Sept. 15, 2022

Hello everyone!

After being out for two weeks with an illness, I’m happy to be back to work at Starker.

Last week was the final week at work this summer for John, Brandon and Robert but, I am sticking around for one more week before my senior year starts back up at OSU.

Last week, we started by doing some pre-thin cruising, where Robert and I went to the Upper Marys River tree farm to do inventory of a couple different stands.

Wednesday through Friday, we went to Duffy PFA, a stand within Beaver Creek tree farm, that will soon be harvested. Reece took us out there to show us how to make a boundary line in a unit as well as how to mark buffers. Buffers are so trees aren’t cut too close to a stream.

After doing the boundary line and after a couple of us interns endured some hornet stings, we split into groups of two and cruised the stand.

I really enjoyed working with the other three interns and I know they enjoyed their time at Starker this summer as well. I will miss working with them, but I am excited to see what my final week brings as the only intern left!

— Marshal Brattain

Aug. 24, 2022

Hello everyone!

Last week, we continued timber cruising. We started the week by doing a check cruise at the East Ray stand we visited the previous week. The results were much better than our previous stand, thankfully.

As we do more cruising, we’ve been paying closer attention to detail and each individual measurement.

Once we finished the check cruise, we went to a unit near the Wren Hill lumber mill called Lower Lalack Moser. The unit consisted of multiple different stands, so it took us a few days to complete.

Reece next took us to a stand off Norton Creek Road where we conducted a pre-thinking cruise. We used fixed radius plots, which means we counted any tree with an 8-inch DBH (diameter at breast height) or higher that was within 16.65 feet of the plot center. When the plots were completed, Reece and I conducted a check cruise, which went well.

After that, Reece and I went to a stand that was recently thinned, and we used a metal detector to find the metal stakes that were used to mark the previous plot centers. Once we reached the plot, we determined which trees in the plot were harvested so we could see how much volume was removed from the stand.

This week we will likely continue timber cruising so we are excited to keep improving!

 

— Marshall Brattain

The last week was one full of more learning than usual, which is always a great thing.

After learning how to cruise timber, the interns cruised a stand out near Blodgett without the help of Fred or Lys. After we finished the stand, Fred took us back out to the stand and showed us how to do a check cruise. A check cruise is a lot like how it sounds. We went back to the stand and went through our plots

again to see if any mistakes were made (there were). Fred taught us about the importance of taking our time at each plot and paying extra attention to detail with each and every measurement, as well as the process of entering the data we collected correctly.

Once our check cruise was complete, the rest of the interns and I went to the East Ray stand off Highway 20 where we did another check cruise, which went much better than the first.

This week, we will be working on a unit near the Wren Hill lumber mill. The unit includes five different stands, which will make things very interesting.

There is only about a month left until our senior years start at Oregon State, so we are making the most out of the time we have left here at Starker Forests.

 

— Marshall Brattain

Hello everyone!

Last week was an exciting one as we began timber cruising. Fred and Lys took us out to the Beaver Creek tree farm and took us through the process of what to do for each plot while cruising.

Once we arrive at the plot we want to measure, we count the amount of trees close enough to the plot center and big enough to be counted using an electronic relaskop. The goal is to have four to eight trees within the plot.

Once the number of trees in the plot is determined, we measure the diameter of each tree at 4.5 feet, which is called DBH (diameter at breast height). While one person measures the DBHs, the other person starts measuring the heights of the trees, usually using an electronic laser or a clinometer. When the height of a tree is determined, that person also determines what percentage of the tree is covered with live branches.

Lastly, each tree that was considered inside the plot is examined for defects in the bottom, middle, and top third of the tree. Defects are typically things like forked tops, stems that have crooks and bends in them, and scarring or fungus on the tree bark.

We did cruising for a few days, which us interns are slowly getting the hang of.

 

Friday and Monday, we went back to working on our stocking surveys for the summer.

Cruising is a huge part of what we do in the summers as interns so I am looking forward to seeing how that goes here in the near future.

 

–Marshall Brattain

This week, the interns were back at it doing stocking surveys.

Robert and I made a trip out to Alsea to the Missouri Bend tree farm as well as Bummer Creek tree farm. It has been very interesting to see how the trees are doing in different areas and whether or not they have been exposed to browsing from deer and elk.

This week, I encountered a lot of red cedars in some different units. In the 4-year stands they were doing very well and looked healthy, whereas in the 2-year stands I was in, there was more mortality.

I have been lucky to see the amazing views throughout the Starker land, like the one Robert and I saw on Friday at the NW Babe Reed unit in Beaver Creek.

We are about halfway through the summer now and I have really been enjoying the internship, I think the other three interns would say the same. We look forward to what comes next!

— Marshall Brattain

Hello everyone!

After a very eventful Sunday and Monday of last week with the broadcast burn, we spent the next few days doing mop-up in the Crawls Corner unit. I was in charge of Starker’s small fire truck for the week; we used it often for putting out leftover hot spots and even spot fires that were persisting in the unit.

 

Thursday morning, Robert and I went back to the unit with Stephen and Lys as well as a couple of guys who were controlling a drone that would fly over the unit with a thermal camera, detecting where hidden hot spots were under the visible soil.

That was an awesome experience. We saw how technology can be used to make the process of mop-up more efficient.

This week is back to stocking surveys.

 

— Marshall Brattain

July 12, 2022

The past week was a good one. After having Monday off for the 4th of July, we spent Tuesday through Friday doing more stocking surveys.

Things were different on Sunday though. The other interns and I were given the rare opportunity at this time of the year to take part in helping with the broadcast burn that was conducted. Broadcast burning is not done by most companies today, but it is very beneficial when done correctly as it creates great soil conditions for when a unit is planted (which will likely be this fall or winter) as well as gets rid of previous vegetation that was present, which reduces competition for the growth of future seedlings.

 

The burn went well and everything was kept under control, thanks to the great

teamwork between the full-time foresters here at Starker, the interns, and some folks at Miller Timber.

This week, we will likely be mopping up post-fire. Mop up mostly consists of using tools such as hazel hoes and pulaskis to mix up some of the soil that has hot spots underneath the surface and spraying those spots down to reduce any risk of a spot fire igniting.

It was a great learning experience being there for the burn and we look forward to a week of learning about the processes involved in conducting these broadcast burns.

July 6, 2022

Week three of the summer was a good one. Stephen and Lys conducted some stocking survey training for us interns, which is something we most likely will be doing for a good portion of the summer. With stocking surveys, we go out to a unit that has been planted in the last few years (we usually do 2-year and 4-year-old units), and we go from plot to plot recording certain tree measurements, including tree height, species and vigor. We also record whether the tree has been damaged, the most common damage type we see is browsing from deer and elk.

Our first week brought us some very steep units, but when the units are steep that usually means we get some pretty great views from the landings where we park the pickup. Some of the 4-year-old units are covered with vegetation, a few of them have had heavy thistle and poison oak we have had to endure.

With the mild weather we had last week, we were able to get some of the rougher units out of the way so we didn’t have to do them in the 90 degree heat. It has been fun doing these stocking surveys, they were one of my favorite things to do last summer because of how peaceful it can be working on your own, along with experiencing the terrific views.

 

— Marshall Brattain

Hello everyone!

My name is Marshall and I am a returning summer intern here at Starker Forests.

Last summer, was a great experience with an awesome crew. I learned more than I could have hoped and I know this summer will build my knowledge even more as I look forward to these next few months with another great summer crew.

A little bit about me, I am going into my fourth year as a student at Oregon State where I am studying forest management. I have lived in Philomath, Oregon, my whole life, so I am ecstatic to be able to work for a company I have known since I was a kid.

The first day of work consisted of Stephen taking us to the Dan Farmer tree farm. There, we went through some chainsaw training with some cut logs on the ground. We then broke out the pole chainsaws, which we used to clean up some broken branches on trees that were visible to hikers. This area is a popular spot for recreation.

Later in the week, Stephen and Reese showed us the ins and outs of the Starker fire trucks (one of which I got to drive!). We learned about where all the hoses, attachments, and other equipment are stored as well as how to use the water pumps.

On Friday of the first week, we had our CPR and first-aid training. The second week, the four of us interns were off to fire school, hosted by ODF at the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. Robert (another intern) and I had each taken the level 1 classes last summer, so he and I were in the level 2 classes this year. We learned about the responsibilities of a wildland firefighter, safety protocols while on the job, decision making, fire investigation, and we ended with a leadership class that involved some leadership games to conclude the courses on Friday afternoon. It was a great experience meeting some of the ODF personnel and learning about some of the things involved with wildland firefighting.

I am excited about week three, which will bring our introduction to stocking surveys for the summer!

Hey y’al!

Today marks my last day as an intern at Starker. What a summer it has been.

I have learned so much from every project we have worked on.

This has been my first opportunity to gain an understanding of forestry beyond the textbooks, and I have to say that I love it. The list of projects we have accomplished is long! Starting with fire school/training, the stocking surveys, and brushing roads, we moved to timber cruising, selecting and painting trees for commercial thinning, spraying clearcuts with herbicides, and laying out a road. It has been a challenge and a learning experience to work at Starker this year.

My favorite memory is fire school and training. Getting to learn about fighting fire, fire training, and fire equipment was fascinating. I enjoyed networking with ODF personnel and other trainees there and getting to hear their wildfire fire stories. I also enjoyed running pumps and driving the fire engines.

The biggest challenge I had this year was selecting/painting trees for commercial thinning. It has been our last couple projects to walk all over two units and select trees to thin out.

In these thinnings, you have a bunch of goals in mind; reducing trees per acre for remaining trees to have space to grow, removing small and defective trees, but also keeping hood spacing without making clumps of remaining trees. This is physically difficult because you have to walk every bit of a stand and look from the base to the top of the tree to locate defects. You also must constantly visualize the gaps that will be created from trees you choose to remove. The pressure is also on because our choices on which trees to remove will determine what the stands will look like for the remainder of their life and impact the future value of the stand when it comes time to harvest.

Another key thing I enjoyed this year was getting to see so much land and really deepening my connection to the woods. Those days alone or with a partner walking through the woods, hearing it come alive with critters are days I will never forget. And I found some nice hunting spots!

After wrapping up this summer at starker, I head back to OSU to finish my final year in the Forest Engineering program. I feel so much more competent for my future with all I have learned this summer, and I am excited to see where my professional life takes me!

I want to say thank you to everyone at Starker Forests. I had an amazing summer that flew by. I enjoyed working for all the foresters and learning from all they have taught me. I really felt welcomed by the whole company and got treated like one of their own.

Thank you all!

– Griffin Puls