Jim Boethin speaks with Prairie City Ranger District hydrologist Hazel Owens and fisheries personnel during the Malheur National Forest's presentation at Grant County Regional Airport May 30.

Work on dozens of forest projects is scheduled at locations across the Malheur National Forest this year. Some projects have already occurred, while others are ramping up for the busy summer season.

More than 30 Forest Service workers manned tables during a May 30 informational presentation at the Grant County Regional Airport to let the public know what’s planned for forest lands this year.

“It can take two or three years before a project is actually implemented, so people forget about them,” Prairie City District Ranger Ed Guzman explained.

Large forest projects covering thousands of acres can include timber harvesting, precommercial and commercial thinning, prescribed burning, tree planting, culvert replacement, road closures and fisheries or stream work.

Many projects are still undergoing planning or review under the National Environmental Policy Act, while others are ready to go. Some, particularly prescribed burning and tree planting, took place this spring.

Blue Mountain Acting District Ranger Amanda Lindsay, a forester and silviculturist, said about 5,400 acres of tree planting was completed this spring on land burned by the Canyon Creek Complex fire in 2015. Another 3,500 acres could be planted next spring to wrap up that project.

“That will depend on the success of the planting we’ve already done,” she noted.

Last year’s hot summer caused seedling mortality across the region, she said. This spring has been cooler and wetter, which bodes well for the seedlings. Lindsay took the position of acting district ranger as District Ranger Dave Halemeier is leaving in July.

Prescribed burns typically take place in spring and fall. About 50 acres near the Sumpter Valley Interpretative Site was burned by Prairie City Ranger District personnel in April, and about 740 acres in the Knox project on Cottonwood Creek, southeast of Prairie City, was burned in May.

About 600 acres of thinning will take place in the Crane Prairie area south of Prairie City this summer. Some of it will be “lopped and scattered,” while the rest will be hand-piled. That will be followed by an “under burn” in the fall.

Guzman said three timber harvest contracts were sold for the 30,000-acre Summit Prairie project, which also will include aspen treatment and thinning. Some fencing projects designed to keep livestock out of critical stream habitat also will take place this year, he said.

On the Blue Mountain Ranger District, four timber harvests on the 19,422-acre Damon project north of Seneca are completed, Lindsay said. Forest crews will return this year for fuels treatment. That will include mastication — using heavy machinery to grind up trees less than 9 inches in diameter — along with chainsawing, hand-piling and slash burning for the rest of the project site.

A large fisheries project on the main fork of the Malheur River this year will involve using helicopters or excavators to place large woody debris in a 2-mile stretch of the river to create pools for juvenile fish, Guzman said.

“They’ll need to clear a site for the helicopter, so they’re falling ponderosa pines,” he said.

Both the main fork and the west fork of the Malheur River are designated for protection under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, he noted.

On the Blue Mountain Ranger District, Bear Creek will be reconnected to the Middle Fork of the John Day River near Galena by opening up tailings piles created decades ago by mine dredges.

Crews also will place woody debris in the stream for steelhead and chinook salmon. “Beaver dam analogs” can be created by driving posts into the stream bed and weaving willows between the posts. Beavers finish the job of building dams that create pools for juvenile fish.

Two historic mining ponds at Big Creek, which is steelhead, chinook salmon and bull trout habitat also in the Middle Fork drainage near Galena, will be filled using material from nearby mine tailings.

Log jams will be installed on a quarter mile of Long Creek to slow water flow for juvenile fish. A side channel will be reconnected to the main channel to provide fish passage. Two culverts will be replaced nearby on the East Fork of Beech Creek and on Tinker Creek to meet fish-jumping height specifications.

Road closure work across the Malheur National Forest started in April, according to Zeke Langum, the forest’s assistant forest engineer. The work is contracted out and involves installing berms and water bars, he said.

The decision to close roads is determined by hydrology, fish, wildlife, archaeology and other staff, and proposals undergo a National Environmental Policy Act review.

Langum, who recently received the Chiefs Award for National Engineering Technician of the Year, said road coverage in the Malheur National Forest is “pretty dense” compared to the Willamette National Forest, where he worked previously.