Penny Candy Cove

We also worked to clean up some of the remaining logging slash that was clearly from us cutting and limbing trees in the harvest areas just above the dock. We picked up as much deadwood and fallen branches as we possibly could in the few days we were on site.

We chipped everything we could reasonably pick up during our time down at the dock area. Looking up into the forest before we tapered our cutting and cleanup by hand. We were sure to deadwood nearly every tree that was behind the dock and extended into the cut areas. We tapered out pruning and deadwood cutting back into the forest to prevent a stark contrast between our work areas and those left untouched.

We left this blowdown in place as this is the winter shelter for the chairs that go on the dock. We used the tractor and the PTO chipper to chip the debris we picked up at the dock. Wood chips were spread out in a very fine layer where they will add to the soil. Deadwood of this size and frequency is desired on the forest floor. This deadwood will biodegrade and add to the soil structure. These decayed logs also serve as a food source for birds as they host insects and in damper areas, salamanders.

We tapered the amount of cleanup we conducted to avoid the contrast of a clean swept forest floor and a natural untouched one. We purposely left a buffer of thick regeneration to prevent the views opening up down to the dock from the cut areas.