In late December, an Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) incident management team concluded work assessing timber blow-down as a result of fierce storms that hammered northern Oregon in early December. The team’s primary task was to assist counties in assessing impacts to forest lands and resources damaged by the recent storm event.
ODF officials provided a draft assessment report to county leaders on Dec. 21.
Forestry staff estimates that over 15,350 acres of timber (representing 360 million board feet) in Clatsop and Tillamook counties were damaged by wind storms.
The majority of timber blow-down occurred in Clatsop County, where private landowners experienced 10,400 acres of loss. State-owned lands in Clatsop County sustained 3,000 acres of downed trees, including the Clatsop State Forest (managed by ODF), while federal lands within Clatsop County reported 1,150 acres of storm-impacted areas.
Blow-down impacts in Tillamook County are reported to be much smaller. Current estimates indicate that 500 acres of state-owned land, including the Tillamook State Forest (managed by ODF), received damage while 300 acres of trees on private lands were blown down. Additionally, 20 acres of federal lands in Tillamook County reported damage.
The volume of downed timber in the county is estimated at 20 million board feet, with over half of that amount considered marketable.
Loss counts are considered preliminary and subject to revision as landowners continue to assess impacts of the storm. The estimated recoverable volume of wind-damaged timber from the December event represents about 50 percent of the average combined annual timber harvest for the two counties.
Of downed timber in Clatsop County, about 240 million board feet is considered marketable. Despite a single event generating a substantial portion of the average amount of timber harvested annually in the county, mill capacity in the region suggests that northern Oregon mills are capable of handling a surge in marketable, wind-damaged timber. However, landowners also have to contend with an estimated 100 million board feet of broken wood debris not suitable for milling, which is far above what the region typically encounters in a year.
The incident management team worked with many state and county agencies, federal agencies and industrial timber companies to assess damage and identify potential hazards to public safety. ODF continues to provide assistance from stewardship foresters in the region to help landowners determine what to do with downed timber. ODF’s urban forestry staff is also assisting cities along the north Coast with assessing damage.
Landowners are welcome to contact Oregon Department of Forestry offices for guidance about forest-related storm damage. The primary offices in the affected Northwest Oregon area to call are in
Tillamook, (503) 842-2545; in Astoria, (503) 325-5451; in Forest Grove, (503) 357-2191; and in Columbia City, (503) 397-2636.
The Oregon Department of Forestry provides services to ensure balanced management of Oregon’s forest resources to achieve economic, environmental and social benefits. Additional information about the Oregon Department of Forestry is available at www.oregon.gov/ODF.