Increasing biodiversity with the heave and push of hard work

Story and photos by Rhys Marshall

CHAINSAW MITIGATION

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 "We do this with the primary objective of promoting wildlife habitat diversity."

It is a warm day in the Saddlebag region of the Chugach National Forest located just outside of Cordova, Alaska. United States Forestry Service workers Marcelo Weese and Nathan Wesely step out of their truck and onto the dead-end dirt road. The job for the day is to conduct an acre of tree thinning at a nearby location along the road system that reaches into the Cordova Ranger District of the Chugach National Forest.

 

Wesley is heading the trip, as one of the lead foresters for the Forestry Service located in Cordova. Weese - an anthropologist from Colorado - is assisting in the tree thinning process.

 

After preparing gear and filling the chainsaws with fuel, the two begin their trek along the dirt road, kicking up dust with their boots as they go. Abruptly, Wesley turns off the road into an undesignated area of the forest, with Marcelo following close behind. There is no trail for them to follow, so the journey is reliant on Nathan’s understanding of the area.

 

They heave and push and trudge their way through the dense vegetation, with the humidity only seeming to get worse, and the mosquitos more merciless. Finally, the two come upon a large, fallen log that Nathan designates as the first zone to place gear, as it was right on the edge of the area they were about to thin. With a brief tutorial and safety briefing for Marcelo, the work begins.

 

The spruce trees are the main focus for thinning in the area, as they are densely populating the plot of land. In turn, this creates a lack of bio-diversity that stems from a history of large-scale damage to these areas from occurrences like forest fires. Such large-scale disturbances have led to a change in composition of Alaska’s woodland areas, and cause it to lack important variability between species of trees and other native flora.

 

 Nathan explains the role that the Forestry Service plays in aiding the diversity of the Chugach by stating, “We go into these forest stands and re-introduce structural complexity and initiate natural development processes through variable-density thinning. We do this with the primary objective of promoting wildlife habitat diversity.” The presence of small-scale disturbances, such as windthrow—trees being blown over by wind— are the key to understanding the purpose of this thinning. These smaller disturbances allow the forest to adapt over time and increase in bio-diversity by allowing different species of trees and vegetation a chance to grow, without decimating an area large enough to allow one species to grow dominant.

 

The Forestry Service aims to mimic this kind of natural disturbance through the process of thinning to promote variability, while simultaneously promoting the highest level of growth that will help to decrease levels of atmospheric carbon.

 

Using this procedure, Nathan thins a wide area of the Chugach National Forest, spending four or more weeks on the road system and eight weeks in interior areas that are only accessible by plane or boat. He describes the reason for thinning over such a wide range by explaining, “All the areas we are thinning were harvested with the clearcut method in the past. We identify them through internal records, then I assess stand conditions through forest inventory plots and visual inspection.” This means that the previous anthropocentric methods of thinning were actually causing large-scale disturbance to the area, and decreasing the overarching biological complexity of the forest.

 

Nathan’s job, with assistance from Marcelo and other workers, is—essentially—working to undo the damage done by previous thinning methods, and to lay the groundwork for the success of the Chugach in the future.

 

Wesley, Nathan. (2019, July, 25). Personal Interview.

 

It is a warm day in the Saddlebag region of the Chugach National Forest located just outside of Cordova, Alaska. United States Forestry Service workers Marcelo Weese and Nathan Wesely step out of their truck and onto the dead-end dirt road. The job for the day is to conduct an acre of tree thinning at a nearby location along the road system that reaches into the Cordova Ranger District of the Chugach National Forest.

 

Wesley is heading the trip, as one of the lead foresters for the Forestry Service located in Cordova. Weese - an anthropologist from Colorado - is assisting in the tree thinning process.

 

After preparing gear and filling the chainsaws with fuel, the two begin their trek along the dirt road, kicking up dust with their boots as they go. Abruptly, Wesley turns off the road into an undesignated area of the forest, with Marcelo following close behind. There is no trail for them to follow, so the journey is reliant on Nathan’s understanding of the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They heave and push and trudge their way through the dense vegetation, with the humidity only seeming to get worse, and the mosquitos more merciless. Finally, the two come upon a large, fallen log that Nathan designates as the first zone to place gear, as it was right on the edge of the area they were about to thin. With a brief tutorial and safety briefing for Marcelo, the work begins.

 

The spruce trees are the main focus for thinning in the area, as they are densely populating the plot of land. In turn, this creates a lack of bio-diversity that stems from a history of large-scale damage to these areas from occurrences like forest fires. Such large-scale disturbances have led to a change in composition of Alaska’s woodland areas, and cause it to lack important variability between species of trees and other native flora.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Nathan explains the role that the Forestry Service plays in aiding the diversity of the Chugach by stating, “We go into these forest stands and re-introduce structural complexity and initiate natural development processes through variable-density thinning. We do this with the primary objective of promoting wildlife habitat diversity.” The presence of small-scale disturbances, such as windthrow—trees being blown over by wind— are the key to understanding the purpose of this thinning. These smaller disturbances allow the forest to adapt over time and increase in bio-diversity by allowing different species of trees and vegetation a chance to grow, without decimating an area large enough to allow one species to grow dominant.

 

The Forestry Service aims to mimic this kind of natural disturbance through the process of thinning to promote variability, while simultaneously promoting the highest level of growth that will help to decrease levels of atmospheric carbon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using this procedure, Nathan thins a wide area of the Chugach National Forest, spending four or more weeks on the road system and eight weeks in interior areas that are only accessible by plane or boat. He describes the reason for thinning over such a wide range by explaining, “All the areas we are thinning were harvested with the clearcut method in the past. We identify them through internal records, then I assess stand conditions through forest inventory plots and visual inspection.” This means that the previous anthropocentric methods of thinning were actually causing large-scale disturbance to the area, and decreasing the overarching biological complexity of the forest.

 

Nathan’s job, with assistance from Marcelo and other workers, is—essentially—working to undo the damage done by previous thinning methods, and to lay the groundwork for the success of the Chugach in the future.

 

Wesley, Nathan. (2019, July, 25). Personal Interview.