Penny Stew Stewardship Contract

 

1. Name - Penny Stew Stewardship Contract

Context | Objectives | Treatment Specifics | Utilization | Targets | Pre Treatment data | Post Treatment data | Links

Located in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) community of Williams, Penny Stew was one of the first stewardship contracts awarded by the BLM in southwest Oregon, and the first federal land project for  the Lomakatsi Restoration Project. The Penny Stew project was nested with the Applegate Adaptive Management Area set up by the Northwest Forest Plan, and then with the 5,028-acre Scattered Apples Landscape Management Project originally proposed by the Medford District of the BLM in 1997.

A longstanding relationship with federal agencies, conservation organizations, and many communities across southwest Oregon, helped to set the stage for this project. Since 2001, the Lomakatsi Restoration Project has been awarded 13 BLM-administered National Fire Plan grants designed to support fire hazard reduction on private land adjacent to federal land, provide ecological restoration training, and market forest thinning byproducts. Penny Stew, and subsequent stewardship contracts, have helped provide ongoing jobs for the "green collar" workforce formed by Lomakatsi. Crews have gained a high level of efficiency and experience on a wide array of projects. These practitioners have continually upgraded their skills, adapted their management prescriptions based on monitoring results, and incorporated current and traditional ecological knowledge, restoration silviculture, and conservation science into their approach.

Lomakatsi commenced work on Penny Stew in the winter of 2005 after convening a multi-party interdisciplinary group that helped to design ecological treatment prescriptions and establish permanent biophysical monitoring plots. Community-wide workshops and field tours organized by Lomakatsi, in partnership with BLM staff and local groups, preceded and accompanied each phase of the project. The BLM solicitation for the Penny Stew contract required public meetings and outreach in the community, and Lomakatsi’s proposal and performance exceeded expectations, demonstrated collaboration, and helped to build trust. Part of the project was directly adjacent to a private land neighborhood and shares road access.

The project took three years to complete, in part because seasonal restrictions in occupied bald eagle habitat precluded work between March 15 and September each year. In addition, the roads were not surfaced for rainy season operations, and in the dry season there were fire hazard restrictions.

Forest types were primarily pine-oak woodland and mixed conifer with dense encroaching Douglas-fir pole stands. Fuel reduction and stand improvement objectives were surpassed through small diameter tree removal, thinning, and slash disposal. The fire regime condition class went from 3 to 1, and the Fuel Model was reduced from 10 to 8. The basal area in dense understory was reduced by 20% for both Douglas fir and madrone. The dominant trees, large pine and hardwoods, were protected by thinning more intensively around them. A primary goal was to enable fire to carry through the stand without destroying it, and under favorable conditions, this has been accomplished. BLM expects to underburn part of the area after five years to control the resprouting madrone. All parties expect that future stand management will be needed to maintain and further improve the resiliency and diversity of the stand composition and structure.

Lomakatsi crews performed both pre-commercial and commercial thinning, and used their “swamper burning” approach for disposing of the slash generated by treatments. No biomass was removed on some steeper slopes. The two timber operators were Cascade Wildlands, Inc., a local firm which used an all-surface vehicle (ASV), and Summit Wood Products, which used a combination cut-to-length (CTL) harvester and forwarder. Overall, the net cost of treatments was about $920 per acre.

Penny Stew was primarily slated for non-commercial thinning, and almost a ton per acre of small diameter “biomass” material was generated – 100 tons total. A substantial quantity of this material was sold to Rogue Valley Fuel, 45 miles away, for about $40 to $45 per ton. They used posts and poles for a wide variety of products. BLM provided the use of their land for a sort yard so that many products could be sorted or processed on site for local use. Local uses included pole-peeling, portable sawmill operations for lumber, and firewood. Lomakatsi sold 35 sets of tipi poles. Nearby manufacturers produced character-grade paneling and flooring from pine and fir.

The project yielded 94 thousand board feet (MBF) of commercial Douglas fir timber from 113 acres, and a small amount of ponderosa and sugar pine. The 25% drop in the market value of commercial timber over the course of the project adversely affected the economic benefits, but the small-diameter utilization market improved over time. BLM funded the project with Silviculture and Fires & Fuels budget line items as well as a Title II grant, so the product sales were not expected to cover expenses. The use of the stewardship contract authority did enable a 15% increase in the acres treated due to the revenue generated from the sale of thinned out trees. In 2006, two small units were added to the project, another benefit of stewardship contracting flexibility, bringing the total treatment area to 124 acres.

Penny Stew was a high-profile project that helped to establish the areas of agreement for restoration thinning projects. Several conservation organizations are now advocating restoration of plantations across the region. BLM continues to work with Lomakatsi on stewardship contracts in other parts of Josephine County. Many communities and conservationists continue to call upon Lomakatsi as the demonstrable model of practices they prefer and practitioners they trust. Lomakatsi applies its ecological principles and prescriptions to enhance guidelines established in BLM’s landscape-project Environmental Assessments. For example, while Lomakatsi meets standard specifications for thinning, the application varies across the area. The variable density prescriptions are adjusted to the micro-site features, mimicking reference conditions (conditions within the historic range of variability) where possible, and aiming to restore resilience and biodiversity. Through collaboration, innovation and modifications are possible, both contractually and on the ground. BLM mentored Lomakatsi in stewardship, and tested the levels of flexibility in the stewardship contracting authorities. BLM is now applying its extensive knowledge on other projects and is willing to share the framework of its approach and contract templates.

Across these landscapes with high fire return intervals, it is now more feasible to treat stands that are economically very marginal, thereby improving stand-level functions and reducing the risk of catastrophic fire. All parties agree that sorting the products, expanding the markets, and improving the overall funding mechanisms for all aspects of stewardship contracting would make it more feasible to treat the forest and improve habitat across the landscape.

Links

• Lininger, Jay Charles. 2006, Effectiveness of Stand-Scale Forest Restoration, Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon. A University of Montana MS thesis that details the treatment objectives and monitoring.
• Lomakatsi Forest Restoration