Forestry and Fire Mitigation
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To get a sense of what we mean by “overstocked forests” we recommend comparing aerial photographs of the San Juan’s from the 1930s to today. To return to those healthy forests and woodlands, we offer felling and girdling services. We use only chainsaws and hand tools, for minimal forest disruption and soil compaction.
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Ladder fuels are a fuel type that carries a ground fire into the canopy of a forest. By removing brush, small diameter trees, and limbing up trees, ladder fuel reduction is one of the best techniques to limit fire intensity in and around your property. Typically done along a roadside, as a fuel break.
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The Garry Oak has a fairly tenuous hold in the San Juan Islands. Outcompeted for light by the fast-growing firs, Q. Garryana is quickly relegated to edges of hospitable soil, and without intervention, will lose much of its genetic diversity and individual trees will die. Removing a few trees around each oak makes an immediate and lasting difference in their continued existence here.
Many of the forests in the San Juan Islands are known to be historically “fire adapted”. Indigenous practice was to use the fire to maintain a healthy ecosystem that in many cases is much less feasible today. Below are some methods for managing today’s overstocked and under burned forests, without fire.
