There are approximately 316 acres in this management unit. The
first cutting was done between 1907 and 1911 by clear-cut and burn
railroad logging. Approximately 40 acres of second growth redwood
were harvested in the 1960's, leaving very little merchantable timber.
With the exception of this site, the logging has generated an even-aged
stand approximately 80 years old consisting of Douglas-fir and redwood
trees. Tanoak is the primary understory tree with occasional mixtures
of madrone.
A Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) conducted in 1989
by Piper, Kelly and Anderson established an inventory of 26,163 bf/ac
for redwood and 17,318 bf/ac for Douglas-fir using 100 CFI plots
of 1/5th acre. The CFI plots were re-established in 1997 by Larry
Bonner and those measurements indicated an inventory of 28,612 bf/ac
for redwood and 8,923 bf/ac for Douglas-fir. The current species
distribution is approximately 76% redwood and 24% Douglas-fir (Bonner,
1998). The preferred management of this unit would be an uneven-aged
stand with a 70% redwood and 30% Douglas-fir mix. Present management
practices are converting this to an uneven-aged stand (which meets
the Santa Cruz timber regulations of selective harvesting).
At this
time, 259 of the 315 acres have been harvested over the last 15 years,
and there will be one more area harvested to complete the remainder
within the next two years. Cutting cycles are planned for ten to
fifteen-year periods with an evaluation done after five years. Continuous
forest inventory plots were established for the unit by establishing
permanent markers on a 500 x 500 ft grid. Stands are divided according
to forest inventory, topography and access. There are currently a
total of 8 stands in the North and South Fork units with additional
ones planned for the future. It is intended that each stand will
have an ongoing evaluation data sheet describing the operational
and environmental factors of that stand, including such effects on
the trees as disease, mass land movements and fire. There will also
be a schedule of work established for each stand that will include
the stands at Valencia Creek.
To bring the forest to a regulated
state, the increment analysis used for the annual cut calculations
is 200,000 BF per year or 500 BF per acre (Big Creek Lumber, 1991).
The stand will eventually contain a maximum diameter of 30 inches,
a desired q-factor of 1.2 and a basal area of 180 square feet per
acre (Piirto et al, 1996).
