Forest Tour: Intro to Ecologically-Based Timber Harvesting

Stewarding a beautiful, healthy forest doesn’t have to mean locking the gate and throwing out the key.

In fact, careful stewardship can help you to perpetually manage your forest in a way that improves wildlife habitat, sustains forest health, and provides long-term income opportunities through high-quality timber products.

Forest owners in Western Washington are increasingly interested in maintaining forests that provide a broad range of ecological functions and economic goals.

This free workshop will introduce you to the principles and economics of ecological forestry, the tools to implement it successfully on smaller parcels, and the structural and biotic features of forests that help wildlife thrive. Come learn about forest growth, thinning and harvest strategies, and steps you can take to enhance wildlife habitat on your land.

EVENT DETAILS

Saturday, July 9, 2022

9:30am – 3:30pm

Quilcene, WA

Exact location will be sent to workshop registrants, as the workshop is being held in a private forest.

Register for the workshop

TOPICS

As we tour a private family forest where thinnings and other ecological forestry practices have been implemented, we’ll cover topics including:

• Forest health and dynamics: How to “read” and understand what is happening in your forest from an ecological perspective. Topics include species competition, tree canopy classes, and timber quality. 
• Thinning, uneven-aged management, and young-stand management: The rhyme and reason for thinning from below, thinning across diameters, tree spacing, and species selection.
• Habitat needs of keystone PNW species: The role of species diversity, stand composition, snags, and down wood in providing habitat and food for forest species. 
• Incorporating wildlife habitat enhancements into forest management practices: How to work with logging contractors to create wildlife habitat as part of a forest thinning operation. 
• The economics of thinning: We will discuss the results of our recent Economics of Thinning study. How do management decisions affect the economics of harvest outcomes? And what economic outcomes have impacts on harvest management?

FREE SITE VISITS

Participants can sign up for a limited number of free two-hour site visits with a forester. During the site visit, the forester will help landowners refine plans for managing their forest and answer site specific questions. To register for a free site visit, please email kirk@nnrg.org.

SPEAKERS

Kirk Hanson | Northwest Natural Resource Group
Jaal Mann | Northwest Natural Resource Group
Sam Castro | Northwest Natural Resource Group

FUNDING FOR THIS PROJECT IS PROVIDED BY

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative