'Timber' is heard
under Vail's gondola
 |
A skidder is used to drag logs
which are then put into piles.
Preston Utley/Vail Daily
|
|
Nicole Frey
November 19, 2005
VAIL - The massive machine wrapped its metal arms
around the trunk of the dead tree and in one swift move, cleanly
ripped it from the ground.
Turning into a clearing, it rotated the log and fed it through another
part of the multi-functional machine, stripping it of limbs and
leaves. The machine then turned again and neatly added the log to a
growing pile.
Tom Olden, owner of Pine Martin Logging, recently wielded this tract
feller processor during a logging operation on Vail Mountain that cut
about 600 trees around the top of Born Free Express Lift, also known
as Chair 8.
"We have a pristine ski area," said Jen Brown, spokeswoman for Vail
Mountain, "and we did it to protect our assets along the gondola. It
was related to the pine beetle and working on the fire protection
along that area."
As pine beetles turn Colorado forests into a rusty shade of red, Pine
Martin Logging was hired to remove the trees from about 10 acres of
U.S. Forest Service land over two weeks.
A logging machine which can cut up
to 1,000 trees daily, grips a recently cut tree, strips it of its
branches a places it into a pile.
Preston Utley/Vail Daily
Browse Vail Daily Photos
|
"It was more for infrastructure and fire
mitigation, not really for forest health," Olden said.
Economy and environment
The U.S. Forest Service backed the project saying the stretch along
the Vail Mountain's gondola has been severely attacked by beetles.
Removing the trees was partly to remove the unsightly red trees, but
also for the safety of skiers as trees become weak and fall more
easily when they die.
"It's an important part of managing the ski area, removing the dead
trees," said Cal Wettstein, the district forest ranger in Eagle
County.
Logs wait to be put on the back of a
truck and driven down the mountain.
Preston Utley/Vail Daily
Browse Vail Daily Photos
|
Although Brown said she wasn't sure if there would
be other logging projects in the future, Wettstein said there will be
many more in the next few years.
While Wettstein seemed eager to do more mitigation, Olden said the
Forest Service's environmental regulations are keeping loggers from
doing a job that needs to get done - cutting more trees to protect the
community.
"The Forest Service won't let us log where people can see us," Olden
said. "Personally, I'd like to log right by I-70 - show people what
can be done.
"We aren't a bunch of scumbags, we do a good job," Olden said. "We do
leave a footprint. But you can't look at it today. You've got to look
down the road."
Some environmental groups - such as the Unified Forest Defense
Campaign, the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, Defenders of
Wildlife and American Lands Alliance - maintain Mother Nature should
take its course even it means fire. Olden said fire shouldn't even be
an option in Vail,
"Burning is good, it just has to be in perspective," Olden said.
"Natural is fine, but if we were to let that happen, it would
devastate our economy."
'Worst kind of logging'
Steve Holmer, spokesman for the Unified Forest Defense Campaign, said
research has shown logging dead or dying trees damages streams and
wildlife habitat while wasting money. Logging may even increase fire
risk, he said.
While he admitted it may seem counterintuitive, when trees are logged,
the limbs are often left behind while only the logs are extracted. The
debris left behind becomes prime burning material.
Wettstein maintained the slash from this project will be "treated" in
some way, whether it's removing it or scattering around the forest to
lessen the fire hazard.
But Holmer also said cutting a chunk out of a
forest opens it up to more sun and wind, causing the remaining trees
to dry out and become more vulnerable to fire.
Wettstein said the Forest Service will let nature take its course on
hundreds of thousands of acres.
"There are lots of areas where we will not address these dead trees,
but we must remove the dead trees around the community areas,"
Wettstein said. "We don't get a lot of argument from the environmental
groups when we stay near to the community."
When the inevitable fire tears through the forest, Olden said, it will
be imperative to log the burnt trees to generate new life. Working in
the aftermath of 2002's Hayman Fire, Olden helped log seven-tenths of
1 percent of the trees that burned.
"Areas that were logged, one season later had re-growth," Olden said.
"It helped water quality and erosion."
But environmental watchdog groups are saying
logging after a fire is terribly detrimental.
"Logging after a fire is the worse kind of logging," Holmer said. "The
science has come out very clearly that logging after fire creates a
lot of damage. It hurts soil quality and diminishes the number of
trees that will re-grow."
Staff Writer Nicole Frey can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 14621, or
nfrey@vaildaily.com.
Vail, Colorado
|
