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| | Forest Statementby Jean Shaffer Our southern-facing Tree Shepherd Woods in Thurston County, Washington (southeast of Olympia) historically was old growth cedar with wetland winding in and out of the lowland area. According to Cecelia Carpenter, tribal historian and member of the Nisqually Indian Tribe–the original stewards of this land–the tribe utilized our woods as a favorite camping and passing-through area. After the land was taken by the U.S. Government from the Nisquallys through the Medicine Creek Treaty in 1854, it endured many owners and was clear-cut probably twice before we owned it. In 2006 our gift of the land title back to the Nisquallys was completed, and they will re-take possession upon my husband's and my passing. Today the forest has predominantly 80-year-old Douglas fir, some hemlock and cedar, and salal understory. The main forest resides on a table top and slopes moderately to the south where there is open pasture and then more forest to the neighboring south boundary. The wetlands were ditched many decades ago, and now they disperse one way as Eaton Creek and the other way as Spurgeon Creek. We are restoring the forest in the pasture areas with the local seed stock of Doug fir and native shrubs (tall Oregon grape, cascara, hazelnut, salal, and chokecherry) as well as herbs that are naturally dispersed by local birds and animals. In the woods we are doing Orville Camp's Natural Selection Ecoforestry which theorizes that disturbed forest succeeds to climax through selecting its weaker members out over time.
Our goal is old growth. Photos show forest before selective harvest and after selective harvest . Our forestry approach is to allow and enhance succession through harvesting the naturally selected-out trees, which can be read by these indicators: trees that have lost position in the canopy for accessing sunlight; Dougs of relative age that have smaller diameters; trees without lighter brown wood between bark growth cracks; trees that have less than 20 percent of their trunks crowned with branches; and cone-shaped tree boles, rather than a straight column-shaped bole. We keep a small percent of weaker trees growing to recruit snags. Our forest is healthy and responding to our approach with increased growth. We have test plots and a control plot erected by specialist Jerry Becker, of Port Orford, Oregon, to monitor the growth rates. I use our forest as a demonstration of Natural Selection Ecoforestry and do Ecoforestry consulting for other land owners. My husband has built logging equipment that allows no soil impact during log removal and has also fabricated a mill and a woodworking shop to add value to the logs we take out and air dry. We know there will be even better lumber down the road, as the naturally selected-out trees provide straighter-grained and wider-girth trees in the future. For more information on Tree Shepherd Woods, please visit our website, http://www.reachone.com/TreeArt/. Forest Statistics and Documentation
- Acreage: 20
- Forest Type: Coastal Douglas Fir
- Model Forest Manager: Jean Shaffer, TreeArt Ecoforestry Consulting
- Primary Uses: carbon credits, wildlife, aesthetics, timber
- Affiliations/Links: Nisqually Indian Tribe
- Certification: FSC's small landowner group, Northwest Certified Forestry
Downloads of documents and maps |
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