“I’d much rather deal with this than that,” said Matt Mattioda, gesturing first to a heaping stack of logs, then to the burn scar of the 416 Fire looming less than a quarter mile away.
As he muses, a forwarder grasps logs like a supersized claw-crane arcade game, neatly organizing the timber on one of two flatbed cars hitched to a Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad steam engine.
Mattioda is the chief forester and senior vice president of cut-to-length systems for Miller Timber Services, an Oregon-based forestry company.
Standing amid an open grove north of Hermosa, Mattioda and Ryan Cox, a lead forester with the Colorado State Forest Service’s Durango Field Office, say the area will look like a park when they’re done.
The plot south of Rockwood is classified as a “high-value high-priority area,” because of its susceptibility to fire and the surrounding structures and watershed. Logging started in November and hauling should wrap up within the month.
The 46-acre project is all on private property, funded through a federal grant secured by the state forest service; Miller Timber is the contractor that submitted the winning bid.
“I love it – it’s just like a dream come true for me to be able to incorporate my two passions in life, trains and trees,” Mattioda said.
The train is hauling logs to the Rockwood Station, a location that is far better suited for loading trucks than a pullout on U.S. Highway 550 flanked by blind curves on either side.
“Our interest is really just the community benefit and utilizing what the railroad is capable of,” said Matt Cunningham, operations and special projects manager for the railroad.
John Harper, general manager of American Heritage Railways, which owns D&SNG, said the railroad is always looking for opportunities to create relationships that benefit the community.
Although the steam engine adds dramatic flair, it’s really the logging that is of note.
The stand of ponderosa pines, juniper and scrub oak was likely clear-cut a century ago, Cox said. The trees, which fall into one or maybe two age classes, are not prepared to handle fire the way they would be had the stand aged unmolested by loggers. And so the goal of Cox’s fuel mitigation thinning project is to reduce the density of the stand 30% to 50%.
Fire is inevitable on that landscape.
But the intensity of fire is variable and, with the right preparation, controllable. Removing brush can prevent fires from reaching the higher crowns of trees, and thinning out stands can prevent flames from jumping from crown to crown.
“With the way that we’ve opened the stand, opened the crowns, created spacing, there should be really no chance of any kind of a running crown fire,” Cox said, gesturing to forest around him.
Cutting the trees is one task, but getting them out and figuring out what to do with the timber is another. Some of the timber barely pays its way out of the woods.
“Trucking costs eat it up,” Mattioda said. “The trucking costs to get some of the stuff to market – the value the wood doesn’t even cover the trucking costs.”
The timber is being distributed to regional businesses, Mattioda said. Timber Age Systems, the Durango-based building material supplies that makes cross-laminated timber panels, will purchase some of the shorter ponderosa logs. Montrose Forest Products, a lumber mill, will get the longer pines. The Douglas firs will go to Blanca Forestry products in the San Luis Valley. The juniper and other low-quality wood will head to fire wood processors around the region.
“Want to spread this around to support the industry as a whole,” Mattioda said.
The wood going to Timber Age Sytems will net some revenue, he said, which will offset losses from wood that must be transported to farther-away buyers.
Despite the marginal profits, Cox points out that the work does need to be done – all over the forest.
“This land specifically, the way I look at it is as a steppingstone and a building block,” he said. “It’s 46 acres, it’s not significant, but everything has to start somewhere.”
He hopes to parlay the success of the project and the high level of cooperation among the landowners, the contractor, the railroad and the CSFS into future grants. As development continues to situate homeowners in the thick of high-risk firesheds, the importance of fuel mitigation is becoming increasingly obvious.
Given that the plot is part of the train’s view shed and part of the Animas River watershed, Cox sees multiple benefits.
“Now I’ve got momentum,” he said. “I really hope to keep it going.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
