Oconto Falls plans to log 79 acres on the southeast side, once deed restrictions that prohibit tree cutting are relaxed. The parcel extends west from the ski tow area and River Island Golf Course to South Maple Avenue, bordering both sides of the Oconto River.
“For the health of the forest we knew it needed to be addressed,” said Alderman Mat McDermid at the Dec. 8 City Council meeting. He said the trees on the parcel are crowded, causing them to die off prematurely.
Todd McCourt of Wild River Forestry Inc. of Wausaukee conducted a timber inventory and forest analysis for the city and cited instances of overcrowding, dead trees, insect infestations and invasive plants that threatened the health of the forest. He identified six stands of timber and addressed the maintenance concerns and recommendations for each one. He said logging presented challenges but was doable.
“There’s a lot of things to work around,” McCourt said. “There’s a lot of oak on the property. We have to be aware of oak wilt disease and cut only certain times of the year to avoid that.”
In addition, some of the property is wet and can only be logged after the ground is frozen enough to accommodate heavy equipment.
Another challenge relates to the deed for the land, which was given to the city in 1940 by Wisconsin Michigan Power Company (now called Eagle Creek Renewable Energy).
“The original deed said ‘No cutting of trees or brush,’” said city attorney Larry Jeske.
He recommended the city obtain a letter from a logging professional emphasizing the need to cut trees on the property in order to maintain the health of the land. The letter would be forwarded to the power company in an effort to reach an agreement for maintenance. Jeske said the city should wait until an agreement is reached before cutting trees.
Alderman Jay Kostreva suggested the project be put out to bid once the city receives permission to move ahead.
According to McCourt’s assessment:
• An 11-acre pine plantation contains red, white and a few jack pine trees and is overcrowded and under stress. This has caused pine bark beetle infestations, which are killing the red pine. Much of the jack pine has died due to old age. He recommended immediate thinning to remove 40 percent of the trees to improve tree growth, allowing the red pine to outgrow the feeding activity of the pine bark beetles.
• A 24-acre parcel of white, red and northern pin (scrub) oak on the property should be thinned 50 percent to remove the high risk, low vigor and poor quality trees to give the best trees more growing space. McCourt reported trees in this stand were dying of old age. Scrub oak matures at about 70 years, and trees on the parcel are between 75 and 80 years old. Red and white oak mature at about 90 years, and McCourt found evidence of some white oak already beginning to die. Young red maples that have begun to grow in the area will benefit from more sunlight to encourage their growth, he said.
• A 12-acre parcel of primarily aspen, cottonwood, white birch and red maple trees showed signs of aging, with the evidence of dead trees. The recommendation for this stand is to clear cut all the aspen while leaving the scattered oak and evergreen trees intact.
• A 13-acre parcel of a variety of hardwood trees require select cutting about 30 percent of the sugar maple, white birch, red maple, red oak, basswood, ash and aspen. After that, McCourt recommended select cutting every 12-15 years.
• A 9-acre parcel on the west side of the Oconto River consisted of ash, red maple, swamp white oak, basswood and white birch. This parcel also contains Japanese barberry, an invasive exotic plant that prevents native tree growth. McCourt suggested select cutting 30 percent of the trees on this parcel, then treating the Japanese barberry with herbicide. He also recommended maintaining a buffer zone of 50 feet along the Oconto River where no timber harvesting would take place to keep the natural look of the shoreline and prevent soil erosion.
• A 10-acre stand of cedar would not require attention because the trees are 82 years old, well under the average maturity age of 150 years.
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