MAGIC Comments: 

The following information was submitted by the Steve Koehn, State Forester at DNR, to the House Environmental Matters Committee as a follow-up to DNR's testimony given in opposition to the 2004 Forest Bills initiated in the State legislature by MAGIC.  A lot of  information on the logging of public lands is revealed, but many arguments posed by Steve's letter should be reasonably questioned.  For instance, he suggests only 15.1% of the land managed by DNR is available for forest harvesting activities.  He  ignores the fact that  more than 50% of the 58,000 acre Chesapeake Forest lands are open to logging.  If you look closely at the tables included at the end of this document, you will also find that more than just the State Forests are being logged.

DNR's claim that "active management" of forests is important for enhancing desired ecosystem functions such as the damage occurring from high deer browse would be difficult to prove unless DNR is talking about hunting deer rather than forest management.  Clearcutting openings in forests can be shown to increase the number of deer by providing more edge forest habitat preferred by this species.  DNR's arguments that forest harvesting "promotes" fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, or recreation are largely fictitious.

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Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Forest Service

Tawes State Office Building, E-1

580 Taylor Avenue

Annapolis, Maryland 21401

March 5, 2004

The Honorable Maggie L. McIntosh, Chair

House Environmental Matters Committee

Lowe House Office Building, Room 141

84 College Ave.

Annapolis, MD 21401 - 1991

Dear Chairperson McIntosh:

I appreciated the opportunity to appear before the House Environmental Matters Committee on 2/25/04 to testify for the Department regarding House Bills 867 & 868. As a result of my testimony, you and a number of Committee members requested that I provide the Committee with the following:

• Any documentation representing DNR's efforts to capture historic forest harvest activity in an electronic geo-spatial/relational database.

• Examples of forest harvest documentation that the Department presents to the Board of Public Works.

• Information regarding the lands the Department has "protected" over the last several years.

As I testified before the Committee, the Department has embarked on a process to capture historic forest harvest activity in a modem electronic database that can be cross referenced with geo-spatial data showing where the forest harvests have been located on each State Forest. This process is currently underway, but is incomplete. I have enclosed examples of maps for Green Ridge and Potomac-Garrett State Forests of the information that is currently available. This type of information is not yet available in this format for Savage River and Pocomoke State Forests. The process of converting our data from hard files to electronic files is proceeding as time and resources allows.

Delegate Frush asked for examples of the type of information that the Department provides the Board of Public Works relative to forest harvests on State lands. Please find enclosed an example of a BPW agenda item for a forest harvest on Green Ridge State Forest, plus summaries of forest harvesting activities over the last five years and information on State Forest silvicultural operations.

The Annual Work Plans for the four working multiple-use State Forests are posted on the DNR website for all to see. This is just one way that the Department is trying to keep State Forest land stakeholders well informed and engaged with the Department in the management of these lands.

The FY05 Annual Work Plan links are listed below:

 http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/greenridgeplan05.html

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/savageplan05.html

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/pgplan05.html

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/pocomokeplan05.html

As to Delegate Frush's other request regarding the lands that the Department has "protected" over the last several years; there are two ways to answer this question. "Protection" can be those lands protected from land use change (e.g. forest to agriculture, forests to urban, etc.), or it can be those lands otherwise protected that are also not subject to planned forest harvest activities (e.g. Wildlands, Special/Water/ Travel Management Zones, State Parks, Natural Environmental Areas, Natural Heritage Conservation Purchases, etc.).

For the period between 1996 through 2003, the Department acquired fee simple interest in lands with the following designations:

* This sub-total includes the Maryland Wildlands acres that are approximately 43,773 acres of State Wildlands located within designated state parks, forests, and other areas. The Chesapeake Forest Lands are included in this total.

Looking at the term "protection" as lands protected from land use change, the answer to the question is therefore 86,863 acres for the 1996-2003 period.

The question of "protection" relative to lands otherwise protected from land use change as well as planned forest harvest activities, needs to be examined by comparing the total number of acres the Department manages to that which are available for planned forest harvests. On the four working multiple-use State Forests with a zoning system, lands zoned as Special, Water Influence, and Travel Influence are not available for planned forest harvest activities. Conversely, lands zoned as General Management are available for planned forest harvests. The following chart provides this information at-a-glance:

* Special Management Zones include designated Wildlands with a current acreage of 43,773.

Therefore, by dividing the number of General Management Zone acres on the four working multiple-use State Forests by the total number of acres managed by the Department, only 15.1% is available for forest harvesting activities, leaving a full 84.9% "protected" from planned harvesting activities altogether.

The Department recognizes that our forests, and particularly our publicly managed forests, are an important resource for all Marylanders. Our public forests serve as anchors for ecological function, water quality protection and they are an important component of Maryland's rural resource economy that supports vibrant recreational opportunities and a vital forest products industry. The Department supports forest management that includes forest harvesting as an appropriate objective and a tool for the restoration of ecosystem function, as well as healthy and sustainable forests on public lands and lands with conservation easements in Maryland. Active management, including a range of harvesting systems, can be important for enhancing desired ecosystem functions or characteristics, especially since some current conditions, such as high browse pressure from deer or lack of landscape level fire occurrences, prevent "natural" or historic forest regeneration and stand growth. Where fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, or recreation is a priority, forest harvests can be compatible and even promote these values when carefully planned and supervised by professional foresters and other resource specialists. Forest harvests provide important economic benefits that help sustain local communities, especially in rural areas. Management and use of renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable forest products from many public and "eased" lands are imperative given increasing human needs and global environmental sustainability concerns.

Many of these public and eased lands are affected by laws that allow or mandate sustainable forest harvests with resource management planning. Natural Resource Article, Sections 5-102 and 5-214 establishes multiple-objective management for forests, both public and private, including, but not limited to, wood fiber, forest recreation, wildlife, fish, forest watershed and wilderness. For instance, the economic value of resource-based industries is among the eight criteria listed in the statute for evaluation of areas proposed for Rural Legacy Program designation. The recent Chesapeake and Glatfelter land acquisitions and easements respectively used Program Open Space and Rural Legacy funds that included mandates for the continued support of local and regional natural resource-based economies.  

I will reiterate the offer I made during my testimony to work with members of the House Environmental Matters Committee to provide a better understanding of the management of the State Forest system as well as the principals and tenets of scientifically based sustainable forestry. I would be more than happy to arrange a field trip for the Committee to any or all of our State Forests to help foster this effort. If you have any questions, or if we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,  

Steven W. Koehn

Director / State Forester

cc:   Secretary Franks

        Mike Slattery

        Members, House Environmental Matters Committee

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PROGRAM OPEN SPACE AGENDA - SUPPLEMENT A

(410) 260-8505 /jperdue@dnr.state.md.us

 

ITEM SALE OF FOREST PRODUCTS

Submission of a request by the Department of Natural Resources for the approval by the Board of Public Works of the following timber sale pursuant to the timber sale policy adopted by the Board on October 7, 1987.

                    

          PROJECT NAME: Green Ridge State Forest - Allegany County

  AREA DESCRIPTION: 19.5 acres / Compartment #66

  DESCRIPTION: This sale is proposed as a 19.5 acre shelterwood harvest. This

operation will retain 40 square feet of basal area per acre to maintain vertical structure. Healthy dominant and co-dominant trees will be retained as seed trees, wildlife habitat, and aesthetic values. All hickory, serviceberry, and white pine will be retained.. This sale includes 133,848 board feet of sawtimber and 137 cords.

          PROCUREMENT METHOD: Competitive Sealed Bid

      PROPOSALS RECEIVED: 4

Clingerman Wood Products (PA)      $37,500.00

Roy Yonker (MD)                           $30,800.00

Ronnie Northcraft (PA)                   $27,000.00

Craig McCusker (MD)                    $26,200.00

AWARD: Clingerman Wood Products

AMOUNT: $37,500.00

ESTIMATED VALUE: $32,143.00

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MARYLAND STATE FORESTS

Type                                         Unit Name                                Total Acres

Multiple-Use State Forests:        Savage River State Forest              54,011

Green Ridge State Forest               41,353

Potomac-Garrett State Forest         17,257

Pocomoke River State Forest          13,039

 

Recreational State Forests         Elk Neck State Forest                       3,316                            Cedarville State Forest                     3,472

Demonstration State Forests:     Stoney Demonstration Forest                318

Seth Demonstration Forest                   125

Doncaster Demonstration Forest        1,516

Wicomico Demonstration Forest         1,239

USE CLASSIFICATIONS (ZONING)

SPECIAL MANAGEMENT ZONE

The Special Management Zone contains a variety of features of both natural and cultural significance. Categories of special management zoning are listed below:

Special Habitats and Natural Areas including designated State Wildlands, Mountain Peatlands, Seepage Wetlands, Vernal Pools, Aquatic Salamander Communities, Ridge Crest Rock Outcrops/Other Rock formations, Shale Barrens, Sandstone Glades, Northern Forest Types, Circumneutral or Calcareous Plant Communities, Old Growth Forest, Wildlands; Historical and Archeological Areas; Wildlife Openings, Orchards and Yarding Areas; Recreational and Administrative Areas; Electronic Sites and Utility Rights Of Way; and Special Use Areas.

WILDLANDS

The Maryland Wildlands Preservation System is Maryland's counterpart to the federal Wilderness Preservation System, and consists of all those properties owned and managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources which are designated as State wildlands by the Maryland General Assembly. Wildlands are limited areas of land or water which have retained their wilderness character, although not necessarily completely natural and undisturbed, or have rare or vanishing species of plant or animal life or similar features of interest worthy of preservation for use of present and future residents of the State. This may include unique ecological, geological, scenic, and contemplative recreational areas on State lands. There are currently 43,773 acres of designated

wildlands throughout the state lands system. There are 21,454 acres of designated wildlands within Special Management Zones on the four multiple-use State Forests.

SILVICULTURAL OPERATIONS

Forest Rotation - the number of years required to grow a stand to a desired size or maturity.

There are two basic methods of determining forest rotation. The area regulation method

divides the forest into equally productive units as there are years in the planned rotation and harvesting one unit each year. The second method is the volume regulation method. Here annual tree growth volume is determined and harvesting volumes are set not to exceed that amount.

Each forest and each area of the forest is managed according to the species requirements,

climate, soil productivity and many other variables.

 

Savage River and Potomac-Garrett State Forests in Garrett County, where the soils are deep, moist and very productive, are managed on a 170 year rotation using the volume regulation method to determine harvesting levels.

 

Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County is managed on a 100 year rotation using the area regulation method. Here the soils tend to be shallow, drought ridden and not as productive. The area regulation method is also used on Pocomoke State Forest in Worcester County on the lower Eastern Shore. However, it is managed on a 70 year rotation. (In contrast, pine forests on private lands are usually not allowed to reach biological maturity but are harvested at economic maturity resulting their being managed on much shorter rotations.)

The harvest levels achieved on State lands over the past five years have not kept up with either volume or area regulation projections. In effect this means that these rotation ages will ultimately need to be lengthened. It is also important to note that application of the volume regulation method does not mean that average tree age is necessarily reduced to zero. Many of the harvested areas are thinned, removing the dead and dying, deformed, and over-crowded trees, leaving the majority of trees to continue their growth under more favorable conditions.

State Forest Harvests Fiscal Years 1998-2003

* 1,088 acres from Chesapeake Forest

State Forest Harvests – FY 1999

Forest	Acres	Amount	Board Feet	Cords	$/ac.*	$/mbtmbt**
Black Walnut Point	13.6	$6,255.00	206,000	44	$459.93	$30.36
Green Ridge	199.2	$167,573.90	744,547	1,351	$880.88	$339.58
Pocomoke	55.8	$344,280.00	1,442,952	90	$6,257.76	$382.41
Potomac Garrett	119.0	$304,249.00	783,581	575	$3,328.85	$480.02
Savage River	417.5	$1,447,619.63	3,371,134	2,319	$3,680.02	$414.36
GRAND TOTAL	791.5	$2,263,722.53	6,342,214	4,335	$3,536.81	$404.09

*Average dollars per acre, does not include small silviculture operations

** Average dollars per thousand board feet, does not include small silviculture operations

Grand totals only include State Forest figures

State Forest Harvests – FY 2000

Forest	Acres	Amount	Board Feet	Cords	$/ac.*	$/mbtmbt**
Cedarville	22.0	$12,400.00	23,410	644	$563.64	$529.69
Fort Frederick	8.0	$11,600.00	140	390	$1,450.00	$0.00
Janes Island	26.0	$54,100.00	309,601	0	$2,080.77	$174.74
Mt. Nebo	5.0	$0.00	0	50	$0.00	$0.00
Green Ridge