WOOD LOT

I took advantage of a break in the weather to do some long delayed management of our woodlot. When we first purchased our farm, a couple of acres had just been logged of some very valuable cedar and other old-growth. In fact - the burn piles of the remaining logging slash were still smoldering as we signed the final papers. Once we became the stewards of this land I noted some great wetland habitat in this recently logged area and wished the logging plan would have provided a bit more protection for this resource. I spent some time to inventory the logged area and clean up some old fenceline and refuse. It didn't take much to realize that this north facing shaded frost pocket wouldn't be too valuable for sheep forage and I decided to restock it with Douglas fir, cedar, and hemlock. Plantingh was done with the help of a Girl Scout troop. I constructed a small footbridge for ease of access and our grandson named the creek running through it Butterfly Creek. Its technically an un-named tributary of Badger Creek (Badger Creek -> Sandy River -> Columbia River) but "Butterfly Creek" works for me. If the truth be known, I bet that that this little drainage has a number of names thanks to generations of grandchildren - but it will always be "Butterfly Creek" to me.

My specific objective the other day was to cut back the Scotch broom, which is an invasive noxious weed that if left to its own would take over this whole region. My hope is that if I can keep on top of this problem, the trees will grow and the canopy will shade out the sun that the Scotch broom requires. So far - I think its working but of course I'm in it for the long haul and patience is a virtue. One thing I noted was that where the native ground cover Oregon grape was well established, Scotch broom was absent. That may be good news and a possible management tool. But of course, it may be just the opposite - Scotch broom is crowding out the Oregon grape. I'll have to research this further. - Jeff Jaqua