- Call before you burn – Burning regulations vary by location depending on the weather and fuel conditions. If you are planning to burn, check with your local Oregon Department of Forestry district, fire protective association, fire department, or air protection authority to learn about current burning restrictions or regulations, and if you need a permit.
- Know the weather – Burn early in the day and never burn on dry or windy days, because fires can spread out of control more easily.
- Clear a 10-foot fuel-free buffer around the pile – Make sure there are no tree branches or power lines above
- Keep burn piles small – Large burn piles can cast hot embers long distances. Keep piles small, maximum of four feet by four feet. Add debris to the pile in small amounts as the pile burns.
- Always have water and fire tools nearby – When burning, have a charged water hose or a bucket of water, and shovel on hand to put out the fire. Drown the pile with water, stir the coals, and drown again, repeating until the fire is out cold.
- Stay with the fire until it is out cold – State laws requires monitoring of debris burn piles from start to finish until it is out cold. This law is intended to ensure sparks or embers that jump from the fire can be put out quickly.
- Recheck burn piles. They can retain heat for several weeks and restart when the weather warms up and winds blow.
- Never use gasoline or other flammable or combustible liquids to start or speed up your fire.
- Burn only yard debris – State laws prohibit burning materials or trash that create dense smoke or noxious odors.
- Costs of run-away debris burns– State law requires the proper clearing, building, attending and extinguishing of open fires all year. If your debris burn spreads out of control, you may have to pay for suppression costs, as well as the damage to your neighbors’ properties. This can be extremely expensive.
Friday, May 13, 2022
Wildfire Awareness Month: Prevent wildfire; Wait for the right time to burn debris
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Field Trip - Bell Timber, Inc. Pole Operation
On April 27,
2022, twenty Columbia County Small Woodlands Association members visited the
Bell pole operation in Longview, WA. The
tour was coordinated by Mark Dreyer and hosted by Bell Operations and Resource
Manager Mike Luttrell. Bell is a
family-owned company that has been in business for 112 years! They have several operations in the USA and
in Canada and have been in Longview since 2019.
The Longview operation is massive, about 25 acres with room to expand.
At Longview,
poles measuring 30 to 125 feet are received, scaled, barked, peeled and sorted
before they are shipped by rail car to The Dalles where they are kiln dried and
treated. The poles processed at Longview
are nearly all Douglas-fir. (Very few
cedar poles are available in our area although suitable cedar poles do occur
near the coast and farther north in Washington and Canada.) The poles are moved
by rail to markets east of Oregon and Washington. Most of the production is used as electric
utility poles and Bell is actively seeking to purchase suitable timber.
Their
website: https://blpole.com/
2022 Seedling Program
And Thank You
The 2022
seedling pre-sale was a success although we could have sold more seedlings
especially Douglas-fir. Order forms were
mailed to all CCSWA members during early July 2021 and we were sold out of Douglas-fir
(DF) by late July 2021, the earliest in my memory. We sold 523 bags of Douglas-fir (62,760
seedlings) and 48 bags of western red cedar (WRC) (4800 seedlings). The seedlings were hauled from the grower
near Woodland, Washington on Feb 11, 2022 and distributed to buyers on Feb 12
at: 1) Paul Nys’s barn on Meissner Road near Rainier; 2) down town St. Helens by Mark Dreyer; 3) some
Vernonia area by Bill Hanson. Four
buyers of 50 or more bags were able to make arrangements to pick up their
seedlings at the nursery.
We wish to
thank several members who did the heavy lifting. Joe Banzer hauled 178 bags of DF to the Paul
Nys’s barn with his big trailer and he also brought 4 bags of WRC back to
Oregon later in the week to correct an oversight in my paperwork. Bill Hanson hauled 42 bags of WRC to Nys
barn. The following volunteers helped to
unload and stack the seedlings: Joe
Banzer, Paul Nys, Dennis Nelson, Kevin Johnston, Mark Dreyer, Don Salvey, and Bill
Hanson. My thanks to all who
helped.
Because our
2022 crop was smaller than recent years, it was not necessary to use the big
Van Natta Brothers truck. The Van Nata
family, coordinated by K. C. Van Natta, has safely hauled our seedlings for
many years. We will have a larger crop
next year and, consequently, may need to ask for their help again. Thank you to the Van Natta family for so many
years of loading and trucking. Our
thanks include Ray Biggs and Bob Hoard who have also hauled many bags in recent
years.
[The
remainder of the crop (36 bags of DF and 22 bags of WRC) was lifted during
March and sold at the public ornamental sale held in St. Helens March 12. Lynn Baker managed the ornamental sale. Mark Dreyer and Bill Hanson used their PU
trucks to haul these seedlings plus some noble fir and hemlock to St.
Helens. I know that Lynn Baker hauled
seedlings from Willamette Valley growers in addition to a hundred other things
she did to create the ornamental sale!]
Submitted by
Bill Hanson, CCSWA seedling person