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<td><h2>GILL OAK RESTORATION PROJECT</h2>
Integrated Resource Management, Consulting Foresters and Restoration Ecologists
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<img src="../pics/webpics/ocwgpix/image007.jpg" border="0"><br>
<font size="-1"><em>Oak Savanna with encroaching English hawthorne understory.  Current treatments are aimed at reducing  these noxious plants and restoring native grasses.</em></font>
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<strong>Introduction:</strong> The McKenzie River Trust (MRT) hired Integrated Resource Management (IRM) in the fall of 2003 to develop and implement a management plan for restoring 200 acres of remnant oak woodland and savanna on the Gill property located near Oakland, Oregon. The property has high habitat potential due to remnant native grass populations and large oaks, yet years of neglect, overgrazing and tree harvest by the previous owner had left it choked with noxious weeds and overstocked with young oaks.  Funding was secured though USFW grants to cover part of the costs of completing initial treatments.  
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Experimental treatments are being implemented on the tract to reduce English Hawthorne in oak savannas, expand native grasslands, and restore riparian vegetation function along Oldham Creek   This work seeks to restore habitat for a number of at-risk species including the Columbia white-tailed deer, white-breasted nuthatch and western pond turtle.
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<p><strong>Goals and Objectives:</strong> 
The central goal of the management plan is to restore remnant high value oak habitats and reduce risk of high intensity fire behavior, while allowing limited grazing. The landowner forest management objective was to insure a diverse and functional forest and maintain and/or restore the following features:
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<li>A forest dominated by a mix of native species, and dominated by species and forest structure that 
provide the highest wildlife value with a focus on Columbian white-tailed deer and other oak habitat 
dependant species.
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<li>An assemblage of native and no-invasive domestic plants.  Noxious and other invasive non-native 
Plants are discouraged and will be controlled as resource allow.  Domestic plants are widespread and 
dominant through the property.  Complete eradication is neither economically feasible, operationally attainable, or desired by the landowner.
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<li>Habitat qualities necessary to support target native fish and wildlife species.</li>
<li>Other objectives included road maintenance, wildfire (fuels reduction), grass/grazing management, 
ponds for wildlife and protection of rare plant and animal species.
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<p><strong>Methods/Activities :</strong>Treatments implemented include the use of narrow spectrum herbicides in conjunction with brush mastication, prescribed burning, broadcast seeding, mosaic thinning of young oaks, release thinning of invading Douglas-fir and incense cedar. Treatment methods are listed below.

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<strong>Tree Shearer (thinning)</strong> 
<li>Thin single-stratum oak, pile tops and scatter/pile boles, burn piles</li>
<li>Thin conifers in mixed woodlands, pile tops and scatter/pile boles, burn piles</li>
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<strong>Fecon Bullhog Brushing and Tree Mastication Treatment Prescriptions</strong>
<li>Bullhog all non-oak vegetation within treatment unit</li>
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<strong>Herbicide Application </strong>
<li>Spot spray glyphosate and garlon</li>
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<strong>Seeding</strong>
<li>Broadcast Native Seeding</li>
<li>Hand plant cuttings and bare rootstock in riparian area</li>
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<strong>Prescribed Burning</strong>
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Through these treatments we hope to gain information on the most effective treatments to reduce heavy English Hawthorne and blackberry cover while releasing and not damaging remnant California fescue populations. 


<p><strong>Lessons Learned:</strong>
It is too early to tell. Treatment monitoring in the summer of 2005 will indicate the effectiveness of work completed in 2004.  


<p><strong>Further Information:</strong>
Contact Darin Stringer, Integrated Resource Management, darin@irmforestry.com or by phone at (541) 484-1217.  For additional project work visit IRM's website at <a href="http://www.irmforestry.com" target="_blank">www.irmforestry.com</a>.

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