Methownet BB

I took a ramble up through the Golden Doe yesterday. Was surprised to see the main road through the field area recently graded and widened. Then going up through the beautiful old growth forest to the old homestead, the most beautiful and bigget trees looked like they are marked for logging. What? That is a most pristine habitat. Managed by WDFW... Any body know what is going on?
Susan Ernsdorff

Thanks for the heads up, Susan. What would WDFW be doing managing logging in Golden Doe? Let's find out.

Question is are the markings for "leave" trees or to be cut. A call to Wildlife might tell us.

Here is what I found regarding the Golden Doe. Looks like they are conducting restoration actions, whatever that means.

Restoration notice
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife conducted a prescribed burn of the Golden Doe Unit of Methow Wildlife Area on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Staff will be conducting restoration actions on the burned area throughout spring and summer 2024.

The Golden Doe unit was acquired for mule deer winter range and the biodiversity of its large riparian areas on the Methow River. It is bordered to the northwest by U.S. Forest Service lands and by private property to the southwest.

The Golden Doe unit is located about 5 miles south of Twisp in Okanogan County. The unit can be accessed from a small road that crosses over Alder Creek off of Old Twisp-Carlton Highway.

I talked to a WDFW Assistant Regional Wildlife Program Manager, Region 2, about it. The marked trees will be saved, everything else will be cut. About 30-40 trees per acre average, with clumps and open spaces, to mimic historical densities he said. Like what has been done in many other areas. To make it less likely to totally burn. They have done all the environmental reviews and public comments, and will be starting soon. Yes it will still trash the habitat in the short term, but hopefully be better in the long term. I'm going to talk to the person who does the tree marking about the process used.

a couple summers ago they closed the area while they widened the old skid road to access the rock quarry a little way up and used it down across on the river side of the road (i believe). in that process, they widened the access road from the pavement to the parking area and beyond (burying the old set of corals at the first crest of the hill). this went as far as the big old wash out on the mcclure side of the lower valley where they pushed a lot of fill into the ravine. the intent to log was vaguely made public at that time. lots of changes, but then they have done some strange and usually useless things over the years there (like herbicide application killing everything in the lower portion of the meadow and then never doing any thing with it, jut letting all the noxious weeds float back in)...go figure.
sue elson