Becky Gillette – Some people who hike and do other recreation in the Madison County Wildlife Management Area located south of Eureka Springs off Hwy. 23 are alarmed about large pine trees marked to be harvested in a section that contains some of the largest and oldest trees in the WMA.
“They are some of the largest old growth trees in the area,” said one area resident upset about the trees marked for harvesting. Old growth generally refers to trees more than 100 years old, although some define old growth as trees in an area that has never been logged.
“I wouldn’t say they are old growth,” said Michael Gregory, habitat biologist for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. “They may be a little large in diameter in their viewpoint. We do have a timber sale planned for that area in March. Currently it is still under the marking contract under our specifications. That has not closed at this time. I haven’t completed a final audit on that timber markup. If all goes well, the marking contract will end at the end of this month. I will be looking at assimilating the data at that time for potential harvest. Probably about June or so I would put this out for bid for prospective buyers. Realistically, as far as anything on the ground, the earliest the trees would be cut would be July to August.”
Gregory said as part of routine management of the 14,500-acre WMA, areas are broken into compartments and further broken down into stands. On a rotational basis, they do a forest inventory on these compartments and look at management needs.
“This particular compartment is one of the older areas not recently inventoried,” Gregory said. “In 2014, I did an updated forestry inventory on that area. Those areas in particular I chose to do a thinning to open the overstory and promote herbaceous growth on the ground. That area is mostly a pine-dominated stand that lacks pine regeneration on the ground. Historically, those ridgetops were more open pine dominated stands.”
While he hasn’t done core drilling to establish the exact age of the trees, historically most of this area was harvested from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. He considers it likely that, with this being a ridgetop with easy access, it had been harvested at least once.
Gregory said what is planned is a light thinning creating more the type of open pine woodland ecosystem. “We are planning to make some subtle changes primarily to some narrow ridgetops,” he said. “I would not approach that ecosystem all at once.”
One criticism some environmentalists have made about WMA management in Arkansas is that it is managed for hunting, not general recreation or general health of the forest. Gregory said while this harvest does aim to provide vertical and horizontal diversity that would be favorable for deer, and a better brood and nesting habitat for turkey and quail, it would also provide structural diversity across the stand to benefit a larger variety of songbirds.
Some people who might be considered “tree huggers” think larger trees should be preserved, not harvested when they become a marketable size. But Gregory said that just like people, trees have a finite lifespan.
“As they are approaching the end of life, they are eventually going to die out,” Gregory said. “That stand has some trees with ice damage. By thinning and removing some of the trees that realistically will not make it five to ten more years down the road, taking them out now to reduce the danger of wildfires by removing fuel makes sense. A lot of the target trees may be declining trees. A lot have broken tops in them. That is going to end up on the ground as hazardous fuel eventually in the next few years. We are somewhat attacking that issue first hand, eliminating hazardous fuels and harvesting trees while they can still be utilized.”
Gregory said trees marked to be cut are based on enhancing the quality of the stands for both wildlife habitat and forest health, leaving the healthiest and most productive stems to grow. Trees damaged due to stresses such as ice damage or disease are targeted for removal first. Some healthy trees may also be removed in efforts to improve sunlight to the ground and improve forest spacing to promote vigor, growth, and productivity to improve the quality of life for residual trees. He said this in turn enhances the forests vitality and promotes resistance to factors such as insects, disease and drought.
Rumors in the area by people who have watched this and many other timber harvests over the years are to the effect that timber sales are often motivated by private profit. Some log trucks might be diverted to a different sawmill and the proceeds go to a person, not the state of Arkansas.
“I can assure you that is not taking place,” Gregory said. “While a timber sale is going on, I will do frequent audits out there to make sure the loggers are only taking what needs to be taken. There is a blue marker on stumps that is used for auditing purposes. If we run across an area and see freshly cut trees with no stump marks, there are going to be questions asked about that. That is something that would be dealt with.”
Gregory said he is sensitive to the concerns of the public who use the WMA area and is willing to address their concerns. “Hopefully, I can enlighten them on the way we operate,” he said. “I will do the best I can to do so. I will be willing to listen to their ideas and address their concerns.”
Like national forests, WMAs do what is known as controlled or prescribed burns where fire is set intentionally in order to improve wildlife habitat while reducing potential for large wildfires that can be far more destructive.
Gregory said they are constantly monitoring weather to minimize the impact of smoke from controlled burns.
“We have areas on the WMA that we don’t touch,” he said. “We don’t put fire in those areas. The same thing is true with harvesting in those areas. We do a lot of research. We have some areas that we have set aside to not do management work on. That way we have a control area we can look at.”