We have worked hard over the past decade to rehabilitate the land and continue to do so. The previous owners did not follow guidelines on developing skid roads (i.e, created paths going straight up the mountain), which led to serious erosion. We placed water bars on usable logging roads, closed out the unsustainable ones, repaired highly eroded areas, and replanted slopes where vegetation had washed away.
We also cleared out streams that were once “brushed in” during earlier logging operations. These efforts not only improve the forest’s hydrology, but also enable aquatic species to travel freely and support the larger ecosystem.
This work has been funded in part by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service EQIP program. We recommend forestland owners to talk with their NRCS representatives to understand how they work together to rehabilitate forestland.