Vehicles leave significant traces in Washoe Meadow park
By Kathryn Reed
A tree-thinning project in Washoe Meadow State Park that left substantial tractor tracks in the meadow and surrounding area has been suspended for the winter.
Rich Adams, forester with California State Parks, visited the South Shore park Dec. 7 after being notified by park users about the perceived degradation of the area.
His written recommendations to his superior, senior environmental scientist Tamara Sasaki, are, “Do not attempt additional over snow operations on the meadow this season.
Deep ruts in Washoe Meadow park from a tree-thinning project. Photos/Provided
“Revisit and inspect the meadow after all the snow and ice has melted off to adequately determine the full extent of soil compaction that occurred during over snow tractor operations.
“After the winter season has ended, mitigate any and all areas of soil compaction by lifting the compacted soil with hand tools such as fire rakes and shovels. The contractor has already agreed to perform this task. At least some handwork will be required, although it is impossible to determine the extent of handwork that will be required until the meadow is completely clear of snow and ice.”
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency permitted the 12-acre fuels reduction project. Over the snow operations are supposed to be less harmful to soils in stream environment zones.
The area being logged is one-eighth of a mile east of Seneca Drive and east of North Upper Truckee Road.
Adams in his report said, “The tree harvester and the log forwarder, two pieces of rubber-tired logging equipment equipped with snow chains and steel tracks, were operated over snow from Amacker Ranch to the forest thinning area, over a large open meadow. Ruts in the snow pack were visually very obvious today [12/7/2010].”
The work was done Dec. 1 and Dec. 2. By Friday contractor Dave Mercer determined further operations could not continue because of the deteriorating snow conditions brought on by warmer weather and snowmelt.
Jeff Cowen, spokesman for TRPA, said his agency’s forester, Megan Scheeline, visited the site Dec. 2 at which time she deemed the site looked fine.
Photos taken Dec. 4 that were sent to Lake Tahoe News are the same ones sent to Adams. He said the photos look worse than reality.
“Upon close inspection, the visible segments of meadow surface actually appeared almost entirely untouched. There was some localized evidence of at least some minor soil compaction, where the weight of the logging equipment left an impression a few inches below the surrounding soil level,” Adams wrote. “These compacted areas were isolated and for the most part, shovel digging of the snow and ice immediately next to the melted out snow ruts showed that the meadow surface below the melted out snow ruts was still at the same elevation as the surrounding meadow surface. Therefore the dramatic photos of melted out snow ruts within the shrinking snowpack do not necessarily show rutting in the underlying meadow surface.”
For now, the logs will remain stacked until the contractor can remove them after the snow is gone.
Maybe the State Parks Dept should invent some type of condom device to protect the ground. Or how about machinery that can levitate. And they wonder why CA is bankrupt.
When remodeling my home, the TRPA required that during the winter months a driveway be installed between the street pavement and the house so cars would not disturb the soil. If I hadn’t paid to install a temporary drive, they would have shut down my contractor. What’s changed that they allow HUGE equipment to drive on snow? Are they treating homeowners different than the State?
Yes, I would expect a house project to be treated differently than a fuel reduction project. Over the snow is smarter in sensitive areas.
The park users who reported this have proven that you can get what you want from a snapshot. If you are looking for environmental harm, then snow ruts look like the worst thing that ever happened.
If you are looking for wildfire threat reduction in a meadow, then this project looks about as expected.
I hope the park users go back and re-photo that same spot when the snow is gone. I’ll bet the grass is still growing right where those tracks are.
Lake Tahoe News believes TRPA officials should sign their names to posts. How about it Thunker?
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
Oversight of the fuels reduction project in Washoe Meadows State Park is essential; that’s why the permit is required. The project has very good intentions: reduce fire risk & improve forest health with minimal impact to the sensitive ecosystems. A mistake was made by the contractor: they drove heavy equipment across a meadow area when snow coverage was not thick enough to protect the meadow. The damages caused were not neccessary. There is a well built gravel road crossing the same meadow. This road should be marked and the tractors should stay on this road whenever possible even with “over the snow” operations. To their credit, they did so for most of their drive to the thinning project. Their work at the actual thinning sight,in the overgrown forest near the end of Kiowa looks good, with minimal damage to soils and a healthy spacing of older trees with significant thinning of overcrowded small trees.
It is appropriate for park users to report such a mistake to oversight agencies to help manage the project.
The project should continue… and with continued close supervision by State Parks Forester Rich Adams. He is doing the best he can to manage the forest resources of our park with his limited budget.
Please mark the road to avoid future damages to the meadow by the tractor operators.
Own your posts … post your name
Nice response, Rick. Thank you.