County eyes removing ash from Campus Woods in Medford

Taylor County is looking at ways to get ahead of emerald ash borer in the Campus Woods.

At the May 2 forestry and recreation committee, county forest administrator Lucas Williams raised concern about the level of infestation in the Campus Woods and what impact this could have on use of the area for recreation and other purposes.

Emerald Ash Borer is a invasive pest whose larvae bore into the trunks of ash trees and tunnel through the inner bark depriving the trees of access to nutrients and killing them. Typically trees last between two and six years from the time they are infected until they are dead. While treatment of individual trees is possible, it is not practical on a large scale. Emerald Ash Borer has been slowly spreading across the country leaving almost total eradication of ash trees in its wake.

Williams estimated that about one third of the trees in the Campus Woods are ash trees and effectively all of them will die from the infestation within the next six years. While emerald ash borer has not been located yet in the county forest located in northeastern Taylor County, the county is prioritizing the harvesting of stands there while they still retain value as timber.

While owned by the county, the Campus Woods fall more under the county’s buildings and grounds department along with other park spaces. Williams said he has spoken with the buildings and grounds director Joe Svejda about potential for taking management steps now in order to reduce the long-term impact.

Willams proposed three options, the first would be to do nothing and allow the trees to die. This would potentially create issues with recreational and trail use in the Campus Woods with broken trees and falling branches creating potential hazards.

The second option would be to bring a logging crew in from the south during the winter and remove the ash trees and selected other hardwood trees to manage the type of regrowth to occur.

A third option he suggested was to also address a mature stand of aspen on the south side of the Campus Woods. The 40-year-old aspen stand has heavy amounts of invasive buckthorn over it. Aspen management is done through clear cutting an area which triggers the aspen to regenerate. Williams explained that by clear cutting the aspen stand, including cutting the buckthorn, it would give a better chance for the aspen regeneration to outperform the buckthorn, otherwise, as mature aspen die and fall, the buckthorn will be too much of a competition and the area will over time turn to just buckthorn. Another advantage of harvesting the aspen is that it is more marketable than ash and might serve as an incentive for a logger to want to do the project.

Williams said he has spoken to the adjoining landowner who would allow access from the south and deck it on the field to the southwest of the Campus Woods until it can be removed.

“This is not a typical woodlot,” Wiliams said, noting that he is aware of the sensitivity of suggesting logging in the area.

Williams said there could be as much as $25,000 worth of wood that could be harvested from the Campus Woods between the ash and aspen. However, he said a more realistic amount would be $15,000 to $20,000 worth of wood.

“If we don’t cut it, the ash is going to die,” Williams said.

Committee member Rollie Thums supported the idea of logging off the ash and aspen and using the money raised to go back into the Campus Woods to improve trails and help with ongoing control of the buckthorn which outcompetes native vegetation.

Committee chairman Scott Mildbrand said that in his opinion, the county should at least take the ash out of the woods. However, he felt that it should be a decision made at the full county board level, noting there might be different opinions on it. He suggested the forestry committee make a formal recommendation at its June meeting, and that the buildings and grounds committee also make a recommendation and that those go to the full county board session scheduled for the end of June.

“We need to do something about it,” Thums said of the need for action to at the very least to remove the ash trees before they die and become a hazard.

At the same time, the committee members were hesitant to get into a fight over management of the Campus Woods if there was significant pushback from those opposed to cutting in the area.

It will be put on the agenda for the June 6 forestry committee meeting.

In other business, committee members:

• Approved putting out for bid seven sales totaling 406 acres in the county forest. Williams explained these are primarily summer harvest tracts, noting they will typically put winter harvest tracts out for bid in the fall. The total acreage is inflated from normal because it includes ash salvage cuts that did not get buyers last fall. Williams explained that they reduced the minimum bids for the ash to incentivize loggers to bid on the stands. The combined minimum bids for all the tracts is $134,272.50.

• Approved granting a one-year extension for Wilson Forest Products for sale 696 which is located south of Camp 8 and is a winter cut. Williams made the recommendation to extend the contract by a year noting that the company was working steady through this winter to get caught up with winter cut sales. Member Gary Beadles noted that two years ago loggers were unable to get into the woods at all, and that the county had pretty much written that year off. That said, the approval to extend the contract with no stumpage increase and waiving a $50 extension fee came with the caveat that this would be the last extension on that sale. Williams noted the logger had been caught in the middle of poor markets and bad weather.

• Tabled action on accepting bids for a snowmobile bridge over the Black River in order to do additional checking into the bids and ensure they meet the specifications. The county received a $144,000 grant for the snowmobile bridge project and had five companies submit bids. The apparent low bidder was Eby’s Portable Welding and Fabrication with a bid amount of $54,000. The second low bid was from Custom Manufacturing with a price of $113,650, followed by Anderson Bridges with a price of $135,000. The highest bids were from Janke General Contractors for $181,733, and Larson Construction Company for $236,000. Given the large range and the significant difference between the low bid and the others, committee members wanted to give Williams more time to check into it.

• Approved hiring Randy Thums Trucking and Excavating to do the Camp 8 ATV Rehab project for a bid price of $43,060. The county had $49,569.20 in grant funds available for the project. The accepted bid was the lowest of the four bids received coming in at about $5,740 below the second low bid which cam from Rock Thums Trucking and was $448,803.40 and about $42,000 less than the highest bid which cam from Ovyn Trucking and Excavating at $85,650. Thums abstained from voting on awarding the bid.