Field Trips

Pringle Falls Experimental Forest

Itinerary: Klamath Falls (Shilo Inn) via cruiser bus via US97 to LapIne, then west to Pringle Falls Experimental Forest on Road 43 (Burgess Road), and return. Estimated travel time, one-way: 2.5 hours (115 miles). Total 230 miles, with 10-15 on hard cinder/gravel. Time at Pringle Falls Experimental Forests limited to <4 hours. Box lunch included.

Fieldtrip objectives:
1) Examine examples of even-aged ponderosa pine repeatedly thinned to different stocking levels on Lookout Mountain.

2) Examine example of even-aged ponderosa pine sapling growth after overstory removal, thinned to various spacing, and undergrowth vegetation controlled.

3) Examine remnant stands of old-growth ponderosa pine and examples of management activities designed to restore and protect old-growth stands.

4) Examine examples of various management activities along the Deschutes River to integrate recreation, resource protection, and restoration of disturbance regimes.

5) Examine stand management activities to enhance and protect resources at the experimental forest administration site.

Sun Pass State Forest

This tour will visit Sun Pass State Forest, Bob Mezger property, and J-Spear property. Sun Pass management must secure the greatest permanent value to the state, which has been defined as "healthy, productive, and sustainable forest ecosystems that over time and across the landscape provide a full range of social, economic, and environmental benefits to the people of Oregon." Bob Mezger is managing to retain and improve the value of his land, balancing investment and income decisions, while meeting FSC certification. Considering preservation of wildlife habitat and retention of some old growth, it is the J-Spear Ranch Co. philosophy to maximize sustainable timber growth and value per acre by maintaining appropriate stocking levels and diameter class distribution. This uneven aged management philosophy allows the best quality trees to continually move into larger diameter classes.

Fremont/Winema Forest Service and Jeld-Wen Stands

This tour will visit Forest Service and Jeld-Wen stands. Jel-Wen is focused on growing high grade products to provide the material desired for its manufacturing operations, and is attempting to balance growth rates with wood quality. The Forest Service is charged with providing a variety of values to the public and to the Klamath Tribes, focusing on reducing overstocked conditions and managing for larger trees.

This field trip will take attendees south to the Goosenest Ranger district of the Klamath National Forest. We will first visit the Goosenest Ecological Research Project, a large scale experiment designed to evaluate prescriptions for accelerating development of late seral features in second-growth stands of ponderosa pine mixed with white fir. We will visit four different treatment types:

1) Pine-Emphasis treatment
2) Pine-Emphasis followed by prescribed fire
3) Large-Tree Emphasis
4) Control (no manipulation)
This is a replicated study of twenty 100 acre (40 ha) treatment areas with 5 replications each. In addition, we will visit the burn only treatments of the Fire and Fire Surrogates study.

The tour will also stop at the Goosenest aspen restoration unit, where the district is testing treatments to re-establish aspen amongst in areas currently dominated by mixed pine/fir stands.