Cerro Gordo Land Conservancy Fire Recovery

December 2024 | Story by Shane Hetzler, Trout Mountain Forestry
Photo credit: Connie Gage

A wildfire impacted 24 acres of oak woodland and prairie habitat on September 14th, 2023 on lands protected by the Cerro Gordo Land Conservancy. The Land Conservancy contracted with Trout Mountain Forestry to salvage the fire-killed trees to reduce fuel loading on the landscape, to prevent bug outbreaks that can spread to neighboring healthy trees, and to make the project area safe for restoration and maintenance workers. Additionally, the monetary value from wood sales may be used for property stewardship funds. Tree removal allows for faster site stabilization through native seeding and tree planting activities, which we hope will have the added benefit of reducing the amount of sedimentation to local waterways. This project will treat 14 acres of burned woodlands in addition to 8 acres of adjacent green ground for oak restoration.

Immediately following the fire, we put down 200 pounds of a native site-stabilizing mix that included Sitka brome, California brome, meadow barley, blue wildrye and slender hairgrass. The results were excellent since the fire effectively site-prepped the area so that the seed had good direct contact with the newly cleared land.

This fall, most conifer were removed from the site and all hardwoods were retained. Residual conifer within 10 feet of the high water mark as well as scattered individual conifer exhibiting excellent habitat characteristics (thick bark, 4” and larger diameter branches, potential nesting platforms, forked tops, etc.) were also retained. 39 loads of logs were removed, the proceeds going to pay for the operation as well as future land and habitat improvements at Cerro Gordo. A hand crew was brought in for additional slash management, and to compliment and speed up the work being done by the excavator piling the slash. Two loads of pulp were not able to be collected and shipped due to the rainy fall weather. We are going to get this shipped when we return in 2025 to do the adjacent work in the Hidden Meadow restoration unit, once the dirt spur is accessible again to equipment. The non-merchantable material is being piled and cured for burning, estimated to occur in the winter of 2025.

We are now assessing the site for additional riparian planting. This needs to be balanced with some of Conservancy’s future goals for potentially maintaining restored sites with prescribed fire. Additional native grass seed has been secured and will be spread on the site in addition to the natives currently growing there, as soon as piling is done and timing allows. Invasive species will be treated with herbicides, manual, or mechanical removal according to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles. The treatments and their frequency will depend on the needs of the site, how the invasives respond to the treatments, etc. The trail going through the restoration unit will also have to be re-built, which we are hoping to do sometime in 2025 (summertime, depending upon availability). We are trying to secure an Americorps crew for this work, but if that is not possible, we will fall back on contracted labor.