A few weeks ago a strong wind event blew through the Chilkat valley. It toppled many trees, notably at 28 miles, where over one acre of forest has blown down above the highway, according to State Forrester Greg Palmieri. Here he talks about the conditions that led to the trees falling.
“The hemlock and spruce in the area have really shallow root systems, so soil saturation levels, and then steepness of slope of course can have an impact on their stability at any time, amd when the soil is saturated they are definitely more vulnerable to wind events, when there is wet heavy snow on top of them it’s even worse. Once the ground freezes up they hold in there pretty good, and we can go through most winters without any issues”
When asked if the trees could be salvaged,
”I think it is accessible and within the state forest, so we could design something and go in there and harvest it if we had an interest in it from one of the local operators. A small operator that has a firewood contract could certainly take advantage of it if we thought we could do it successfully, it looked from the road as if it was possible.”
He says it takes several years for downed trees to decay to a point where they aren’t commercially valuable.
