From the Fields - Shaun Crook

By Shaun Crook, Tuolumne County forester 

With the lower-elevation areas that we could work, it’s still too early for any logging to take place. Mastication projects or fuel reduction should be starting soon, and we’re just waiting for areas to be dry enough to get equipment in. We still have low-elevation snow, something we haven’t had in recent memory. There are a lot of unknowns that the snow is covering up. Hopefully, in the next couple weeks, people will be able to get out and assess what needs to happen as far as infrastructure to even get to their jobs.

With the ground being saturated and the wind that came through, there has been a lot of tree damage, such as oak trees being blown over. Foresters have a lot of damage on conifers, pine, fir and cedar trees. Those trees will die, so they’ve got increased salvage to do because of the wind damage.

The boots-on-the-ground activities include winter maintenance and writing proposals. A lot of fuel reduction and logging jobs are bidding over the winter. Most entities require a written proposal in addition to your price. They look at your references, past performance and qualifications.

Log prices are still really depressed because there’s still a lot of black wood out there. Even though last year’s fire season wasn’t as bad as the previous couple years, we’re still playing catch-up on the fires from two years ago. Our region has burned timber that burned late last year that will need to get off the landscape to start reforesting.

Rain here in the foothills should lead to a great grass crop for our cattle producers, as long as the sun starts to come out and we have warm-enough days to get that grass growth because the ground is just saturated everywhere.