Cargo Bike Urban Forestry!!!!!!!

[Timberdoodle]

Hey everybody!

I just got approved for a fuels project by the county. this is going to be an as-it-happens thread. my goal is to do ALL of the "Timber Truck" work using my Benno Boost and the Burley Bark Wagon. it's going to be a good foot-in-the-door job for the area, since the county has a bunch of "orphan" pine stands that are overmature and posing a significant fire risk as they age and start suffering drought stress, as well as insect and disease outbreaks. We're going to do this project as the initial step in a 30-ish year plan to convert this stand over to a mixed pine-oak from a dense plantation monoculture. The hope that me and the city and county foresters have is that we can start making the wildland-urban interface in the county more fire wise and improve our defenses against what is likely going to be worsening fire conditions due to climate change. mixed southern pine-hardwood forests in our region are capable of surviving low intensity fire, and if we do simple stuff to mitigate fuels ahead of time, we can keep any potential fires healthy, low-intensity, and most importantly, safer for fire crews and the community.

Stay Tuned!!

Oh. Also. here's some snapshots of the draft silvicultural prescription to give a bit of detail:

 

[Timberdoodle]

Day 1: Plot Cruising and silvicultural prescription drafting

So this morning I woke up at 0345 to do some HAM radio stuff, then slapped all of my forestry gear into the panniers and took off for the site about 2.5 miles away.
because of the small size and to capture high variability while also maintaining some statistical confidence, I chose to do 8 plots of variable basal area radius (it's a use of the trigonometric function known as s=r(theta) to include trees in the plot based on their size and distance from the center of the plot) with 10 factor. so say for example, if I have ten trees fall "in" on my plot, then the basal area (stand density) is 100 square feet of tree per acre. here's a map.



I parked by plot 1, and got to work.


unpacked my gear from the panniers (cruiser vest which holds my light gear, flagging and pin flags and my LCE, which holds my heavier gear like laser and water bottles)


the plot cruising was fantastic. took me about 2 hours to do all 8 plots.

got back home and spent the rest of the morning with Elias typing up the final Prescription and logging plan. 5 miles, which means 1 liter of gas didn't get burned.

Fantastic day. thoroughly enjoyed it. I sent off the final draft of the Rx to Athens-Clarke County's community forester for review and approval.

Once that gets a signature, I'll flag in the skid trails, then mark the trees to prescription.

 

[BirdmanStevens]

Very cool! Any possibility of doing prescribed burns in this area?

 

[Timberdoodle]

Nope!

can't do it. it's in the middle of a park, and there are houses like 100 yards away. we're going with 100% mechanical and silvicultural.

the idea being that we remove ladder fuels and reduce the BA enough to allow shade intolerant and mid-tolerant hardwoods to come in. over several years the 1 hour fuel profile will shift as the current carpet of needles and fines gets replaced. I wish we could burn it following the logging op, but that's the ACC's call.

I'll certainly pester them about it though. we'd need significant buy-in from the neighborhood next door so I bet we'd have to bring it to the city council

 

[BirdmanStevens]

Nope!

can't do it. it's in the middle of a park, and there are houses like 100 yards away. we're going with 100% mechanical and silvicultural.

the idea being that we remove ladder fuels and reduce the BA enough to allow shade intolerant and mid-tolerant hardwoods to come in. over several years the 1 hour fuel profile will shift as the current carpet of needles and fines gets replaced. I wish we could burn it following the logging op, but that's the ACC's call.

I'll certainly pester them about it though. we'd need significant buy-in from the neighborhood next door so I bet we'd have to bring it to the city council

That's understandable - definitely not ideal with a neighborhood next to it. Just getting more sunlight on the ground helps a lot with biodiversity so that's good!

 

[Timberdoodle]

yeah, one of the potential benefits is creating a microclimate close to the ground which maintains higher moisture levels, thereby reducing the threat of ignition.

 

[Timberdoodle]

ok so I didn't get a chance to post up my work at the end of last week. things got pretty busy at home, then super busy at work, and now.... lol the Forest decided I needed two more dogs.


So I cloned some japanese red maple as a test to see if I could sell them at the farmer's market (and therefore make an eCarla purchase a tax write-off, lololol)


Then Elias and I met with the ACC community forester on the site and I walked him through the Log plan, and what I intended to mark, etc. Another five miles down and a Liter of gasoline unburned!



Then I went down to South GA this week and did some BRUTAL cruising in the 90 degree heat. snake armor does not breathe, so it's like having your legs in a rubber suit--REALLY LOCKS IN THE FLAVOR. but the sunrises were nice!


Wednesday night, I came back to my campsite to find these two girls dumped, so.... now I have three dogs. I had to do an emergency burn back to Athens to get these gals to the Vet today because Joy (left) has a locked jaw, which makes it hard for her to eat, pant, drink, etc. she is currently in the clinic getting poked and prodded under general anesthesia. I may have to set up a gofundme for Joy, because Courage's vet bill today hit $400 and I have no idea what it'll cost to get Joy shipshape. The Vet is giving me a ton of discounts, and good news is that I have some promising leads on fosters.

 

[BirdmanStevens]

Aww, those poor dogs. Good on you for helping them!

 

[Timberdoodle]

lol there was no alternative. Look at these two. You know you would have no choice.

Joy's vet bill clocked in at over 500, and her jaw is fractured at the joint, causing the lock jaw. that surgery will cost $5K.

reaching out to find a foster/forever home right now, and trying to get help re: how to do fundraising for the surgery.

 

[BirdmanStevens]

The poor thing...but yeah, they are super cute! Are there any animal rescues around you that could help with funding/fundraising?

 

[Timberdoodle]

that's what I'm working on right now. I messaged the 15outof10 foundation, as well as the local Humane Society. I've had several friends say they'd contribute for the surgery costs, but it'll be a heavy lift still.

my dog has been giving me so much side-eye for this.

 

[Timberdoodle]

So.

big take-away from all this dog rescuing is that I need to get a bike setup capable of hauling more than just Elias.



but boy howdy, I'm stoked that I have the trailer because it's the only way to walk three dogs with VERY different personalities to the dog park



Joy and Courage are making a great case for me eventually getting an Urban Arrow.

 

[Timberdoodle]

PUPDATE

Taking the week off from being able to do timber stuff, but the Girls are having an absolute blast. Shots from the dog park last night and Brought them on errands today

 

[BirdmanStevens]

Ugh, that is just too sweet. They are lucky dogs!

 

[Timberdoodle]

PUPDATE

Courage was adopted today, and Joy is now with a foster family in the local rescue organization.

I am so thoroughly pleased to have had the opportunity to help them both.

hoping to have good weather tomorrow so that I can work on the bark park timber project again.

 

[BirdmanStevens]

Yay! Great job!

 

[Timberdoodle]

DAY 3 of the project.

Today I went out and marked the 485-ish trees that needed to be removed with BarkMark blaze orange paint using a Hudson backpack sprayer (yeah, I used to do beastmode stuff where I'd load up with 4 gallons of paint and work for 10 hours straight marking thousands of trees). I loaded all my gear in the trailer. fit just fine. I bet I could bring all the gear I need to mark a full 40-80 acre block with my ebike and trailer.


Anywho. so I started by flagging in the skid trails. these are the paths where we'll bring in a tractor to drag the trees out of the woods. laying these skid trails out prior to marking allows me to take the minimum number of trees necessary to accomplish the silvicultural prescription, while maximizing operability of the stand.

wait.

AGAIN!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!


Yes Again. luckily he had a microchip. His name is Bleu, and my friend Jennifer came by, got his chip scanned, and brought him to a *very very grateful* lady who was scared sick about her precious child. no kidding, Bleu's claws were manicured. this dog lives like a pampered child.



Anyway, so I found some mushrooms.


and got the stand marked out pretty darn quick.

Total project mileage is 15, so I've saved almost a gallon of gas



Monday, I'm gonna run out there with the ACC Community Forester and we're going to see if we need to mark any more trees for canopy gaps.

 

[Timberdoodle]

Got the final few trees marked when I did the walk-through today with the ACC Community Forester. five more miles down.


Cool thing though, I ran into a lady who came over and asked about my Dog trailer. turns out she is the lady with like 4 kids that has been riding around on a front-loader ebike with a kiddo trailer behind it.

I haven't seen her in a while and it apparently was bc she has a newb. she told me that her and her partner loaded up the bakfiets on the roof of their subaru when they moved from Portland.

Also said that the bike was built in Portland? Anybody tracking a front loader company in Portlandia?