$1.4 million dollar project to remove dead and dying Douglas fir trees.
ASHLAND, Ore. – Dead and dying Douglas fir trees are being removed from the Ashland watershed with a helicopter. Earlier this year, Ashland City Council approved a $1.4 million project aimed at reducing wildfire fuels in city-owned forestland.
“We’ve had a massive die-off happen in the last year or so,” said the city’s forestry officer Chris Chambers. “In some areas, more than half of the trees have died.”
The City of Ashland's 2024 Forestland Climate Adaptation Project will impact hiking trails in April. Helicopter logging is scheduled for April 15.
The city’s pricey contract is with Timberline Helicopters, Inc. which is familiar with southern Oregon. The company spent the winter removing dead trees deep in the Applegate Valley. Then, Timberline was far enough away from neighborhoods that noise wasn’t an issue.
"I had my window open just now and was watching it, wondering, 'What is going on?' I didn't know about it,” said Kristin Dahl, who lives in the area of the project. “It just seems really expensive to be doing it with a helicopter."
In a March 19 work session, Ashland City Councilors approved a helicopter logging project to remove dead and dying trees in city-owned forest.
This project plans to reclaim about half of the cost by selling lumber that’s being removed from the watershed. The helicopter lifts between two and four thousand pounds of lumber on each trip to a landing area. At the landing area, crews quickly unchain the tree trunks before cutting them to an appropriate size for the lumber yard.
Despite the noise that some residents are annoyed by, neighbors in the project's realm are part of the reason why a helicopter is removing trees.
"They joined together to write letters to the city council to warn that something bad was happening up in Siskiyou Mountain Park," Chambers said. "There were a lot of trees dying a year ago, so we surveyed the area and found there was a significant die-off happening."
The weeks-long project begins around 7 a.m. each day and is expected to last until 6 p.m.
To start, logging is being done in the foothills above Southern Oregon University. Once that area of the forest is cleared, work will start in the watershed above Lithia Park. The park will stay open throughout the work, although some of the hiking trails nearby will remain closed until the area is deemed safe.
Click here to see trail closures and for more information on the project.
