Timber Restoration
Segelsen 1
The overall goal of this pilot project is to try different prescription approaches to build group understanding and learning regarding different management approaches that could be applied more broadly across the Darrington Ranger District. Below are the main objectives for the forest management portion of the project:
Ecological
1. Use variable density thinning to accelerate the development of old-forest characteristics and functions, including large trees with complex crowns, a multistory canopy, dead wood and decadence, a diverse plant community, and a patchy, variable structure that includes openings.
2. Minimize damage and disturbance to riparian areas and soils.
Social/ Economic
1. Provide work for local logging contractors and wood volume for local wood processing industries.
2. Provide revenue for aquatic restoration projects, including the Clear Creek stream crossing upgrades.
3. Develop common understanding of forest management approaches and their effects among collaborative members. Test different prescription and contracting approaches that have ecological benefits and can be replicated on larger projects.
Segelsen 2
Project Overview
The Segelsen 2.0 project is a forest health thinning located in the Darrington Ranger District of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBS) approximately five miles northwest of Darrington, accessed from the Forest Service Road 18. The 70 acre project was analyzed in a Categorical Exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (36 CFR 220.6) and was planned in partnership with the Darrington Collaborative.
The commercial thinning took take place in second-growth western hemlock and Douglas-fir stands (approximately 60 years since last clearcut harvest), using different thinning densities, including skips and gaps, to increase forest stand complexity and resiliency. No-cut buffers in Riparian Reserves were implemented to protect fish habitat and other aquatic organism habitat while thinning outer Riparian Reserve areas to promote old-growth characteristics, including the development of large trees with complex crowns, multistory canopies, and an increased understory plant species diversity.
Goals and Objectives
Based on the lack of growing space due to tree density and overall lack of diversity, there was a need to promote tree growth and increase understory vegetation and species diversity, while creating a multi-layered canopy and enhancing the development of desired riparian habitat conditions.
Aquatic restoration work in the Segelsen Creek drainage, a tributary of the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, was also implemented. This included four aquatic enhancement projects, removing and replacing nonfunctioning culverts, upgrading the road system, and abandoning (properly putting into storage) roads no longer needed. These activities aid in meeting the appropriate road maintenance standards consistent with the Aquatic Conservation Objectives (i.e., water flow restoration, to assist in the recovery of fish habitat, riparian habitat, and water quality) in the Northwest Forest Plan. Additionally, they enhance hydrological flow patterns in the project area by bringing the targeted road system up to standards, and minimizing road impacts by limiting road-related runoff and sediment movement into riparian zones on Segelsen Creek and tributary systems.