The Sad, the Bad and the Blue (Stain)
Forestry statistics for Libby South Fire Kill Salvage Sale
(click here to return to the salvage logging page)
(click here for a photo gallery of the
proposed sale)
Facts about the Libby South Timber Sale
Prepared by Libby Creek Watershed Association
General:
Status: Washington State Department of Natural Resources plans to auction the burned timber on May 7, 2002. A citizen’s appeal of the sale went before a state appeals board. Although the appeal was sold before being heard, the citizens' appeal (by Libby Creek Watershed Association, with support of Kettle Range Conservation Group) was still able to drop 23 acres of cable logging on slopes over 67% steepness.
Location: Libby South Timber Sale is located in the Methow Valley, just above the town of Carlton, Washington in the Libby Creek watershed.
Cause of the fire: The fire started on July 9, 2001 by Washington State Department of Natural Resources staff operating a defective DNR truck. The fire spread rapidly through poorly managed and overgrazed DNR forests. The fire burned 3830 acres at a cost of $3.6 million. No structures were lost-just barely.
Size: Washington State Department of Natural Resources expects to clearcut 2.3 million board feet (about 575 truckloads) from 418 acres of public forest (just under a square mile). Nearly 3 miles of new road will be constructed for the timber sale.
Yield: The forest targeted by the Libby South Timber Sale has extremely low timber productivity - only 12% of the state average.
Income: The minimum bid from the damaged timber is only half that for green wood, lowering the economic return to only 6% of the state average or just 3% of commercial forest land.
Conditions: Following fire, forest soils are very sensitive to additional disturbance until the vegetation has had a few years to recover. Unlike green tree harvest, it is well established that salvage logging increases fire risk, soil erosion, and spread of noxious weeds, which are already severe at Libby South.
Logging: The DNR’s logging plan is to clearcut the entire forest, leaving and leave only 5 trees for wildlife in each acre. Given soil disturbance, low rainfall, loss of shade cover and other environmental impacts, revegetation after logging is not promising.
Statements by the Libby Creek Watershed Association, a group of homeowners and small woodlot owners living in the Methow Valley, Washington.
These forests only receive 15 inches of rain a year, mostly in snow, but often associated with pounding summer thunderstorms. It takes a tree 100 years to grow only 70 feet tall at Libby South, so many years must elapse between timber harvests.
On most of the planned harvest area, the soil is unconsolidated glacial till on extremely steep slopes. Over the years, the Libby Creek watershed has experienced many debris flows, mudslides, rain-on-snow events and landslides following logging, road construction and fires.
Federal soil scientists classify the potential for erosion, seedling mortality, and plant competition as "severe" in the logging area. A DNR geologist classified the logging area as "being prone to rapid and very rapid runoff" with a "high to very high hazard of erosion."
Erosion, debris flows, or landslides caused by logging this forest are likely expected to dump sediment on private homesteads along Libby Creek and the Methow River, and put our families and homes in harms way. The DNR geologist reports that a thunderstorm could cause debris flows and landslides to impact the nearby Methow River from the logging area.
As part of the natural forest recovery process, beneficial fungi and insects have begun the process of breaking down the dead wood into humus, while providing soil nutrients for the emerging vegetation and food and shelter for fire-dependent birds and wildlife.
The DNR has consistently lied to the public and in their environmental documents about the impacts to this area. The DNR turned off the fax machine during comment periods, failed to observe required waiting periods before approving plans, and ignored rules intended to protect the public.
We are seeking responsible management of the public forests that surround our homes. We are asking DNR to manage these lands for long-term sustainability, so that they can be productive for our children's children. Starting fires, followed by clearcutting on sensitive soils that is likely to bring the mountain down onto our homes and into our rivers is not responsible management.
This is an extremely stressful process for all involved because salvage has been put on a fast track, while at the same time state funds have been drastically cut. In addition, the recent death of presiding judge Deborah Mull has cast a gray pall over the entire proceedings, and brought sorrow to those involved.
More information about Libby South
prepared by George Wooten
Botanist, Kettle Range Conservation Group
May 1, 2002
Land Condition at Libby South
- The fire spread rapidly because the trees were densely overstocked with ladder fuels (see picture below).
- The area has been virtually ignored by DNR for decades.
- The timber at Libby South is of extremely low value. The site index determined by the Soil Conservation Service is 70, meaning that it takes a tree 100 years to grow 70 feet tall.
- Half of the area is open shrub-steppe, which is off-base to logging by the USDA, but DNR doesn’t follow USDA or Soil Conservation Service standards.
- The area only receives 15 inches of rain a year, mostly in snow, but often in thunderstorms which start more fires (see photo below for recent lightning locations).
- The soil is unconsolidated glacial till on extremely steep slopes.
- The Soil Conservation Service ratings for this site are given as: erosion – severe, equipment limitations – severe, seedling mortality – severe, plant competition (including weeds) – severe.
- The Libby Creek area is in a hazardous geological area which has experienced dozens of debris flows, mudslides, rain-on-snow events and landslides following logging, roading and fires.
- The area is in an area of high risk from lightning and wildfire from summer thunderstorms, as demonstrated by landslides killing four people on these soil types in the Entiat Valley in the early 1970s. A flood wiped out the town of Silver in the late 1800s directly below Libby South, and a rain-on-snow event in the area wiped out 6 bridges over the Methow River on state Highway 153 in 1948.
- The DNR mitigation for increased risk of debris flows consisted of identifying run-out zones on private property which wouldn’t harm fisheries, but would instead bury private homes.
- The road to the area is choked with weeds that helped spread the blaze when DNR drove through the area in 2001.
Technical calculations for Libby South (the sale was modified at least four times – these calculations are based on the first three versions):
- The original volume was 2.931 mmbf original with negligible leave trees, i.e., it is a liquidation.
- At 4,000 bf / truckload, this would be equivalent of 2,931,000 / 4,000 = 732 truckloads.
- The unmodified volume would be 2.931 mmbf / 12 =244,250 cf.
- Adjusting for kerf and slab of 4.75 / 12 (39.58%), the cubic volume converts to 244,250 / 0.3958 = 617,105 bf.
- The site index (from the Okanogan County Soil Survey) is 70. This agrees with Williams and Lillybridge (Forested Plant Associations of the Okanogan National Forest, 1982) who calculate a site index of 77 and 39, respectively, for the fir and ponderosa pine in a Douglas fir / pinegrass stand, such as those in this timber sale.
- Over a 100 year rotation which is the nominal rotation period for this Douglas fir of site index 70, this equates to 14.76 cf / ac / yr.
- DNR indicates that the state-wide yield per acre at harvest for a 100-year rotation for is about 749.5 bf / ac / yr. With a slab & kerf factor of 0.5, the average yield on state lands works out to 749.5 / (12 * 0.5) = 125 cf / ac / yr. Thus, compared to the state average, the yield per acre at Libby S. is 14.75 / 125 or about 12% or about 6% of an acre of commercial west-side forest like that of Weyerhauser. But it gets worse. The reduced price paid for the timber results in a financial return to the trust of only half of normal prices as shown below.
- The modified volume of the Libby S. sale is 2.3 mmbf (78.5%) after modifying to leave 3 tpa plus 2 largest pine per acre, or about 0.6 mmbf less.
- This works out to 2,300,000 / 418 = 5.5 mbf / acre.
- The stumpage value of the 2.3 mmbf modified sale is $311,000, or $744 per acre, to which an additional $35,000 must be paid for road maintenance. This can be converted to volume: $744 / 5.5 mbf = $135 / mbf. For comparison, the normal stumpage value for area 7 distance haul zone 2, the stumpage is $276 / mbf for Douglas-fir of quality no. 1, or ponderosa pine of quality 2. Thus the state is receiving only half as much money for the burned timber at Libby South on an area of land that can grow trees only 6% the rate of a comparable commercial forest – This amounts to a whopping 3%.
- At 4,000 bf / truckload, the modified volume would be 2,300,000 mmbf / 4,000 = 575 truckloads.
- These 575 truckloads of timber would cost the timber company $311,000 + $35,000 road maintenance deposit, plus the cost of building 2.77 miles of new road plus 17 new culverts. According to Jack Phelps, Alaska Forest Association, Information Services, " Forest roads program not a subsidy to industry", March, 1997 (http://www.akforest.org/roads.htm) road construction costs under the Purchaser Road Credit program averaged $25,900 per mile, compared with a cost of $60,200 per mile when built by general contractors with appropriated federal funds. Since the road at Libby South is to be built by the logging company, that is a guarantee that the lowest figure is more realistic, in which case road costs for 2.77 miles at Libby S. are estimated at 2.77 * $25,900 = $71,743.
- Therefore the estimated cost per truckload is thus $311,000 + $35,000 + $71,743 / 575 = 417,743 / 575 = $727 per load, which is still low, considering miscellaneous administrative, bond, insurance, etc, wasn’t counted. And remember, this timber is damaged, riddled with bugs that the DNR entomologist said would require "very careful marketing" to sell.
(Click for an aerial view depicting the proposed Libby South timber salelayout). |
Proposed road locations at Libby South are in prime wildlife habitat (click to enlarge). This wildlife habitat is propsed for as a landing and slash dumping area along the haul road into Libby South Timber Sale, in a steep and narrow canyon filled with aspen and wildlife. |
Libby South 100-year old stick sale. |
View from north edge of sale toward south edge on ridge at center of photo. |
Discussion:
The Okanogan National Forest, and most of the USDA, classify land producing less than 20 cubic feet per year as non-commercial, i.e., unable to pay for the cost of logging and fire-fighting. Yield tables published by USDA Tech. Bulletin 201 were also consulted. No yields are given for site indices less than 80, again, because this low of a site index is considered off-base to timber harvest. However, if the site index was 80, the yield at 100 years of 12"-plus fir trees is given as 2,410 cf, or about 24 cf / ac / yr.
If timber mining were legal, yield tables based on actual productivity for mixed conifer for a Douglas fir site index of 71, are suggested as being somewhere near 29 cf / ac / yr. by Randall O’Toole of Cascade Holistic Economic Consultants, in Review of the Okanogan National Forest Plan, Nov. 1982, which is based on moderate thinning to maintain the stand at a higher yield, albeit at an economic cost which can seldom be justified on noncommercial forests.
For comparison, according to the State of Washington Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee’s Report 96-5, "Forest Board Transfer Lands", in 1993, Washington state forest lands generated $69 per acre, the highest of any state. In 1995, DNR spent approximately $30 per acre to manage around 600,000 acres of forest board lands. In this document, DNR indicates that the state-wide yield per acre at harvest for a 100-year rotation for is 74,950 bf (p. 43), or about 749.5 bf / ac / yr. With a slab & kerf factor of 0.5, this works out to 749.5 / (12 * 0.5) = 125 cf / ac / yr. Thus, compared to the state average, the yield per acre at Libby S. is 14.75 / 125 = a return to the trust of only 12% of the state average, or about 6% of an acre of commercial west-side forest like that of Weyerhauser.
Question: Why is Libby S. so low in timber productivity (12% of the state average), when it should be higher to account for the standing old growth pine on the site?
Answer: Because this area receives only 15 inches of rain a year, trees naturally grow about one-tenth of the rate of a productive west-side forest. It took over 200 years for some of the large ponderosas on this site to reach their present size. In addition, most of the trees are overstocked and unhealthy, because of a lack of thinning, whether silvicultural, or natural (as would normally happen during historical underburns in the original stand).
Weeds at Libby South:
On November 27, a group of citizens visited portions of the Libby South
proposed Sale area. Vegetation was recorded at the site where the fire began,
in a ravine with open shrub-steppe on one side and riparian forest on the
other. observed was heavily infested with noxious weeds. A partial vegetation
list follows (*'d items are introduced species):
- * Centaurea diffusa (diffuse knapweed)
- * Agropyron repens (quackgrass)
- * Cynoglossum officinale (hound's tongue)
- Chaenactis nauseosus (rabbitbrush)
- * Sisymbrium loeselii (Loesel's tumblemustard)
- Rhus glabra (sumac)
- * Verbascum thapsus (flannel mullein)
- * Cirsium vulgare (bull thistle)
- * Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass)
- Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass)
- * Nepeta cataria (catnip)
- * Pyrus malus (escaped apple)
- * Poa bulbosa (bulbous bluegrass)
- Eriogonum niveum (snow desert buckwheat)
- Balsamorhiza sagittata (arrowleaf balsamroot)
- Purshia tridentata (bitterbrush)
- * Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass, 80% cover in openings)
- Populus tremuloides (black cottonwood)
- Alnus incana (mountain alder)
- Sambucus cerulea (blue elderberry)
- Symphoricarpos albus (snowberry)
- Betula occidentlis (western water birch)
- Clematis ligusticifolia (traveler's joy)
- Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine)
- Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas fir)
Definitions:
- ac, acre – 43,560 sq. ft. or 0.405 hectare.
- BAF – basal area factor; used to convert variable plot stem numbers to basal area; generally this should be 5 – 8 trees per sample point.
- bf - board feet.
- cf – cubic feet.
- cubic volume (of trees) – 1 cubic foot = 12 board feet X fraction of usable wood. The fraction of usable wood is the ratio of usable board ft per cubic ft / 12. the average ratio on the ONF, for trees of 13.75" dia, the ratio is 4.50 – 4.8 (.375 – 0.40).
- CMAI – culmination of mean annual incremental growth of a tree.
- dbh, diameter – diameter at breast height of a tree, given in inches.
- ha. – hectare.
- MAI – mean annual increment; average annual growth of a tree, usually given in cf / ac / yr.
- mbf – thousand board feet.
- mmbf – million board feet.
- truckload – 29 tons or up to 4,000 board feet depending on defect.
- non-commercial land – any site not capable of producing 20 cubic feet per acre per year (Okanogan NF).
- kerf – wood volume lost in processing as sawdust.
- slab - wood volume lost in processing as round edges which do not contribute to lumber production.
- productivity – the annual increase in stand volume, usually given in cubic feet per acre per year.
- SDI – Stand Density Index; the number of trees per acre that a stand could be expected to have if its quadratic mean diameter were 10 inches. For the Okanogan National Forest, the SDI for Douglas fir or ponderosa pine is about 226 and 160, respectively.
- Site index – height in feet of a tree at a given age, usually 100 or 50 years.
- stand diameter - average diameter of a tree of mean basal area in a stand.