News and Events from Hyla Woods

If you would like to be involved, please RSVP to peter_hayes@comcast.net. All opportunities are open to everyone.


• Cohohoho Rendezvous – Sat. Dec. 12th, 2 pm – dark, in the Timber Forest. Join us in welcoming the Lousignont Creek coho back from their big Pacific adventure. Note – we’re starting later than in past years.
• Pondering Ponderosa – Sat. March 13th, 10 AM in Timber Forest. Learn more about that hopeful act of tree planting – and adjust your carbon karma – by helping with the ongoing reforesting of parts of the lower field. If there is interest, we will include an exploration of the forest and our forestry approaches.
• Amphibian Round Up – Saturday April 3 will mark the fifth year of our one day blitz to monitor aquatic amphibians in the major wet spots in the three forests. Join us for a unique chance to explore all three forests in a day while working with energized amphibian experts.
• School Group Helpers On Call? – Our work with school groups continues to be important in the forests. Because there is often a need for additional adult volunteers, we hope to build a list of “on call helpers” ready to consider volunteering to support the students and teachers. If you’d like to be added to the list of those receiving “who might help out?” alerts, please let us know.
• Annual Bird Monitoring – Year Fourteen! – In early May we look forward to another round of listening for what the birds have to tell us about the health of the forests. If you’d like to help – or just tag along – with the monitoring, or do bird work at other times of the year, please let us know.

• Trails for Students – Sat. May 15, Timber Forest – In hopes of expanding the network of trails that help students explore the forests, and bird monitoring teams make their rounds, we’ll experiment with a day of volunteer trail building. Skills, experience, and tools will be welcome, but are not necessary. With the return of the green, this is a great time of year in the woods.

• Firewood for Sale – Demand for firewood continues to be high, but we still have a small amount of the Fall stock of slabwood available. Please contact us for more details.

• Wood Available – If you, or someone you know, has a building project coming up, we hope you’ll keep us in mind. Our current stock includes flooring and paneling in several species, beautiful fir trim, wild edged slabs, and select lumber in fir, oak, maple, cedar, and alder.

• Custom Furniture Direct from the Forest – If you are interested in a custom table or bench, please know that Jeremy, the talented wood worker who lives in the Timber Forest, welcomes the chance to build it for you with wood from the forest.

News from the Woods:
• Tough Times for Forests – and Forest Owners – The short term economics of forestry in Oregon continue to be very challenging, with the amounts paid by mills for logs being only slightly more than the costs of logging and hauling. Signs of recovery are visible, but all indications suggest it will be a slow one. On the flip side, recognition of the value of forests as a wise investment is strong and continues to grow.
• A Bright Light Amid the Gloom – One goal of our choice to begin milling, drying, and direct marketing some of our top quality wood was to make our forests less vulnerable to the cyclical economics that characterize Oregon forestry. Though sales of finished products have become more challenging, results show that our efforts to build a more diverse and recession resistant operation are working.
• Who Knows Where the Wood Goes? – Since sending our last newsletter, a large amount of wood has flowed from the forest, through our mill and kiln and on to an exciting range of projects. A sampling includes: a new cabin for Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, multiple floors in oak, maple, and ash, a salty outbuilding deep in the Deschutes River Canyon, an award winning set of maple kitchen cabinets, various furniture projects, and fir trim for several new homes. We enjoy the chance to know the many people who will live with this wood, and to help them know the Hyla forests.
• Growing Forests – Growing Forest Stewards – Through 2009 our work with local schools and colleges has continued to grow in both size and quality. Whether they’re fourth graders or doctoral students they come to learn and to help improve the forests. We appreciate the chance to work with them and encourage you to visit the new “education and research” blog on hylawoods.com to learn more.
• The Research Team – Because monitoring forest health is an essential ingredient in our work, we welcome the diverse partnership that has grown around the monitoring work. Sub teams include: Forest Grove Community School and the Montessori Earth School studying stream health and land history, Pacific University studies of amphibians, small mammals, and restoration techniques, OSU Watershed Extensions documenting stream function, OSU College of Forestry studying forest stand dynamics, NW Ecological Research Institute helping with all aspects of our monitoring, Oregon DEQ cooperating on water temperature monitoring, Audubon Society of Portland playing a key role in our bird monitoring, and our team of hunters keeping us posted on where the grazers are (in their freezers?!). Special thanks to all of them.
• Considering Carbon – We believe that conservation forestry requires us to shift from multi-resource/single revenue stream to becoming multi-resource/multi revenue stream. Because of this we keep a close eye on the emerging markets for ecosystem services. Carbon is at the front of the pack. Using a three step approach we are: 1) learning to measure the forests’ carbon, and 2) learning to better capture forest carbon, while taking an interested, yet cautious, approach to the third step of committing to selling the carbon credits from the forests. Prospective buyers show strong interest, but, to date, don’t offer approaches that work well enough to justify our commitment.
• Eyes Per Acre – We’re most fortunate to have outstanding forest keepers living in each of the three forests. Steph has developed a special relationship with the Mt. Richmond bear, Jeremy and Thomas are throwing themselves whole hog into caring for the Timber Forest (with their hog!), and Sandra continues to provide a reliable presence at Manning.
• Forest Intern – An Experiment – After several years of considering it, we’re excited to have our first forestry intern working with us. The serendipity of the web brought us energetic, keen, and thoughtful Marc Carrel. In addition to learning about all aspects of the forest work – from micro to macro, Marc is a great help with our never ending projects.
• And Finally – A Few Recent Stories – For a view of how professionals choose to make sense of some of our work, the following may be of interest:
ODE Magazine explores the community-connected forest approach - http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/62/sustainable-forests/

Oregonian looks at forest carbon - http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/oregon_woodland_owners_conside.html

Oregonian reports on new options with local wood - http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/09/group_connects_local_timber_ow.html

OPB tells of new StreamBank program’s success in accelerating stream restoration - http://news.opb.org/article/6170-software-could-speed-stream-bank-recovery-projects/

Capital Press looks at the potential of small scale milling - http://www.capitalpress.info/content/lf-small-sawmills-art-091109#

The Vancouver Voice reports on a student project - http://www.vanvoice.com/article/19732-walk-woods

And a piece on the good work of Forest Grove Community School students and staff - http://www.stroudcenter.org/newsletters/2009Summer/forest_grove.html

As ever, thank you for your interest and involvement. If you’d like to be involved in any of the opportunities described above, please let us know (peter_hayes@comcast.net).

Take Care – the Hayes Family