Conifer Invasions & Old-Growth Mortality at Babyfoot Lake

Dr. Bob Zybach examines the effects of catastrophic wildfire and crown fires of the 2002 Biscuit Fire near Babyfoot Lake, Josephine County, Oregon. Successive generations of dead Douglas-fir and true fir (Abies, spp.) trees are shown to have created ladder fuels that killed old-growth sugar pines in the area, while rejuvenating an ancient beargrass field (which Dr. Zybach mistakenly identifies as "bunchgrasses"). Videography by Josh Meredith, September 14, 2005.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Babyfoot
• Lake
• Josephine
• County
• Oregon
• Bob
• Zybach
• conifers
• sugar
• pine
• beargrass
• bunchgrass
• old-growth
• true
• fir
• seedlings

[loggergal]

Oh yes, what a nice looking forest... Let's just burn it all up.. I LOVE hugging blackened trees..HAhahaha...NOT!

[ORWWmedia]

But how about salvage logging, loggergal, at least before they rot or burn again?

[loggergal]

Personally I hated felling burnt timber, I did it up in the Bighorn Mtns. Hard on my saw.. Plus it's so ugly & smelly compared to green forest & the Forest Service took too long in red tape in getting the unit ready to log... The lodgepoles & spruce were too dried up & twisted badly, then the mill complained about the bad quality of lumber off this sale... Of course I think these trees should be utlilzed. I'm just glad I won't have to work in it.. I'm very pro-logging...

[ORWWmedia]

Yup. Feller-buncher, chipper, electricity. One of my best friends, Ernie Oleman, was killed too young falling fire-kill in central Oregon a few years ago.

[loggergal]

Of course I think it should be salvaged and a new forest allowed to grow again. I love those huge Sugar Pines.. It's sad to see them burnt up llike that. I've logged in burnt timber, hated it!!!!

[ORWWmedia]

The Sugar Pines are cultural relicts and should have never been allowed to be infested with ladder fuels. Good management, including thinning and reintroduction of regular prescribed fires would have prevented this from every happening in the first place, much less being subjected to a needles encore. Another reburn is imminent, unless some form of active management is implemented. What a waste.

[loggergal]

Wow, I'm very sorry to hear that. It's something that we know can happen to us when we are out there. God Bless Him!

[loggergal]

I had a thinning unit burn just shorty after I had thinned it.The needles hadn't had time to fall off over winter, luckily not all of the trees died either by it. Luckily a log truck driver happened to see the lightning strike/smoke & call it in! I believe had it not been thinned it may have gotten out of control. Oh & yeah, the road too, was a plus for the fire fighters & their trucks to fight it. And the fire had a hard time crossing the road. Since it was burning, slash on the ground mainly.

[loggergal]

Oh that's really just very sad to hear. But we know it can happen out there, I'm sure he did too. Wyoming has some nasty tornado like wind blown down forests once in a while in patches, I guess people get messed up logging  & cleaning up those natural disasters too.

[loggergal]

Yes, I have done over a thousand acres of pre-commercial thinning in Montana. I also did slashing on clearcuts in the 80's. Some of those forests were so jungle thick, with hemlocks, cedar, yew brush, clearcutting was the best thing. For wildlife too. You can't selective log all forests.