We have lived here nearly 20 years and work hard to keep our grounds clean and with good clearance but it’s still a 12.5 acres of forest and after 20 years there’s been a lot of growth. It’s more than we can keep up with and still be fire safe. With that in mind I got some referrals and called a logging company. It seems like it would be a simple task, sell the trees, they’re my trees, but it’s not. It’s California and there’s permits and if you can get other properties nearby to go in with you so the logging company only needs to bring out its equipment once, you’ll all profit better. The paperwork involved in all this means that we might get started next spring. Not a quick process at all.
That said, we got the ball rolling, have neighbors also interested in fire prevention, and a forester came out and evaluated our property. Then came out again and we went over the entire property with spray cans and marked all the trees that they will take. To be under the fire prevention permit they are only taking the ones that are larger than 12 inches in diameter and smaller than 30 so do not fear that this is a clear cut. This is going to make room for the healthy trees to thrive. If you are familiar with the bark beetle issues that have plagued our forest the last few years you will understand what a huge benefit this will be. This will give us space so that when (not if) fire comes our way we have a better chance of saving our house and preserving our hill. It helps that the U.S. Forest adjacent to us will also be doing their own fire clearance and our neighbors at the corner will also be part of our project.
So now I look around at the blue lines and try to imagine what my skyline will look like next year, what space we will have and while I’m nervous I’m also excited!! There is a lot of unused space out here that has always been a nice forest backdrop to our lives but I’m now seeing that it will be available to utilize to rotate the animals on and let the ground they’ve been on for 12 years now, rest.
No more cleaning pine needles off the little house, and more sunshine for the orchard. I’ll even be able to move the chickens out of the orchard.
It’s going to be a big change. It’s going to be a lot of work on our part to move all the odd piles of scrap to give the loggers the space they need and even relocating some of the animals. In the end I hope we will have made the difference needed.
So. We are selling these trees. A great deal of the funds go to pay the forester for all his time and headache with the paperwork and you pay the timber company and all that that entails and hopefully when all is said and done there’s some for you. There’s no guarantee on that it depends on the bottom line at the end and how much volume they harvested from your space. At the very least, you are getting your property timbered and cleaned up for fire safety and you don’t pay anything. It’s a win! But hopefully there’s enough for going out to dinner later. We are hopeful for a little more than that and whatever it is will be put toward getting Haven Ridge solar powered! I will make a separate entry on that as we get closer.
