During spring quarter 2001, the University of Washington Forest Engineering program developed a harvest and access plan for the Big Country Timber Sale (sections 7, 8, 17 and 18 of T31N R12W and sections 12 and 13 of T31N R13W, surrounding the P-1800 road).   This project is a collaborative effort between the DNR and UW designed to provide real-world experience to the forest engineering class, while also supporting DNR management goals.

              The project develops a harvest and transportation plan that provides for the implementation of the OESF conservation strategy and also provides additional opportunities for DNR Research and Monitoring.  After months of preparation and four weeks of fieldwork, a final report and presentation was submitted to interested officials of the Department of Natural Resources in June of 2001.  Several expectations were included in the plan of operations for the Big Country project.  Below is a list of expectations and the UW’s level of fulfillment of these expectations.

            Expectation:  P-1800 redesign, bridge design and costing analysis, ~2 miles of access reconstruction and field location of secondary roads.
Result:  11.8 miles of designed road, including 4.7 miles of reconstruction design, two bridge designs and field location of roads.

            Expectation:  Field assessment of road stability, field verification of areas of slope instability, unstable slope risk assessment.
Result:  Field assessment and verification performed under the direction of Wendy Gerstel.  Resulted in GIS coverage of unstable slopes and a report made by Wendy Gerstel (pending at time of publication).  Slope transects were run on unstable zones.  In depth analysis performed by Gerstel at Cougar Creek Bridge approach.

            Expectation:  Analyze potential for reducing roads required through long span yarding over riparian areas.
Result:  An analysis comparing helicopter yarding to conventional systems was performed for the entire timber sale.  Long span yarding options were explored in detail through cable analysis. 

            Expectation:  Field bridge site survey work.
Result:  Provided a detailed analysis for five access alternatives to the Big Country Timber Sale including field verification and detailed design.  Site survey for West Clallam Bridge included in deliverables.

            Expectation:  Analysis of potential for Stream and Riparian restoration activities based on treatments provided by the HCP Research and Monitoring group.
Result:  Harvest system designed for flexibility to meet desires for RMZ restoration and Research and Monitoring goals.  Includes field verification of slope profiles.  Harvest prescription decision matrix and suggested layout included for Research and Monitoring goals.

            Expectation:  Sediment delivery and recommendations for mitigation.
Result:  Sedimentation analysis performed for all existing and newly designed roads in the Big Country Timber Sale.

            Expectation:  Transportation plan and maps
Result:  A detailed transportation plan including access alternatives and bridge designs was created.  Map deliverables include a map of final road locations and harvest prescriptions, a map of potentially unstable slopes, and a map of preliminary design work in addition to all working maps used throughout the project.  In addition, an assessment of operational feasibilities for implementing the OESF conservation strategy was created.

^{Detailed Road Design}

            Approximately 11.8 miles of road were fully designed for new construction or reconstruction using ROADENG, a road design program.  This includes the P-1800 road.  These designs were included in the transportation plan and include notes for stationing, grade, side slopes, cut and fill volumes, horizontal and vertical offsets, and slope staking.

   
Two bridges and their approaches were designed.  The approaches to the West Clallam Bridge and the East Cougar Bridge both required extensive redesign.  In addition, alternative access routes were explored and designed.

Field location of all mainline roads and most spurs was completed.

            Under the direction of Wendy Gerstel, field assessment and verification of unstable slopes was performed across the Big Country Timber Sale.  This included running some transects.  Special attention was given to unstable slopes that interfere with the road system, especially at the West Clallam Bridge and East Cougar Bridge locations. 

            Deep seated landslides and shallow rapid landslides were identified from aerial photos and through field verification.  This resulted in a GIS layer of identified potentially unstable slopes (Figure 1).

Figure 1.  The magenta areas are the deep seated and shallow  rapid landslide areas identified by Wendy Gerstel as seen in the GIS coverage UNSTABLE.

            Wendy Gerstel is currently working on a report to accompany her findings.

            Using LoggerPC, we performed an in depth analysis on approximately 200 profiles throughout the Big Country Timber Sale.  Long span yarding was explored as an alternative, but was found to be non-marketable in the present state of this sale.  An analysis comparing helicopter yarding to conventional systems was performed as well.  It, too, proved to be non-marketable.             

In order to allow the DNR to make a fully informed decision about which access route to use for the Big Country Timber Sale, five possible routes were analyzed. 

Northeast

Southeast

East

P1000

West West Bridge

South Bloedel

Planning Boundary for Big Country Timber Sale

Main Gate at Hwy 112

Crown XXXX Gate

P1800

East Cougar Bridge

Figure 2.  Conceptual representation of the planning area and access alternatives.

               A conceptual representation of these five access routes and the planning area can be seen in Figure 2.  The Northeast route was found to be infeasible in the field.  The other four routes were analyzed fully, including a complete cost analysis and risk assessment for each alternative.  In addition, the road design work was completed for three of these four options.

            DNR Research and Monitoring’s main interest in this sale was the layout of harvest prescriptions to meet research needs for implementing the OESF conservation strategy.  The result of our work was a fully flexible harvest design that allows any unit to be harvested with any prescription.  The flexibility of the harvest design was verified in the field.  In addition, we created a “marketability matrix” that helps in determining the most marketable prescription for each unit.  A suggested prescription layout was also included that combines the most marketable layout with the realities of the operational difficulties found in the field (See Figure 3).

Figure 3. Proposed prescriptions based on operational feasibility and research/monitoring objectives.

            Also of interest was the ability to implement RMZ restoration.  Our harvest system is designed for flexibility to meet these needs throughout the timber sale.

            A sedimentation analysis was performed for all existing and newly designed roads in the Big Country Timber Sale.  The analysis was performed using WEPP and X-DRAIN, computer programs used to calculate sedimentation.  A GIS analysis was also performed to analyze sedimentation.  By locating newly designed roads primarily on ridges, the risk associated with sedimentation was greatly reduced.  Risk of sedimentation was reduced on existing roads through the design of cross drains.