Aug. 14, 2023

This week was, as usual, a great week to work in the woods. A change in plan diverted us interns from our stream survey project to conduct important work outside of Newport, Oregon.

A potential new property for Starker Forests calls for timber cruising. We needed to gather data to figure out the potential worth of the trees growing in each stand to decide whether the property would be worth it. Sabrina and I cruised timber in three differently aged stands from Monday to Wednesday on this potential property.

Lys and Raja (Lys’ dog) were the leaders for this project, so Lys, who was working with Caroline (as well as

Emily and Kathy on Tuesday), was cruising a different area of the property. When we were cruising, Sabrina and I found a very large Sitka Spruce tree near one of our plots. It was pretty cool to look at because it was easily the biggest tree in the stand. We decided that it was left because it had huge branches which would make for brittle non profitable wood.

Another interesting thing we found was evidence of bears peeling trees. In the beginning, I was not looking for it, but when Lys pointed it out, it was

obvious. We found lots of peeled trees. Even on the steep slopes, why a bear is hanging out on steep slopes is beyond me, the bark is peeled off the base of the tree while the bear eats the cambium layer. I learned that this is a learned behavior in bears. So, in order to prevent it, one needs to get rid of the bears that peel trees so they cannot pass on this behavior. A peeled tree is a damaged tree and will not grow as much timber, which is why it is a problem.

During this time, Tuesday was Emily’s last day on the Summer Starker Crew. She is a hard worker and I speak for all the interns when I say we are glad to have had the opportunity to meet and work with her.

On Thursday, we expected to return to stream surveys, however, a few stocking survey units needed a little more attention. Partnered with Joseph, I went to three units and racked up a total of 54 plots. We visited the units “Bailey Hatchery,” “Misery Whip Ice,” and “Rhody Blows.”

The most eventful unit was “Misery Whip Ice”, namely because it was super steep and very unforgiving. The ground seemed to be actively working against me all the time, giving way under me as I tried to walk up and down the slopes.

Friday was another day of timber cruising. Joseph and I worked on the “Post Gray CTL” unit. The unit was recently thinned, so there were many machine tracks and

the tree heights were not as tricky to get as most places. Joseph and I were closing in on our 20th and last plot of the day, and as I went to the first tree to get the diameter, I looked back and saw a swarm of yellowjackets billowing out of the ground right where I had previously been! I alerted Joe and we ran for it! We took the plot a little ways away from the nest and were sure to steer clear as we made our way back to the truck chatting about how lucky and glad we were to not have been stung.

– Anthony Cafferata

August 10, 2023

Once again, a full week. We had a lot of variety as we went out and did different things with Lys, Reese and Stephen.

 

On Monday, Anthony, Sabrina and I went out to the coast with Lys to cruise some possible new land. I got to ride out with Lys and work on a section of the stand with her. I was able to get a lot of practice getting heights and I got to hang with Raja (Lys’ dog) all day. Being able to work one-on-one with Lys was also super nice since she is so fast and experienced at cruising.

     

On Tuesday, I went out again with Lys but this time, Emily and Kathy joined

me as we continued our way through the property. I also got some experience with an increment borer as Lys wanted us to get some of the ages of the trees to make sure they were as old as she thought they were.

Today was Emily’s last day so it was nice that Kathy and I got to work with her one last time. The cruising flew by and we got through a decent amount of plots. On the way back to the office we also got to stop and get some ice cream to celebrate Emily’s last day.

     

 

 

On Wednesday, Kathy, Joseph and I switched over to help Reese. We got to go out to an older stand

and cruise some 80-year-old trees. Kathy and I worked together through one half and Joe got to work with Reese on the other half, while also learning how to flag a stream boundary. Today was a very nice day and it was actually pretty fun to cruise the stand. Kathy and I got back to the truck early and we were able to practice with the increment borer and see how well we can guess the DBH of trees. (Kathy was way better than I was.)

   

Since I’m not working on Friday, Thursday was my last day this week. Today, we all got to work with Stephen on some stocking surveys. I got to go out with Stephen to the coast and look at a lot of different things. We did a stocking survey on one stand, flagged a line on another, tarped some piles, and got to check on a research plot. I really enjoyed today as it was really nice being able to see multiple different sides of Stephen’s job. The views today were amazing, and the weather was pretty nice.

        

I’m now down to only three weeks left here. This summer has been an amazing experience and I’m not looking forward to it being all over.

 

– Caroline Puckett

Aug. 6, 2023

This last week as a Starker intern was much less hectic than the previous one. We did not have any fires (thank goodness), and all went according to plan. We began our stream survey project. Reece was in charge, so we took turns getting trained to go out on our own.

I trained on Monday with Caroline. Reece took us through the process of surveying streams and showed us how to use the special GPS that would get us to within a 10-foot accuracy under the trees. He also took us through a PowerPoint describing the process of stream surveys and giving examples of what we will come across. (Reece even made us a paper with a dichotomous key with what to do in each scenario) Going out into the field, we put what we learned to practice. Reece came with us to answer questions and make sure we understood our assignment.

At the end of the day, Caroline, Reece and I found the Channel Initiation Point (CIP, significant point in stream

surveys) for the main stream we were surveying. We were discussing it as it was a very classic example of a CIP. All of a sudden Sage, Reece’s dog, sprints over to us and starts picking at something on her back, we all thought that was odd. Then, BEES! Sage discovered a yellow jacket nest! In a panic, she led them right to us! Reece got stung once Caroline was stung five times! I was fortunate to avoid them somehow. So, Monday ended with quite a bit of excitement.

Tuesday, Sabrina went through the PowerPoint with Reece. While they were doing that, I sharpened the chainsaw chain that had been used on the fire the previous week. The grinder was a much easier way to sharpen the chain

rather than doing it with a hand file. Completing that, I went to go find Reece and Sabrina to see if it was time to leave for the field. They were finishing up the PowerPoint, so I got to have a little bit of a refresher.
We left for the unit “South Stokes” and started to survey the streams that flowed into the unit. This unit turned out to go pretty quick and we finished it right at lunch. Reece decided we knew what we were doing, and he left to go do office work.

We went to our next unit, named “Upper Corner CTL.” This unit was pretty big. The going was pretty tough, and we had lots of decisions to make on our own. We did not finish, so went back Wednesday. We picked up where we left off in the first stream system. As we drove to the other side of the unit, Sabrina and I were very excited to see a small group of nine elk! Two bulls, two calves and five cows. It was

really cool, we accidentally snuck up on them in a clearcut. At the second stream system, we checked to see if the stream made it all the way into the unit. It did so we needed to survey the entire stream system starting where it transitioned from “fish” to “non-fish” classification. We got to the bottom and our GPS died! We could not take accurate points with just the integrated GPS system of the iPad so we flagged what we could as time allowed and made it back to the office.

Thursday and Friday Sabrina and I continued to survey streams in various units. We finally completed “Upper Corner CTL” and we went on to reGPS “Mid Westwood,” finished “Pioneer Knuckles,” “Middle Infield,” “East Skyline”, and “Superliver,” and we started “Southern Shot Thin.” These units took us to the end of Friday making it a full week of stream surveys. I look forward to this week so we can tackle more of the project.

– Anthony Cafferata

Aug. 4, 2023

We started a new project with Reece and have fully transitioned into stream surveys.

Monday was Fred’s last full day, and it was an exciting one. Sadly, we weren’t able to all go out with him; we all had to split up and go with different people. Anthony and I went out with Reece to learn how to do stream surveys. It was nice to do something different and these surveys definitely are different than the other things we’ve been doing this summer.

For a stream survey, you want to find all possible streams with flowing water going into a stand. We began the

survey by finding an already existing fish stream. Then, look for any tributaries going into the stand of trees that are going to be harvested in the future. We pretty much just followed the stream and marked key points of the stream, the end of flowing water, the source of the water, and any other tributaries.

After wrapping up one of our surveys on Monday, I ended up having my first interaction with some bees who didn’t seem to want me there. I ended up getting stung five times and couldn’t come into work on Tuesday because of the swelling on my eye.

It was nice to get back to work on Wednesday. Joseph and I spent the day working on stream surveys. I had my first introduction to Devil’s club, a plant covered in noxious sharp spines, and had to push through it as we followed a stream. After the fact, they ended up being easy streams to follow but at the moment it definitely felt a little difficult.

We ended up doing the same thing all the way through Friday as we have a new list of stands that all need to be surveyed. We are already seeing that these surveys are a little less predictable when it comes to how long they are going to take to get through. We’ve had days where we get through and stand and days where we can get through three.

Overall, this week has been a good week but sadly this is Emily’s last full week so we will be down to five interns again.

We said goodbye to Fred on Monday as he is retiring after 42 years at Starker. It’s not going to be the same without him around. Thank you, Fred, for everything you’ve taught us and for answering all of our questions. I feel very fortunate that I got to be a part of your last group of interns.

 

– Caroline Puckett

 

 

July 31, 2023

This past week was full of action!

Our week started out much like the past few weeks, stocking surveys. From Monday to Wednesday we were scheduled for these surveys. Stephen had a

surprise for us on Tuesday as we were going to a place that Fred likes to call “a little steep.” Fun fact: this was the steepest unit on the Starker stocking survey list. We tackled it with four interns (Emily, Caroline, Joseph and myself) and Stephen.

Wednesday was the day that got out of hand. The day started normally enough,

Joseph and I paired up to go to Alsea to complete a few stocking surveys there. As we were arriving at the third unit, we went through a small bit of cell reception and both got text messages. “Come back to the office. We have a fire.” We got in the truck hoping that we were not too late to help because the message was sent to us almost an hour previously. We needed to regroup back at the office and pick up Sabrina. We headed out toward Toledo on Highway 20 toward the fire and got there about 4:30 p.m.

Arriving at the fire was an experience I will not forget because it was my first wildfire. Seeing the smoke column was daunting, but it was nowhere near some of the pictures of the fires from 2020 that I had seen. After talking to Incident Command and Starker forester Reece, we figured out where to find everyone else. Joseph, Sabrina and I headed up the west flank of the fire following the steep fireline up the slope. Along the way, we could see fire in the bushes and stumps; it was pushing its way up the hill. Catching up with the rest of the interns, with foresters Fred, Jennifer and Stephen was exhausting. The trail was super steep. We arrived and were given a rundown of our goal on the hill. We were building a fire trail up the west flank and

planning on meeting the group of ODF firefighters that was making its way up the east flank above the head of the fire. We Starker interns were using an assortment of Pulaski’s, Hazel hoe’s, and a shovel to dig a fireline. We were following Stephen who was running the chainsaw and we removed anything that was covering bare soil, including sword ferns, huckleberry, roots, and many other plants. When we got ahead of the fire, we veered eastward and were on top of a ridge. It was satisfying to see the two sides of the fireline finally connect. While we were at the top, a helicopter was dropping water all around us. It was extremely cool to see the helicopter flying so low and dropping a huge load of water on the fire. I could hear the water hitting the tree tops, breaking branches and the hiss of the fire being hit with water shortly afterwards.

Randy (Starker CEO) was part of the incident command and radioed Stephen to leave early to ensure enough rest to come back the next day. One intern was needed to accompany Stephen to the fire the next day and I got to do so. On my way back

down the fireline, I recognized some areas that used to be green but were now burned. It was comforting to see that our fireline was holding back the spread of the flames. Stephen and I picked up a fire lunch and headed back to the office in one of the Starker fire engines.

I returned to the office the next day at 5:30 a.m. and Stephen and I headed back out to the fire. At the morning briefing, the incident commander let us all know the plan, dividing up tasks for people. Our engine was to be a part of the water shuttle from the pump chance to the portable

water tank, which was approximately 2,000 feet from the head of the fire. We had a fireline all the way around the fire and there was a progressive hose lay circling the entire fire. The goal of the day was to eliminate heat and flame extending 100 feet into the fire. I was not a part of the firefighters that were spraying water and wielding fire tools, I was at the portable tank and pump station most of the day.

Until 10 a.m., I helped Stephen fill up the fire truck. After that, it was more efficient for someone to stay at the pump and listen to the radio to help control the pressure for the firefighters. I had my own radio, and I was responsible for keeping the pump running, listening for requests about pump pressure, and emptying the fire engines that brought water to the tank. At the end of my shift, 6:30 p.m., Stephen picked me up in the fire engine and we went to the day shift debriefing. We learned that we accomplished our goal and that we got 100 feet into the black ensuring there was no more outward spread of flames or heat on the edges of the fire. It was a long day, but I was happy to be a part of the effort to put out the fire.

Friday was fun, Fred took Emily, Caroline and I out to a research area and we got to run the electric chainsaw. We took turns running the saw and dragging brush into biodens. It was fun and satisfying work.

That evening was Fred’s retirement party. Fred has been with Starker Forests for 42 years and I feel privileged to have gotten the opportunity to work with him and learn from him. We interns attended

and congratulated Fred. Many of his friends were there and we could see Fred was happy and sad at the same time, this job meant so much to him and these people were his family. I am glad to have been a part of his journey, even if it was just for a short time.

• – Anthony Cafferata

July 28, 2023

This week has been packed!

Between finishing up our stocking surveys and getting called out to our first fire, we interns have been super busy.

On Monday, we began doing stocking surveys. After Emily and I got a new record of 81 plots last week, we are hoping no other groups pass that total as we wrap up the process.

Tuesday was more stocking surveys, but this day Stephen took us out and showed us Starkers’ steepest property! It was a two-year stand, so we had to go and check on how the trees were doing. Not only was it the steepest, it also has more than 40 plots. Most of the interns were there to help get it done.

On Wednesday morning, things got interesting. We saw some elk, went the wrong way, and couldn’t find a stand; got blocked by a tree, and found some cows. The first half of our day was spent doing stocking

surveys out in Eddyville. Then, as we were wrapping up at our last stand, we got a call that we needed to get back to the office because there was a fire. We ended up having to drive all the way back and past Eddyville because the fire had started about 10 minutes from the coast.

Fred, Jennifer, Kathy, Emily, and I formed a team and headed out at about 2:30 p.m. When we arrived, we checked in and were assigned to some people with ODF. We prepped and went to help create a fire line around the edge of the fire.

Stephen, who met us out there (every forester from the office responded) ended up needing one of us to head up with him so I got to be the first of the interns to start digging the line. At one point, Stephen just started running down the hill yelling something, and it took me way too long to figure out that he was yelling “bees” and that I should probably move. I forgot that was even something I had to worry about.

We ended up meeting up with Fred and the rest of the group and continued to dig line up until about 9 p.m. We had a quick dinner, packed up, and headed back to the office. It was a full day, but it was so cool being able to see what it’s actually like at a fire. (The fire burned just under 10 acres.)

On Thursday, we were originally supposed to go to a few nurseries with Stephen, but he’s got to go and help finish “mopping up” the fire, so we just wrapped up our stocking surveys today. It was a relaxed day because we didn’t have too many plots to do. We ended up meeting up with Kathy and Sabrina at our last stand and we were able to get it done pretty quickly.

Friday’s plan isn’t quite set, but I know it’ll be something new since we’ve completely wrapped up the stocking surveys.

As today is Fred’s last Friday, he wants to show some of us a project he’s been working on for a while and we’re going to help with some pruning. After work, it is a retirement party for Fred. He has been with Starker Forests for 42 years.

– Caroline Puckett

 

July 24, 2023

This week as an intern with Starker Forests I did three days of stocking surveys with Joe, one day to see the ending result of the culvert project from last week on Friday with Kathy, and to wrap it all up, Friday was timber cruising day with Joe. I doubt any of you readers out there want to hear me describe stocking surveys or timber cruising again, but I will elaborate on the culvert project and a few exciting encounters and close calls that went on this past week.

Wednesday Kathy and I went back to the culvert installation site that we had visited previously. The road was all filled in and the Table Mountain Forestry guys were working on the cleanup of the stream and waste pile management. It was interesting to learn about this project and watch it all come together.

When working in the woods in the summer in the Willamette Valley, you are going to encounter

bees. This is, as Fred likes to say about some things, “a fact of life”. I fully expect to be stung at one point or another this summer but, so far, I have been lucky. I have come into very close proximity to yellow jacket nests twice this week. The first time was Monday morning while doing stocking surveys. I got to the end of a plot measuring the last tree and I started to hear loud buzzing. I quickly looked at my feet to make sure I was not standing in a nest, and then all around. On the far side of the plot, the bees are buzzing around one spot but not flying at me. I then see a white bulb on the ground that is their nest.

The second time -I still cannot believe I wasn’t stung – I was measuring trees in a 2-year stand doing stocking surveys. The way I do this is to put my boot next to the tree

and compare the tree height to myself, up to my knee is close to two feet

(rounding to the nearest half foot). I do this as I am starting to look for browse, I freeze and back away. I had my hand and boot next to a nest of yellow jackets. I do not know how to describe what I felt in the moment, but it was definitely a

combination of fear and confusion. These yellow jackets made no noise, did not start flying at all, they just acted like I was not there. I was so sure I was going to be stung, Stephen says I was lucky.

July 17, 2023

Last week, I finished my fourth week as a Starker summer intern.
On Monday, Stephen showed us how to take stocking surveys. This takes place in 2-year and 4-year old plantations to check on all the planted trees. We used plot center sticks and our measuring tape to conduct these 1/100-acre-sized surveys. Within an 11.77-foot radius, we counted trees, identified the species, and observed for any type of animal damage from browse to horning. We practiced first as a group, then broke into pairs to get to work.

I was paired with Sabrina. Right after completing our first plot, one of us stepped on a yellow jacket nest in the ground. We ran for it! I was lucky and managed to escape unscathed, but Sabrina suffered a single sting. We had heard Fred’s horror stories of the yellow jackets swarming and hundreds of stings, and we were glad to get away with a single sting. Throughout the rest of the day, we (the whole summer crew) stirred up a total of five nests, but luckily no other stings.

Tuesday to Thursday we all took more stocking surveys. Some of the ground we encountered was quite steep and tough going. When I was working on the steep ground, the main thought in my head was “I hope I don’t run into a hornet’s nest”. Would it be better to flee downhill and have to climb back up, or better to try to run uphill, at a slower pace?

Luckily, I didn’t have to choose.

The 2-year-old trees were between 1 and 3 feet tall, and by age 4 some of the trees were over my head – and I’m 6’5”. Those trees are really growing.

 

On Friday, Fred had mercy on us and did not send us out to take stocking surveys in the 95-degree heat (celebrate!). We stayed in pairs, and two pairs went timber cruising in the shade. Kathy and I went to the Upper Mary’s tree farm (8,000 acres) and watched culvert construction with Jennifer, Starker Forests’ forester and outreach manager. We learned about installing new culverts. We saw some examples of culverts that were in need of replacement. These will be replaced this summer and we will get to see the final product.

At 1 p.m. we were back at the office for our super fun heat training. We learned about the dangers of working in the sun and how to recognize symptoms of heat related illness. After this, we still were not done. Stephen set up a fun exercise with one of our fire engines. Our first task was just to spray water. This proved a challenge to figure out the pump. Eventually, we figured it out and that is when the real fun began! We split into teams and competed to put in a progressive hose lay to a bucket that was 150 feet away. We had to use the training from fire school to quickly and efficiently roll out hose and work the pump.

A progressive hose lay is standard wildland firefighting hose layout from a water source to control the fire. There is one main line of hose, 1 ½ inch diameter with branches of 1 inch diameter hose set up 200 feet apart. This pattern gets repeated for upwards of 1,000 feet.

July 14, 2023

The last few weeks have flown by and we are at week four.

This week, we focused on learning how to do stocking surveys with Stephen. It’s really cool to be able to learn about all of the different ways to survey stands and also learn about the different ways people do things.

Monday was pretty much just a learning day. We went out to a tree stand and learned the basics from Stephen. He showed us how to measure trees, identify browse, and how to identify a tree’s vigor. A tree’s vigor is really just how happy a tree is. If it’s been severely browsed and looks like just a stick coming up from the ground, it’s probably not too happy, so it’s vigor is low. If it has a lot of new growth and is nice and green, you’d say it’s happy so its vigor is high.

Stephen also showed us how to enter our information into our tablets and use the maps to help us locate the plot center.

On Tuesday, we went out into pairs to survey our own plots.

Emily and I were in a group and went out to do two plots. One thing different we did today is split up and each did about half of the plots on our own. We got through the entire first one and then stopped for lunch with Lys. Before eating, I was able to check some of my plot answers with her and I didn’t do too bad.

After lunch, we said goodbye to Lys and headed off to our second plot of the day. Once again, we split up and we were able to make it through most of the second stand before heading back to the office.

Wednesday and Thursday were both very similar as we were still doing stocking surveys. By this point Emily and I have gotten a little faster and are able to get through a lot more. We got through 55 plots on Wednesday and 56 on Thursday, which was a lot for us. It’s nothing compared to Fred’s 200 plots in a day but I’m still very impressed with us.

One of the main things I’ve learned this week is to continue to be aware of my surroundings. I ran into multiple bee hives this week and have come across poison oak a lot. I don’t know how I’ve done it, but I haven’t been stung once and I still don’t know if or how bad I get poison oak. I’m planning on continuing this streak.

I don’t know what we’re doing on Friday but I’m ready for whatever it is. I’m just hoping it’s in the shade.

Friday is also the day of the Knights baseball game and I’m ready to get there early to get a starker mini bat.

– Caroline Puckett

July 11, 2023

Last week was my second week at Starker, which we spent at ODF Fire School. This, our third week, was a short one because of the Fourth of July. I started my week on Wednesday learning how to cruise timber using variable plots with Fred. We used relascops, lasers, plot center sticks, pink ribbon, and iPad to take and record tree measurements. Recording this data is important to the company so we know the value of our stands before harvest. I had never taken a variable plot before and learning about it was interesting.

On Thursday the sixth, the rest of the interns and I cruised on our own. This was a big step for us as this was our first “assignment” and we wanted to put what we learned into practice. We broke into groups and together we cruised two stands of trees. The stands, named “SuperGate” and “Three Roads,” were primarily Douglas-fir. We did our best and we were anxious and excited to see what Fred thought of our first timber cruise the following day.

Friday, we returned to the two stands where we had worked but now Fred joined us. Fred was there to check our work and observe our timber cruising process. Fred walked us through some of our decision making over the selection of the Basal Area Factor for the relascops. We had picked the wrong one.

Throughout the day, we walked to each plot and re-cruised with a professional to better our understanding of timber cruising. Fred showed us some helpful insights and corrected some of our numbers, but by the end of the day we were thrilled to hear him say that we “slayed it.”

Overall, we had a successful week learning how to correctly cruise timber.