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Introduction: The McKenzie River Trust (MRT) hired Integrated Resource Management (IRM) in the fall of 2003 to develop and implement a management plan for restoring 200 acres of remnant oak woodland and savanna on the Gill property located near Oakland, Oregon. The property has high habitat potential due to remnant native grass populations and large oaks, yet years of neglect, overgrazing and tree harvest by the previous owner had left it choked with noxious weeds and overstocked with young oaks. Funding was secured through USFW grants to cover part of the costs of completing initial treatments.
Experimental treatments are being implemented on the tract to reduce English Hawthorne in oak savannas, expand native grasslands, and restore riparian vegetation function along Oldham Creek. This work seeks to restore habitat for a number of at-risk species including the Columbia white-tailed deer, white-breasted nuthatch, and western pond turtle.
Goals and Objectives: The central goal of the management plan is to restore remnant high value oak habitats and reduce risk of high intensity fire behavior, while allowing limited grazing. The landowner forest management objective was to insure a diverse and functional forest and maintain and/or restore the following features:
- A forest dominated by a mix of native species, and dominated by species and forest structure that provide the highest wildlife value with a focus on Columbian white-tailed deer and other oak habitat dependent species.
- An assemblage of native and non-invasive domestic plants. Noxious and other invasive non-native plants are discouraged and will be controlled as resources allow. Domestic plants are widespread and dominant through out the property. Complete eradication is neither economically feasible, operationally attainable, or desired by the landowner.
- Habitat qualities necessary to support target native fish and wildlife species.
- Other objectives included road maintenance, wildlife (fuels reduction), grass/grazing management, ponds for wildlife and protection of rare plant and animal species.
Methods/Activities: Treatments implemented include the careful and limited use of herbicides in conjunction with brush mastication, prescribed burning, broadcast seeding, mosaic thinning of young oaks, release thinning of invading Douglas-fir and incense cedar. Treatment methods are listed below.
Tree Shearer (thinning)
- Thin single-stratum oak, pile tops and scatter/pile boles, burn piles
- Thin conifers in mixed woodlands, pile tops and scatter/pile boles, burn piles
Fecon Bullhog Brushing and Tree Mastication Treatments Prescriptions
- Bullhog all non-oak vegetation within treatment unit
Herbicide Application
- Spot spray application using glyphosate and/or garlon to control hawthorne and non-native blackberry and to control annual exotic grasses prior to native seeding.
Seeding
- Broadcast Native Seeding
- Hand plant cuttings and bare rootstock in riparian area
Prescribed Burning
- Fall broadcast burns to reduce down woody fuels and grass thatch. Prescribed burns will be used 2-3 years after native bunchgrasses are re-established. Burns will occur every 3-7 years.
Through these treatments we hope to gain information on the most effective treatments to reduce heavy English Hawthorne and blackberry cover while releasing and not damaging remnant California fescue populations.
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