OUR
COMMENTS - JUNE, 1999
As we begin our second summer living near the First Mountain Forest, activity on the mountain has finally moved into high gear. Getting settled into a new home and life in Maine required far more time than I anticipated and left little for implementing our plans for the mountain last year. We updated our forest management plan through the assistance of a forester this winter, and have now received approval for federal cost sharing to clear the trails of ice storm damage and to create new trails. We are also applying for funds to clear the old skid roads and to begin erosion control on the steeper sections.
Our forester and an agent from the Natural Resources Conservation Service walked the property with me at the end of April to evaluate the skid roads and erosion problems. They confirmed my earlier thoughts that the 1988 logging of the interior of the property had been conducted without adhering to best management practices. There had evidently been no orderly lay-out of a haul and skid road system. It also appears that skidders drove randomly through the interior, climbing straight up steep slopes and even up the center of the main stream channel. Charlie, our forester, thought it was one of the worst logging jobs he has seen, but typical of the kind of logging conducted where the landowner is an absentee owner trying to take some cash out of the land without regard for its future.
Fortunately, the land is healing on its own (with a little help from us) and will provide prime wildlife habitat, though any future timber harvest has been severely impacted by the previous poor harvesting practices. There is such a great diversity of forest types, and so many inaccessible areas on our parcel, that the impact of the poor harvesting is not that great on the larger forest. Also, the 18 acres on the summit resemble an old growth stand and no logging has been done there in many, many years.
During the walk with the NRCS agent, we followed the main stream up to its source at a spring near the base of the larger cliffs. I have seen that stream nearly dry only once during the past five years and the spring source explains why it continues to flow even during very dry spells. We also encountered two other streams nearer the western boundary, but believe that at least one of those streams was created by the logging skidders. I will have to install water-bars to return the stream to its natural flow.
Ginger and I spent a day clearing some 500 feet of the old skid roads over the Memorial Day weekend. The bugs were not yet out, but we encountered very hot conditions for that time of year. We had been up a few weeks earlier and followed the new trail we had marked in the snow in March. The going was much rougher in the spring, for the earlier snow had covered many of the trees downed by the 1998 ice storm. Our route still appeared to be very practical and will require only a few modifications. The stumps of the small trees that we had cut to mark the trail in the snow were then protruding some 16 to 20 inches above the bare ground, and will require re-cutting, along with the removal of new brush in the pathway. We are beginning to make progress on our trail system and will soon have some help, thanks to federal cost sharing, in removing the ice damaged trees and limbs on the old AMC trail below Joe's Ledges.
Plans
for our mountain cottage are about to come together, and with luck we will
begin breaking ground before the end of June. We scaled back our original
plans from a custom design by Coos County's only architect. We are now
considering plans from a plan book that we had picked out in 1996, which
is shown on the left. Whichever design we choose, we plan to use a local
builder to construct the buttoned up shell and I will do the finish work.
We have some very busy months ahead of us and I hope to update
this column as work progresses.
Larry
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