The ODF West Oregon District, providing fire protection in rural Polk, Lincoln and Benton Counties begins Regulated Use Closure on Wednesday, August 8, 2012.

Under this Regulated Closure, except as to the owner’s legal right of entry upon their land, entry to all forestland is unlawful unless entrants comply with the following restrictions:

1. Smoking is prohibited while traveling, except in vehicles on improved roads.

2. Open fires are prohibited, including campfires, charcoal fires, cooking fires and warming fires, except at designated locations. Portable cooking stoves using liquefied or bottled fuels are allowed.

3. Chain saw use is prohibited.

4. Use of motorized vehicles, including motorcycles and all terrain vehicles, is prohibited, except on improved roads.

5. Possession of the following fire fighting equipment is required while traveling, except on state highways, county roads and driveways: one shovel and one gallon of water or one operational 2½ pound or larger fire extinguisher.

6. Use of fireworks is prohibited.

7. Cutting, grinding and welding of metal is prohibited.

The State Forester or an authorized representative may, in writing, approve a modification or waiver of these requirements.

Complete information about Regulated Use Closure restrictions is available on the ODF web site:
www.oregon.gov/odf/pages/fire/precautionlevel.aspx

Motorcycle riding spring season at Flat Mountain has ended. Our lands on Flat Mountain are the only Starker Forests lands where motorcycle riding is permitted in cooperation with the Flat Mountain Riders Club. Fire season and high fire danger makes it unsafe to ride motorcycles in the Flat Mountain vicinity (and on all of our forestlands) during the summer.

In addition, we will not be issuing any firewood cutting permits until fire season is over and the fall rains begin.

Test of Endurance
The TOE Saturday, June 16th. If you are participating, welcome to our forests! The following is a little more information about this endurance mountain bike race from their website:
Welcome to the 2012 Test OF Endurance 50 (TOE 50). The race/ride was created 7 years ago out of my desire to open a doorway to the mtb endurance world to provide an opportunity and a challenge for the seasoned rider to finish with the support for 50 miles. This Private land owned by Starker Forests will test your stamina as you climb 8500 ft of logging roads and descend twisty and fast singletrack on 2- 25 mile laps to complete your TOE.
The last 2 years have been dry, but who knows this year so be prepared!
Starts in Blodgett, finishes in Blodgett!

Every spring our education and outreach forester, Dick Powell, gears up for Spring School Tours. Teachers from Philomath, Corvallis, Albany and other surrounding towns are eager for their students to get outside and learn about forests and plants. Our company is in business to grow trees for eventual harvest. We are eager to teach children and adults about what we do. Growing trees is really no different than growing a garden in your backyard except that our timeline is fifty to seventy years instead of just one season. Nonetheless, we have to find good stock (seedlings) to plant, control the weeds early on, and monitor our big garden (aka 80,000 acres of forestland) to make sure that the trees are growing well.

Most of the 300 children that will visit Starker Forests this spring will visit our Forestry Trail near Blodgett. Our trail is designed to teach visitors about growing trees from seedling to harvest. We ask the kids many questions about what they think the trees need to grow well. Water, sunlight, nutrients and oxygen….the same things every plant needs to grow. When trees fight for these things they need to live we call it competition. Children think it is pretty fun to be human trees when we tell them that we need to “thin” them out and send them to the mill to become paper towels or lumber. For some reason, elementary school boys get quite a kick out of being sent to the mill to become toilet paper!

It is easy to teach kids about our forests when you can make comparisons to things in their lives. A favorite comparison is to ask kids if they have a garden at home and ask them to think about what makes a garden grow well. Our Western Oregon forests receive over 60 inches of rain per year. We thin our forests, just like gardeners thin their carrots. We control weeds, just like the home gardener. When it comes time to harvest, we ask children to list all the things they can think of in their own houses that are made from trees. Once they get the idea, they quickly rattle off items from cereal boxes to closet doors that are made from trees.

Spring is a great time to visit our trail as the trees are beginning their yearly growth. Watching the buds break open and begin to grow soft, light green needles is very exciting. Trees, like people, grow at different rates and times. Two trees growing next to one another rarely look alike and may not be growing at the same rate.

As we approach the end of the one-quarter mile trail, we arrive at the Memorial Rock. The large stone has a plaque for each member of the Starker Family who has died. Children, being children, often quickly ask if anyone is buried there. No, we tell them, this stone represents the location where TJ Starker bought his first forestland in 1936. It is a special place for the Starker family. Also, this location is where we can explain to the children that the forest is a special place for work and recreation for many, many people. The forest will and should be taken care of so that many generations of growers and users can enjoy the outdoors.

To find out more about our tours, contact our office at 541-929-2477 or contact us through our website or Facebook.

2012 marks the 24th year for the Mudslinger mountain bike race. The race is located 17 miles west of Corvallis in the thriving metropolis of Blodgett (not really, but they do have a post office!) The course has a great mix of logging road climbs and fast descents. According to the Mudslinger website, the Cat 3 course is excellent for the first time racer at 12 miles in distance and 1500 feet of climbing. The cost is $30, with a start time at the Blodgett School of 10:30 AM. There are many categories that you can register for, including a 12 mile or 22 mile course. You can register online until Friday, March 30th at 5:00 PM ET. The Mudslinger website includes course maps and technical guide. You do not need a permit to ride on Starker Forests Tum Tum Tree Farm on race day and the day before race day.

While you are racing, take a split second to check out our beautiful forestlands! You are riding through a working forest. That is one that has active forest management. Our business is growing trees for eventual harvest. Trees grow faster in the Oregon Coast Range than many other places on earth, up to four feet per year! Have a great race!

Wet but fun!

Tree planting season at Starker Forests can last for several months. Annually, Starker Forests plants over one thousand acres. Each acre, of 43,560 square feet, is planted with 400 to 450 trees. This accounts for an approximate spacing of 10 feet by 10 feet. The planting density varies by site characteristics, as well as seedling availability. In December, when the days are the shortest of the year, tree planting season begins. It can last until the end of March, or even April if the winter has been particularly cold or snowy. Some years we also have a fall planting season in addition to the normal winter planting season. This will occur in late September or early October and planting is dependent on seedling condition and weather and soil temperatures. The advantage of a fall plant is that there is usually warm enough soil temperatures to allow the seedlings to have some impressive root growth before going dormant for the winter.

Approximately 80% of the trees we plant are Douglas fir. Other species include Western Red Cedar, Grand fir, Western Hemlock, Incense Cedar, Port Orford Cedar, Alaska Yellow Cedar, Ponderosa Pine, Oregon Ash. Professional contracted crews plant each tree by hand using highly experienced tree planters. In fact, one crew that we work with has had the same foreman for over 15 years. Our well established relationships with our planting crews helps ensure quality tree planting so that the seedlings have a high rate of survival. The seedlings are planted using a planting tool called a Hoe-dad. It is a special shovel-like tool used especially for planting trees.

If you do the math, you will calculate that Starker Forests plants over 400,000 trees per year. Where do we get all of these seedlings? We provide seed that is site specific to our forests, to nurseries in British Columbia, Canada, where they grow the seedlings and ship them back to us to be planted on our forestlands in Western Oregon.

Tree planting season is long and tiring for the managers and planters. They work during the time of year when we have short days, rain, snow and sometimes frozen soils. Tree planters plant many hundreds of trees per day. We know that with successful tree planting seasons we can ensure the future of our forests. We know that our future forests will continue to provide clean water, wildlife habitat and wood fiber.

Project Learning Tree has released a new high school curriculum, “Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Forests”.

This curriculum integrates teaching about forests into a multitude of subject areas using hands-on classroom studies and outdoor field investigations.

Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is a program of the American Forest Foundation that provides educators with peer-reviewed, award-winning environmental education curriculum resources that can be integrated into lesson plans for all grades and subject areas.

“PLT helps teachers incorporate a hands-on approach to learning core subject matter and basic skills by exploring complex, real-world environmental issues,” says Kathy McGlauflin, Director of Project Learning Tree. “Focus on Forests investigates the profound changes occurring in North American forests today, and students apply what they learn to their own community investigations.”

Focus on Forests is a 176-page guide that helps teachers provide students with meaningful experiences related to classroom content.

For more information go to the Project Learning Tree Website.

We would like to know what you think about recreation opportunities on Starker Forests lands.

Help us by filling out the survey here

Starker Forests, Inc., a family-owned forestry company based in Corvallis, is pleased to celebrate our 75th Anniversary during 2011. Our founder, T.J. Starker, bought his first forestland parcel in 1936.

As part of our recognition of this milestone anniversary, we will celebrate with a public open house at our office at 7240 SW Philomath Blvd., on Saturday, July 23, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. In addition to visiting our office, a 2 1/2 hour tour to the Starker Forestry Trail near Blodgett will be offered. The trail is the site of T.J. Starker’s first forestland purchase.

Since that first purchase, Starker Forests, Inc.‘s ownership has grown to about 80,000 acres of productive forestland in five western Oregon counties; Benton, Lincoln, Polk, Lane, and Linn. Our business is sustainabe management of our forestland to produce commercial timber for use as raw material in the wood products industry. Starker Forests, Inc. employs 20 people and provides indirect employment for an additional 250 to 300 individuals in other busineesses, many of which are local and family-owned.

In addition to producing logs for lumber, plywood, and paper manufacturing, our forestland provides excellent, diverse habitats for all kinds of wildlife and an assortment of recreational opportunities. Our open house will provide a chance to learn how we manage our forests and how to use our forests for recreational activities. We grow forests – not just trees.