Soils Trip to Medford

Western Oregon soil scientists finally had a field day get-together down in Medford.  It had been postponed for about a year so it was nice to get together.  The focus of the trip was to discuss relevant issues and I gave a presentation on the work I'm doing amending the Resource Management Plans for western Oregon and also contributed significantly to the discussion on biochar.

The problematic yarding corridor (above and to the right) was put in where it was explicitly not supposed to be, but mitigation looks great

The field trip focused on tether-assisted logging that had gone wrong, but my takeaway was that while effects were different than expected, it wasn't because of the type of logging, it was the operator who did a bunch of stuff he wasn't supposed to and an unexpected weather event.  And the post-logging mitigation that the BLM did looked great.  Regardless, it was good context for me since I'm writing about tether-assisted logging for work and trying to develop and analyze their effects.

Post-wildfire at the top of Salt Creek

Post-wildfire salvage harvest happened here a few years ago with ground based machinery

After the field day, I drove with Damien and Ron to look for agates for a few minutes near Salt Creek.  And later, I drove with Ron up to he top of Roxy Ann Peak to give him a view of the valley and at sunset, between rain showers, the scenery was great!