Big Stew Field Tour
In May 2022 the Olympic Collaborative hosted a field tour for the Lake Cushman Firewise Council to share insight into our Big Stew sale.
The Big Stew unit is 329 acres of 80-year-old stands. 207 will be thinned as a stewardship sale after stream, wetland, unique species and special habitats protections are applied. The site was sold to Sierra Pacific Industries in 2018.
The Collaborative continues to support the Olympic National Forest in outreach to stakeholders, and has worked in partnership with the Skokomish Watershed Action Team to identify a priority stewardship project, which is the Vance Creek culvert replacement.
Along with Lake Cushman community members, the Firewise Council shared concerns and asked insightful questions about the Big Stewardship sale. We have captured a few of them in this story, which the Collaborative and the Olympic National Forest helped answer.
The conversation continued on a walk through the forest as everyone shared observations, experiences, and an appreciation of the opportunity to work together.
1) Q: What is Restoration Thinning and how does it promote old-growth forests?
A: Restoration thinning, also known as prescription thinning, is a thoroughly researched-and-tested type of forest thinning prescribed by trained ecological foresters. In the case of our Big Stewardship sale, Resilient Forestry has worked alongside Olympic National Forest specialists to write a set of detailed prescriptions designed promote old-growth forest characteristics within Late-Successional Reserves, as defined by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan.
2) Q: When will the harvest operations begin and how might they impact my community's recreational activities?
A: Contractors will begin harvest activities in mid-September. The project is anticipated to last about 50 working days, which means about three months. Operations will start after the peak of camping season. The Olympic National Forest intentionally selected this late-season timeline to ensure that the thinning process will have minimal impacts on recreational activities.
3) Q: Is fire risk heightened by logging in hotter months?
A: The Olympic National Forest requires contractors to follow specific mitigation actions to ensure fire safety standards are met. These include a designated fire security person, fire extinguishers on all equipment, spark arresters on vehicles and equipment, and fire tools and a mobile water tank on-site. All operations will follow forest and/or state fire precaution levels and mitigations.
The Vance Creek Culvert Replacement will replace an existing 36"-diameter culvert with a much larger 72"-diameter culvert where Forest Road 2350 crosses a non-fish-bearing tributary of Vance Creek. The culvert replacement will help protect water quality in Vance Creek, which is a fish-bearing creek.
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