24th Annual Seedling Sale

Columbia County Small Woodlands Association is holding our Annual Tree Sale on March 11th in St Helens. Please help us get the word out. We hope to see you there!

2022 Columbia County Small Woodlands Fall Dinner Meeting

Join us for the CCSWA Annual Meeting on November 5th from 5-9pm at Quincy Grange, 78314 Rutters Rd in Clatskanie. You must RSVP to Mark Dreyer at 503-369-9592. See details below. We hope to see you there!

RSVP to Mark Dreyer at 503-369-9592

2022 Columbia County Small Woodlands Summer Picnic

Join us for the CCSWA summer picnic on July 16th from 9am-3pm. There is an attendance limit of 40, so be sure to RSVP to Mark Dreyer at 503-369-9592 to insure your spot. See details below. We hope to see you there!

Wildfire Awareness Month: Prevent wildfire; Wait for the right time to burn debris

SALEM, OR – The Oregon Department of Forestry and other fire prevention experts urge the public to exercise caution when disposing of yard debris this spring. The drought conditions this year put Oregon at a higher risk of wildfire. 

May is Wildfire Awareness Month, which is a great time to trim trees, bushes, and tidy up plants around your home that could catch fire. This is what we call creating a “defensible space” around your home and property. As you begin spring clean-up, the Oregon Department of Forestry and Keep Oregon Green urge you to consider alternatives to burning. 

Preferable options aside from burning include composting or recycling. Check with your local disposal company for recycling options. You can also cover a part of the pile with plastic to keep it dry until the fall when it’s safer to burn. Delaying your burn plans will give the debris more time to cure and avoids spring holdover fires as fire risk increases with hotter, drier weather. 

“We expect this year to be another dry fire season, so the more we can reduce human-caused fires the better,” said Mike Shaw, Fire Protection Division Chief. “Fire prevention is something that all Oregonians should have at the forefront of their mind. Humans cause the majority of Oregon’s fires, but they can also prevent them.” Seventy percent of wildfires in Oregon are human-caused fires, with debris burning being the number one cause. By waiting to burn or taking extra steps to control a fire, Oregon can significantly reduce the risk of creating a large wildfire. 

If burning now is the only option to dispose of yard debris, fire prevention specialists ask people to follow safe burning practices. The following tips can help stop run-away burn piles: 

• 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. 

More tips on wildfire prevention, including campfire safety, motorized equipment use, and fire-resistant landscaping can be found on the Keep Oregon Green website. Find public use restrictions for Oregon Department of Forestry protected lands before your burn.

 

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

Surplus Seedlings Available from ODF Tillamook

The seedlings are free. Here is the info if you are interested:

I am Trever Madison, I am the Reforestation Unit Manager for Oregon Department of Forestry here in Tillamook. I have wrapped up my tree planting projects for the winter and I still have a surplus of Douglas-fir Seedlings. I am writing you to see if any of you still had active projects going on or could make any use of these seedlings. I have around 100,000 seedlings. They are 1+1 bareroot stock, Coastal seed source with Swiss needle cast resistance bred in our J E Schroder seed orchard.
If any of you have a way to make use of these or know of someone that may, please get ahold of me or feel free to pass my request on to others. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Trever Madison
Reforestation Manager
ODF Tillamook
5005 3rd St.
Tillamook, OR 97141
503-815-7060 Office
503-457-8962 Cell

 

Columbia County Small Woodlands Spring Dinner Meeting

5/7/2022 at Beaver Homes Grange

31105 Beaver Homes Rd, Rainier, OR 97048

Doors open at 5 pm

5:30 to 6:30pm Dinner will be pork loin and include salads and desserts

7 pm Rick Zenn, OSWA Executive Director. Rick will introduce himself and discuss OSWA updates, upcoming legislation, the Governor’s race, and the Private Forest Accord

8 pm John Krause, Oregon Department of Forestry Columbia City. John will discuss Forest Practices and the Private Forest Accord

9 pm Dinner meeting concludes

You must RSVP to Mark Dreyer 503-369-9592

We hope to see you there!

 

Join us for an exclusive tour of Bell Lumber & Pole in Longview on April 27 from 9am to noon. This tour is limited to 20 participants maximum. You must reserve a space ahead of time. You also are required to wear a hard hat and safety vest, which you must supply yourself.

To secure a spot RSVP to Mark at 503-369-9592. Participant spots will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

Bell Lumber & Pole is located at 1125 Weber Ave., Longview, WA 98632

For questions please call Mark, do not call Bell.

You can learn more about Bell Lumber & Pole at https://blpole.com

 2022 CCSWA Tree Sale!

Setting up for the 2022 CCSWA Tree Sale

A beautiful day for the sale!

Tallying the orders and collecting the payments

Many thanks to all of the volunteers that made our annual tree sale a success this year. Also thanks to all of our customers. We sold out of everything by 10:00am and were able to have the tables and equipment packed away and the grounds cleaned up before the rain started. It was a lovely day. I have received lots of great feedback for improvements for next year. Please feel free to send along your thoughts. 

Lynn Baker, 503-708-9066, cedarowfarm@gmail.com