A cost-effective, low impact method for large wood replenishment in ...

CAN IT WORK FOR YOU?Cost-effective, low impact largewood replenishment

Granite Creek Large WoodReplenishment ProjectCooperators/LeadsWashington Dept of Fish and Wildlife/Sandy DottsUnited States Forest Service/Jill CobbPriest Community Forestry Connection/Liz Johnson-GebhardtUS Fish and Wildlife/Carrie CordovaSalmon Recovery Funding Board/Dave CaudillDouglas Construction and Custom Cutting/Todd Douglas

WHAT? Installing Large WoodStructures with Grip Hoist

WHY? Project Inspiration……• Granite Creek Watershed Assessment• Scott Nicolai, Yakima Nation, SRFB Conference

REAL REASON FOR PROJECTBull Trout and Westslope CutthroatTrout RestorationPhoto courtesy of the Kalispel Tribe

Let’s talk aboutMETHOD COMPARISONSimpleCheapUniqueTRADITIONAL(excavator)Cost per stem $1,000 $215Structure complexity Variable LowEnvironmental impact High LowPermitting Complex NegligibleDesign Complicated SimpleLOW IMPACT(grip hoist, directionalfelling)Monitoring Photos at eye level Low Elevation Photos

It all startswith aplan….

The Implementation Plan

Two basic approachesGrip Hoist log placementDirectional felling

Directional Falling

Trees moved with Grip Hoist

Ahhhh the GRIP HOIST: love and hateTwo Grip Hoist: TU-28 ($1900) and TU-17 ($1200)Heavy to transport ~90 lbs. to 100 lbs.

ActualImplementation

Thoughts from our Contractor (Todd Douglas)

Unique Monitoring

Monitoring Inchannel StructuresConventional CameraHelipics: Aerial Photography

Granite Large WoodSummary•Total Cost: $140,000•Total stems: 380 trees over seven miles of stream•Six Partners/ Collaborators•Completed in six weeks

Lessons Learned•Safety trumps everything• Cable breaking incident• Not for weekend volunteers• Got to know what you are doing• Read the tree/Read the stream•Have a good team/communicate often•Use the best tools for the job•Early planning•Not for faint of heart engineers – not exact•Need to be flexible in design, implementation, adaptable•Give the river material to work with; don’t force theriver – help it.

And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾percent guaranteed.)Dr. Seuss , Oh the Places You’ll go!