Thursday Morning:
We started off the tour with a visit to the Guy F. Bennett Sawmill to see the technology and processes involved in producing lumber. After that, we headed north to Corral Creek, Idaho where we learned about forest management by the Idaho Department of Lands. Just before lunch we got a chance to see Roy Lawson and his logging company demonstrate Cut-to-Length harvesting machinery in action at a harvesting site on Bear Creek between Deary and Moscow.
Mill tour
Our first stop of the tour was at Guy Bennett Lumber Company's Clarkston sawmill. Here teachers were able to tour both the sawmill and planar mill to see how modern technology is being used to maximize utilization of timber resources.
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On the bus ride from Clarkston to Deary, Harold Osborne gave teachers a primer on Idaho covering agriculture, climate, vegetation, geology, history, forests, and forest dynamics. For a recap of the major topics you can reference this page including notes from Harold's class lecture.
Forest tour
The next tour stop
was near Deary, Idaho in Corral Creek for a briefing by the Idaho Department of
Lands (IDL). Here Robert Barkley, Forest Practices Advisor talked to teachers
about forest management objectives for the lands owned by
IDL.
IDL manages 2.3 million acres of land grants. The primary purpose of the Idaho Department of Lands is to provide support to public schools and other educational institutions. It consists of 239 full time employees, dedicated natural resource professionals and over 200 seasonal employees.
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Cut-to-Length Harvesting Demonstration
At Bear Creek, between Deary and Moscow, Idaho, Roy Lawson and his logging company, Lawson Logging demonstrated their
Cut-To-Length Harvesting System consisting of a harvester and a forwarder.
Teachers got a chance to see how the two components of a CTL harvesting system work together to efficiently and safely carry out management prescriptions.
For this stand, since it was Bennett property, Tom B., a forester from Bennett Lumber, works closely with Roy's crew. The prescription for the Bear Creek stand was for a group selection overstory removal. Many of the large ponderosa pine trees had gone to pulp and the owners, Bennett Lumber wanted to capture value by harvesting as much fiber as possible while leaving some good seed trees (those with at least 40% crowns) for eventual regeneration. The CTL system is ideal for this sort of harvest because it allows good mobility through the stand with little damage to the understory. After the harvesting, Bennett will go in and plant some preferred species seedlings such as douglas-fir, white pine, and western larch for good genetic diversity on the site.
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