Healing the land: USFS plants new trees to replenish Fish Fire site

Left to its own devices, the land would likely take multiples of that time span to heal those wounds, but the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) was on site last week to offer a helping hand.

Along with a contracted crew of planters, forest stewards arrived with boxes of foot-high seedlings to take advantage of a two-week window during which conditions are ripe for success. Though the tiny trees were born in Nebraska’s Bessey Nursery, they were grown from local seeds.

Ponderosa pine take 60-80 years to reach maturity and start producing viable seeds.

“If we didn’t replant, it could take hundreds of years for those trees to have their seed come here (because) their seed will only spread about 150 feet away from the tree,” said John McNealy, silviculture forester for the Bearlodge Ranger District.

“If you were to walk around in here, you’d find spots where the soil is just completely black. In those areas, the seed source has been pretty much totally neutralized and so those areas will not regrow naturally. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing this planting.”

The three-day process had 45,000 seedlings placed in the ground over a 150-acre area. Winter made a late-season appearance as the crew got to work, but the snowfall was a welcome sight.

“These guys like it when it’s a little cooler weather. They’re working really hard and it keeps them cool to be able to have some snow,” McNealy said.

“The moisture is actually really good for the trees, as well. It gives them a really good start to life here.”

Little has changed at the site of the fire since it was brought under control.

“We very quickly did a salvage treatment here to make sure we utilized all of the wood that we could. We would go and chop down the burned trees and use what was salvageable, so that way as little was wasted as possible,” McNealy said.

“The place that has been burned has not really seen any harvesting activity since the salvage sale, just because there are not many trees left. Even the baby trees have all been nuked and burned — we lost all of the regeneration that would have been here, so this place is getting a complete fresh start.”

The biggest step to success is the planting, said McNealy, who has great respect for the speed and efficiency of the contractor, OC Forestry of Oregon. One of the few crews that doesn’t mind the snow because it makes it harder to see the rocks, ... “these guys will work whether it’s rain, sun or snow.”

The crew barely stops moving, split into two groups. The first moves along a grid to prepare the soil with a hoedad blade and settle each seedling into its hole.

“They’re on a 10-foot by 10-foot spacing. That gives them room to grow and not have to compete with each other as they’re coming up,” McNealy said of the grid.

“In a way, the fire was beneficial in that regard because it takes away a lot of the competing vegetation. The trees don’t have much to compete with in terms of resources like water and light, and so they have a pretty good start to life even if the soil is a little rough. Here in the Bearlodge we have very good soil, the planters are really enjoying working here because they say it’s very good soil and they’re getting the trees in very quickly.”

A second crew follows behind to place a tube over the new tree.

“(The tube is) a protectant made out of a biodegradable material that will protect the baby seedlings from elk or rodents. The elk like to come and just rip them out of the ground,” McNealy said.

“These little ones don’t stand much of a chance to an elk, which is why we want to get those protectors on them and give them the best chance they have to survive.”

There’s a limited annual window to schedule these plantings.

“It’s about 16 days out of the year due to weather conditions and soil conditions. They can’t plant when the soil is frozen, but they can’t plant when it’s too hot or dry,” he said.

“Each guy will plant roughly 1,000 to 1,500 trees every day. Combined, their whole crew is about ten folks and they’ll plant 15,000 trees every day.”

It’s not a cheap project, McNealy said, but it’s worth the investment to bring the Forest back to the way it was before the fire.

“We plan to do subsequent planting in the next several years — it’s a very large effort. The Fish Fire was over 6000 acres and we’re getting 150 acres this year.

“It’s going to take a lot of years to finish the entire project, but we do plan also to ramp up production,” he added. “This is sort of a test year in a way, to see how viable our soil is and the survival of the trees.”

The team is anticipating success. On the Custer side of the forest, where a planting is also taking place, survivability is estimated at over 90%.

“We’re using pretty much the same trees, so we would expect something very similar, but it’s very dependent on the weather and if the elk and rats get to them,” McNealy said.

“We get a decent amount of moisture in the Bearlodge and so these guys are going to have a good start.”