DNRC Clearwater Unit Service Forester Brad French explains to Seeley Lake Elementary junior high students the value of the timber harvested, approximately $250 for the Douglas-fir they are gathered around. Students had an opportunity to tour the cab of the harvester operated by Leonard Park and watch it drop the Douglas-fir.
Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc. Operations Manager Todd Johnson shows students tongue-and-groove paneling, one of the many products Pyramid produces.
Students watch the headrig, the main band saw in the mill, cut logs into lumber.
Students look at the teeth on the harvester.
Cody Mason using an increment bore to remove a core of a large Douglas-fir. Students learned how to age trees from the core and shown how tree rings correlate to tree health, growth and age.
Pyramid's Todd Johnson talks to the students about the lumber drying process while they look at stacks of lumber stickered for the kiln.
SEELEY LAKE – Being a historic timber town with one of the few operational lumber mills in the state, Seeley Lake Elementary junior high students had the opportunity during Montana Forest Products Week to learn more about healthy forests and wood products. They saw how logs are locally sourced at an active timber sale and toured Pyramid Mountain Lumber Company, Inc., one of the largest economic drivers in the area.
Montana Department of Natural Resource and Conservation Service Forester Brad French organized the day-long field trip Oct. 22 with SLE junior high teacher Patti Bartlett. Transportation was paid for with a DNRC grant. Students visited DNRC land near the Horseshoe Hills east of Salmon Lake, Hill 16 south of Seeley Lake and Pyramid.
"Because forest products can be derived from healthy forest management activities, we looked at some healthy forests that have recently contributed to the local forest economy," said French. "I wanted to expose the students to forest machinery and see how it works."
French remembered when he was young that he knew what the logging equipment was but have never seen how it worked.
"I wanted to provide an experience where the students can learn for themselves just what goes into seeing a log truck or lumber truck that rolls down the road and promote a positive message of sustainable forestry," said French.
The first stop was in the Horseshoe Hills area. Students learned about the difference in an untreated stand, an overstocked stand and a stand that has been thinned to promote a shift towards historical stand conditions and species. To demonstrate the spacing concept, French had the students gather into a tight group and then spread their arms to simulate branches and the distances that trees need for optimal growth and health.
They also talked about some of the tasks required to set up and administer a timber sale - from writing an environmental assessment and measuring the expected volume, to the final slash cleanup and pile burning.
At a stand of large ponderosa pine that had been thinned out to replicate historical stand conditions, students were able to smell the unique odor emitted from the cracks in the bark of large, mature ponderosa trees. Chemicals in the sap and bark can omit this odor on mature trees especially when heated by the sun's warmth. French said some described the smell as vanilla or butterscotch.
French also showcased the partnership between the US Forest Service Seeley Lake Ranger District and the Clearwater DNRC Unit on the final completion of a prescribed burn in the Horseshoe Hills area. The District conducted several prescribed fires to target fuel loading and tree stocking goals. With the completion of the DNRC timber sale, they were able to bring fire across property boundary lines for a shared goal.
"This is an excellent example of shared stewardship and two parties working together. With the location of the DNRC ownership between the road and the USFS property lines, it just made sense to tie the underburn together," said French. "Ponderosa forests benefit greatly from regular low-intensity underburns, and this forest will benefit from the activity."
Next the group moved to a 50-acre unit on the DNRC's Clearview North Timber Sale, in the Hill 16 area south of Seeley Lake on state Trust land. The timber sale consists of 10 separate units. On Trust lands, the DNRC is mandated to responsibly manage the resources for revenue. The timber from this timber sale will bring an estimated revenue of $273,063 to Montana Trust Beneficiaries.
Treatment prescriptions vary throughout the timber sale. This unit focused on removing overstocked regeneration and undesirable mature Douglas-fir to help shift the forest to more natural conditions.
French said the stand has been infested with Spruce budworm and mountain pine beetle over the last 10 years, impacting some of the understory. The shelterwood treatment will create openings for sun-loving species such as ponderosa pine and western larch. These species are also favored as the mature species to leave as they would be the trees that would naturally be found on this particular site and have an increased resistance to fire and insect damage.
Students watched as Leonard Park of Leonard Park Logging, Inc. used a Timbco harvester to cut large, mature Douglas-fir in an effort to promote younger trees. This is done to "release" and promote Western larch and ponderosa pine.
Park told the student that five large trees with a diameter of 20 inches or more would fill a log truck. A log truck load is generally worth $1,000-2,000 in wood value (stumpage) delivered to the mill depending on prices and demand.
French highlighted many of the jobs created to take a standing tree in the woods and make it useable for people: forester, logger, subcontractor, road upkeep, truck driver, mill worker, lumber store, construction worker and reforestation crews that plant new trees and construct slash piles.
The students spent their afternoon touring Pyramid Mountain Lumber. The mill tour showed the middle schoolers how the harvested timber is processed into several products including dimension lumber, tongue and groove paneling and wood chips.
Students learned how Pyramid's employees use state-of-the-art equipment to get the most value out of every log. The ability to produce the most value per log has been one of the main factors in Pyramid remaining open while competitors are shuttered.
While the entire junior high was not polled at once, Bartlett said that out of 10 students, two had parents that worked at the mill and five had close friends that were employed by the mill.
Junior high students said they enjoyed getting out of the classroom environment and thought it was fun learning different things about the woods and the mill.
"I personally thought the trip was perfect," said Bartlett. "Brad from DNRC was an excellent guide who emphasized the health of the forest."
Bartlett will use the experience with her future discussions in science on biodiversity.
"We looked at the importance of species, ecosystem and genetic diversity and their interactions with the abiotic [nonliving] environment," said Bartlett. "Montana's forests contain that biodiversity due to the variety of plants and animals within them. Much of this is due to keeping our forests healthy, which the timber industry is a major part of."
In addition to the field trip, Bartlett put together activities and projects for each of the primary grades. Within their classroom, the kindergarten through sixth grade students learned more about Montana forest products including tree health, parts of the tree and other forestry-related topics. The art projects will be displayed throughout SLE this next week.
"The kids need to know we are a timber town," said Bartlett. "The mill is still our number one employer and that history is important."
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