Mobile Biochar Production published by the Forest Service (https://research.fs.usda.gov/ treesearch/67944) as it goes into detail on additional methods and playbooks for larger and more complex projects.

Personally, I’m looking forward to using a flame-cap kiln with my neighbors again this fall, and to try out an Oregon kiln for smaller fuels and brush! WF Korina Stark is a small forest landowner and cofounder of Circular Spring, which helps companies, organizations, and teams deliver more value with less environmental impact by employing circular economy principles, design, and strategy. She can be reached at korina. stark@circularspring.com.

Foresters Fund Supports 39th Whatcom Women in Timber Woods Tour

By Susan David

O

ne recent June morning in Deming, Washington, 65 people gathered at the Deming Logging Show grounds for the 39th annual Whatcom Women in Timber Woods Tour.

A wide array of guests attended—from community members to elected officials.

For many, this was their first opportunity to observe how forest management decisions are made in the foothills surrounding their communities.

The original idea for a Whatcom County Woods Tour was conceived by local visionaries, Judy Marr and former State Senator Ann Anderson, who rallied local loggers and foresters to their cause and hosted the first official tour in 1984. Since its inception, the tour has remained faithful to its original mission: create a venue where members of the public can experience logging and forestry for themselves. Forty years later, the tour continues to provide this unique service to the local community.

For this year’s tour, after a brief introduction of speakers and participants, the group loaded up in vans and drove to an active logging site. The crowd was greeted with the sights and sounds of a working loader, processor, and feller-buncher. The logger on the “Extra Christie” harvest, which was located on state land, had promised to put on a show and he delivered. His crew demonstrated how logs are felled and processed in preparation for being hauled away. The tour continued to a progeny test site to talk about tree improvement and forest carbon, and then climbed up to an overlook with a commanding view of the snow-capped Twin Sisters where lunch was served. To end the day, state officials described their role in fire protection and resilience.

After the caravan returned to the Log Show, the guests were given a seedling.

As they strolled out to their cars, they smiled and waved goodbye to the hosts.

Several stop to express their gratitude for the experience. A few lingered to finish conversations started along the tour.

The success of the tour relies entirely on the hosts. They are a committed group of volunteers who work in various

forestry disciplines and represent both public and private organizations. No matter what happens during the tour, we are successful if we have created a learning environment that is genuine and engaging. Hosts are encouraged to talk about their work with candor. Guests are encouraged to ask questions, especially the hard ones. What results is a lively and informative discussion.

The tour owes a debt of gratitude to many people and organizations for their support over the years. The generous financial assistance from groups such as the Society of American Foresters allows

us to offer the tour without a participant fee. This year, the Foresters Fund provided the means to supply lunch to all participants. Volunteers from SAF and the Whatcom Women in Timber provide the labor and expertise needed to organize this event. The Deming Logging Show graciously donates the use of the grounds as a central meeting location. The tour is hosted every year on the Friday before the Logging Show, and participants are encouraged to return to Deming the following day to enjoy the entertainment.

With the 39th tour now done, it’s time to start planning for the 40th. WF Susan David is a forester with Hampton Family Forests and member of the North Puget Sound SAF Chapter.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CORTNEY COLEMAN

Advocating for active forest management on public lands.

HealthyForests.ORG

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 13

We Remember Pat Cummins 1926-2024 Patrick “Pat” Cummins passed away May 4, 2024. In 1950, he graduated from the University of Washington with an undergraduate degree in forestry; he later earned a Master of Science degree in forestry from Yale in 1955. After graduating from the University of Washington, for the next 16 years, Cummins worked for Weyerhaeuser as an area forester for Cascade operations, which covered White River and Snoqualmie, and also for a brief period at the Centralia Research Center Cummins is best known for his role in building the forestry program at Green River College. Cummins joined Green River College in 1967, just two years after the College was founded, having been recruited by Dr. Rad Needham, the dean of instruction at the time, to help build the College’s first forestry

technology program. Cummins retired from Green River College in 1991 after 24 years of teaching. In an article published in the student newspaper The Current, “Pat Cummins: Green River College’s Father of Forestry,” the staff writer and then BAS Natural Resources student Steve Braun concluded: “It is difficult to fully gauge the impact that Cummins has had, or his contributions in the Pacific Northwest. Even so, one thing is for certain. For all his years and work at the college, Pat Cummins is and always will be Green River’s Father of Forestry.”

Faculty member Monica Paulson Priebe shares the following words of remembrance: “[Pat] was an avid horticulturalist in his spare time and planted rhododendrons all over campus which is why to this day, our campus is beautiful with pink and white flowering bushes in the spring.

There are many black and white photographs from the days that Pat taught Forestry Technology (which became Natural Resources) hanging in CH classroom 109 if anyone wants to view them. Pat is a legend to the Natural Resources program and many alumni and stories have started here with Pat. He will be missed.”

Cummins was a long-time South Puget

14 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

Sound chapter member and a Golden Member. In 1994, the state society recognized him as the WSSAF Forester of the Year.

Donations in Cummins’ memory can be made to Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way, WA https://rhodygarden.org/donate/.

Dana Collins 1929-2024 Dana H. Collins was born to Dana F. and Helen Collins in Whittier, California, where he enjoyed being a mischievous kid in the surrounding orange groves. He attended junior college in Pasadena and transferred to Oregon State College (OSU) in 1948 to study forestry. Collins earned a bachelor’s degree in forest management and then served in Korea with the engineering branch of the US Army.

On his return in 1953, Collins worked in Eugene, where he met his future wife, Patricia Riehl. He returned to OSU, and in 1956 completed his Master’s in Forest Management degree, married Pat, and moved to Salem to start his lengthy career as a forester with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In 1960, Collins and Pat transferred to Medford and lived there until his death at age 95. Summer weekends were spent racing sailboats on Howard Prairie with their kids and in the fall, they harvested Christmas trees on King Mountain. Upon retirement, Collins spent his time tending their sailing and marine hardware business, and volunteering at First Presbyterian Church, Kiwanis, Rogue Yacht Club, Boy and Girl Scout boating programs, Habitat for Humanity, and even back at the BLM. Collins was a Golden Member of the Society of American Foresters, having joined in 1951.

He is survived by his wife, Pat Collins, and their children and grandchildren. WF

2024 Scaling for Non-Scalers, Oct. 10, Wilsonville, OR. Contact: WFCA.

Calendar of Events 2024 ICSGA & WFCNA Western Nursery Meeting, Sept. 4-5, Wenatchee, WA. Contact: WFCA. 2024 Intertribal Nursery Council Conference, Sept. 10-12, Grand Ronde, OR. Contact: WFCA.

OSU Spanish: Forestry—Webinar, Nov. 13, Virtual. Contact: https://agsci. oregonstate.edu/psep/recertification/ recertification-courses.

87th Annual Oregon Logging Conference, Feb. 20-22, Eugene, OR. Contact: oregonloggingconference.com.

2025 WSSAF Annual Meeting, May 7-9, 2025, Vancouver, WA. Contact: forestry.org.

Contact Information

2024 PNW Forest Vegetation Management Conference, Dec. 3-5, Wilsonville, OR. Contact: WFCA. 2025 Joint Annual Meeting of Oregon SAF and Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society, Feb. 5-7, Salem, OR. Contact forestry.org

WFCA: Western Forestry and Conservation Association, 4033 SW Canyon Rd., Portland, OR 97221, 503-226-4562, nicole@ westernforestry.org, westernforestry.org.

Send calendar items to the editor at wattsa@forestry.org

Protecting Oregon’s Coastal Investments from Invasive Species, Sept. 17, Coos Bay, OR. Contact https://www. oregoninvasivespeciescouncil.org/fieldtours-20242025.

2024 SAF National Convention, Sept.

17-20, Loveland, CO. Contact: www.eforester. org/SAFConvention.

CANOPY: Forests + Markets + Society (formerly Who Will Own the Forest?), Sept.

24-26, Portland, OR. Contact: worldforestry. org/canopy.

Northwest Innovative Forestry 2024 Fall Summit, Oct. 3-5, Trout Lake, WA. Contact: https://www.nnrg.org/nifs/.

SAVE THE DATES Oregon SAF and Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society’s 2025 Annual Meeting “Thriving Together: Fostering Resilient Forests and Flourishing Wildlife.”

Join OSAF and the Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society members in Salem for a joint annual meeting that will feature presentations on the latest forestry and wildlife research and that highlight the connections between our two disciplines. The meeting will be held on February 5th-7th in Salem, Oregon. More details to come.

2025 WSSAF Annual Meeting The Longview SAF Chapter is busy planning for the upcoming 2025 WSSAF Annual Meeting, which will be held on May 7-9, 2025, at the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver, Washington.

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 15

2024 AKSAF Annual Meeting Brings Members to Sitka

By Paul Clements and Pat Heuer

T

he 2024 Alaska Society of American Foresters Annual Meeting, which was held at the Sitka Centennial Hall on April 25-27, 2024, featured a full agenda of presentations and a field trip related to the theme of “Back to the Future: Forest Health and Sustainability.”

The event was hosted by the Sitka Chapter with assistance from the Northwest Office and Western Forestry & Conservation Association. The meeting was a hybrid affair with a virtual attendance option for folks unable to attend in person. The meeting was well attended with 31 in-person attendees and 11 virtual.

Those who traveled to the meeting began arriving on Wednesday, and local SAF members arranged pickups. The meeting began on Thursday, April 25 with a morning Executive Committee meeting, and the full meeting began on Thursday afternoon.

The agenda reflected the breadth of the area that the Alaska Society covers.

One presentation featured the USDA’s

Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy and how its changing forest management on the Tongass to include more collaborative efforts to engage communities in the development of projects that focus on young growth management. Another presentation provided an overview of Executive Order 14072 and its impact upon the Forest Service’s Mature and Old Growth Forest management. The effort has gone through various phases, starting with definition development, inventory, threat analysis and is currently beginning the NEPA phase to address a proposed National amendment to all existing 128 forest land management plans.

Other topics included the current status of insects and diseases, and outlooks for the future. A changing climate is ap-

parent in Alaska and affects the forests in many measurable ways. Alaska is warming faster than the rest of the US and 2-3X faster than the national average, according to Chris Fettig who presented on the findings from the Forests chapter of the 5th National Climate Assessment that was published in November 2023; he is also the lead author of the chapter.

Alaska’s place in markets for carbon capture and storage was examined; the state benefits from a high level of certainty in land ownership that in turn affects the appeal for long term agreements of that sort.

How to manage Tongass National Forests lands decades after the cessation of industrial-scale harvesting in support of the Alaska Lumber and Pulp Company

TOP TWO PHOTOS COURTESY OF PAUL CLEMENTS. BOTTOM PHOTO COURTESY OF KEN WINTERBERGER

16 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

was discussed in presentations and in the field. Naturally regenerated stands have been thinned and are now reaching sawlog size; markets, costs and feasibility affect the ability to move that wood.

Local utilization was considered in a panel discussion with a Southeast Alaska sawmill operator and a fuel wood and wood pellet producer in Fairbanks.

Matt Labrenz of the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service discussed the results of recent legislation that established an Alaska Lumber Grading Program; this program allows residents to use locally sourced lumber and qualify for funding for residential construction.

A pressing need for local affordable housing has highlighted opportunities for local forest products.

Additional presentations featured studies of habitat for Sitka black-tailed deer and physiological responses of spruce trees to beetle infestations and the ongoing efforts to maximize community input into the Tongass Forest Plan Revision.

Garry White, director of the Sitka Economic Development Association and guest speaker at the Friday evening banquet provided an interesting presentation about the development of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park at the former Alaska Pulp Company mill site following its closure in 1994. The Forester’s Fund was the beneficiary of an interesting and entertaining raffle held at the banquet as well.

A number of folks departed on Friday afternoon, and others convened Saturday for a two-tiered field trip that featured a tour in the Starrigavan Valley of Forest Service lands that had been harvested in the mid-1970s. Several thinning treatments were observed, as was the site of a landslide caused by the heavy rainfall that’s been occurring more frequently in recent years. The group also was shown a recreation cabin built of logs derived

from thinning the second-growth spruce.

The cabin is the most frequently rented recreational cabin on the Sitka Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest.

The field trip continued in the afternoon with a tour boat trip into the Alexander Archipelago north of Sitka. The three-hour journey afforded a chance to see the Sitka Sound area, including Katlian Bay Nakwasina Bay and Krestof Sound. The tour provided a perspective of the Sitka area from the water and an opportunity to see harvest units from the pulp mill era that have since regrown, the

Alaska yellow cedar decline caused by root freezing from reduced snow cover linked to climate change, and a group of migrating grey whales.

We are looking forward to the 2025 Alaska SAF Annual meeting that will be hosted by the Yukon River Chapter. WF Formerly an OSAF member, Paul Clements is a new member of the Sitka SAF Chapter. Pat Heuer was chair of the 2024 AKSAF Annual Meeting and is chair of the Sitka SAF Chapter.

WA Commissioner of Public Lands Candidate Forum WSSAF invites all members to attend a public forum with the final Commissioner of Public Lands candidates, as determined by the primary election.

Register for free at https://forestry.org to attend in person. The forum will be broadcast by TVW and available for viewing at https://tvw.org. The candidates will be asked a set of moderated questions, and audience questions will be taken as time allows.

October 7, 2024, 6-7:30 p.m.

Norman Worthington Conference Center St. Martin’s University, Olympia Do you have a question for the candidates? Submit it through our survey at https://tinyurl.com/h8pp3t5f, or scan the QR code.

Candidate videos for this and other statewide offices and ballot measures are in the Video Voter’s Guide at https://tvw.org/video-voters-guide/.

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 17

2024 Oregon SAF Annual Meeting a Success

By Quinn Kawamoto

A

fter a 20-year hiatus, it was the Siskiyou Chapter’s turn to host the Oregon SAF Annual Meeting. Held in Ashland on May 8-10, the theme was “Forestry’s Changing Landscape: How Do We Meet the Challenge?” With significant Douglas-fir mortality in southwestern Oregon, this was a great opportunity highlight the challenges of practicing forestry in this pocket of the state.

The meeting had an opening social and icebreaker on Wednesday and an opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones. After the event concluded, there was an inaugural Early Career Social that had employees from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Oregon Department of Forestry speak to stu-

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAROL MOODY

Members of the Siskiyou Chapter pose with SAF CEO Terry Baker. Terry was a member of the Siskiyou Chapter from 2007-2010.

dents and early career professionals on the opportunities that lie ahead. There were over 70 folks packed into the back of Caldera Brewing, which was across the

OSU Students Reflect Upon Annual Meeting

By Hunter Holeman Each year, the Oregon SAF Annual Conference offers students invaluable opportunities to enhance their professional and interpersonal relationships with industry experts, potential employers, and peers. Consequently, the SAF Student Chapter at OSU prioritizes attending this event and supports as many students as possible in participating. Many of our students noted that engaging in in-depth conversations with seasoned professionals was not only memorable but also instrumental in their journey to becoming valuable assets to diverse forestry companies after graduation.

One undergraduate student shared that before attending OSAF, they were losing sight of why they came to Oregon to study forestry. However, discussions with industry specialists reignited their passion and curiosity for both academia and their future professional life.

Many students, including myself, felt that the early-career social held before the official start of the conference helped ease them into a professional mindset and provided a low-pressure setting for initial networking. Several students mentioned that the attending professionals were particularly approachable and friendly, which made it easier to initiate conversations once the conference commenced.

During the conference, topics such as the intersections between Oregon wildfire ecology and climate change, Douglas-fir mortality, entomology, and new operations technologies were particularly informative and memorable.

Overall, it was inspiring to see how students thrived at this event. The excitement within our student chapter for next year’s meeting is already palpable.

Hunter Holeman is a graduate student at Oregon State University and chair of the OSU SAF Student chapter.

18 WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024

street from the Ashland Hills Hotel. This was a great addition to the meeting and one that made possible by State Chair Amanda Sullivan-Astor’s leadership.

Thursday was a busy day with a great opening by SAF’s CEO Terry Baker. Terry cut his teeth working for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and was a former member of the Siskiyou Chapter, so this presented a homecoming of sorts. Following his opening was a very appropriate and timely keynote by Malcolm North, a research ecologist with the Pacific Southwest Research Station, on what forest resilience is and what is a good measure of it. The rest of the day had plenary and concurrent sessions that had something for everyone to listen to. From tech and sector innovations to conservation planning, topics focused on working together and finding common goals. The awards ceremony and banquet were another opportunity to highlight the achievements of our members’ success over the past year.

Congratulations to all the recipients of the awards this year!

Foresters love spending time in the woods and Friday’s field tour was no exception. The field tour spent the day in the Applegate Valley, which is the epicenter of the Douglas-fir decline.

Attendees learned about the flatheaded fir borer and the current outbreak and ecology related to this mass die-off. Max Bennet, Laura Lowery, and Josh Bron-

son provided an interactive session on the signs of a beetle infested tree. The afternoon concluded at the 2012 Pilot Joe project that has largely been a success in creating resiliency in dry forest stands.

Professors Jerry Franklin and Norm Johnso were instrumental in helping the BLM design these pilot projects that were to showcase the positive impacts of ecological forestry.

Special thanks to the planning committee that made this event possible: Tim Keith, Paul Kangas, Kerry Metlen, Robert Reed, Darren Mahr, Taylor Wright, John Prendergast, Lisa Meredith, Erin Smith-Mateja, Amanda Sullivan-Astor, Jacob Putney, and Mike Bechdolt. Without their efforts this meeting would not have happened. Thanks to the Northwest Office and the support of Nicole Jacob-

sen, Melinda Olson, Ruscena Wiederholt, and Andrea Watts for their administrative assistance. WF Quinn Kawamoto is the current chair of the Siskiyou Chapter and served as general chair for the 2024 Oregon SAF Meeting.

OSAF Award Winners Recognized

By Julie Woodward and Jeremy Felty OSAF gathered in Ashland, Oregon, at the 2024 OSAF Annual Meeting to honor those whose dedication, innovation, leadership and stewardship have contributed significantly to the advancement and sustainable management of Oregon forests.

The awards celebration also recognized the outstanding individuals and organizations who have demonstrated exemplary leadership and commitment to the Society of American Foresters.

OSU Student Award: Joshua Waier Josh is graduating OSU this year and will be starting his career with the U.S. Forest Service.

OSU advisors attributed Josh’s leadership as a key reason for the reengagement of students to SAF activities.

PHOTO TAKEN BY MARGARET MILLER

OSAF award winners with SAF CEO Terry Baker, Oregon State Forester Cal Mukumoto and OSAF Chair Amanda Sullivan-Astor.

Forestry Appreciation Award: Chris VanNess Chris is a high school teacher at Logos Charter School in Medford. Chris has spent numerous years leading Oregon Envirothon teams and other natural resource classes. He is dedicated to connecting his students with foresters and professionals in the field.

Research Award: Dr. David Shaw Dr. David Shaw, recently retired from OSU, is an exemplary example of a professor, researcher, and extension educator who has demonstrated outstanding achievement, scientific leadership, and significant advances in the field of forest health and forest pathology.

Chapter Achievement Award: the Umpqua Chapter Young Forester Leadership Award: Alicia Christiansen Alicia serves as Oregon State University Extension Agent for Forestry and Natural Resources in Douglas County. As an Associate Professor of Practice, she provides outreach and communication through multiple mediums for a variety of audiences. She is very engaged with the local forestry and woodland owner community, sits on multiple boards, and belongs to several professional development organizations.

Forester of the Year: Jeremy Sapp Jeremy has been a practicing forester or technician for 25 years and currently is a land use manager for Weyer-

haeuser. Jeremy is an alumni of Washington’s AgForestry Leadership program and brings these leadership skills into a wide range of activities. He continues to bring great ideas and innovation to OSAF and has served as the newsletter editor for several years.

The Bob Kintigh Lifetime Achievement Award: Marc Vomocil Marc is the Vice President of Acquisitions and Real Assets and a professional forester for Starker Forests, Inc. Marc has earned the respect of his SAF peers as a leader, forester, and community volunteer, who has helped promote sustainable forest management throughout the Pacific Northwest and the nation during his five-decade career. Marc has expertise in reforestation, young stand management, inventory, growth and yield projections, and the appraisal, purchase, and sale of timberlands. He has continuously served SAF during his entire career.

Congratulations to all award recipients. Thank you to all those that take the time and effort for nominations, it is an important part of the OSAF recognition process NOTICE—OSAF award deadline is changing for 2025.

Due to an early annual meeting in 2025, award applications will be due Dec. 15, 2024. For more about the awards and to download the nomination form, visit https://forestry.org/oregon-awards/.

Julie Woodward and Jeremy Felty are the OSAF Awards Committee Cochairs.

WESTERN FORESTER s JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 19

SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FORESTERS

Western Forester PO Box 82836 Portland, Oregon 97282

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

PORTLAND, OR PERMIT NO. 16