GONE WITH THE WIND
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 -- 10:27 AM
Some substantial county timber sale revenues are gone with the wind after a couple damaging summer storms.Rick Dailey has been a forester with Clark County for almost 20 years. He says he?s never seen such a damaging summer.
"This is the first large scale salvage operation I've been involved with in Clark County" he reports.
A tornado ripped through the County Forest in July; another major storm hit in August. Dailey says they found areas in the forest with hundreds of trees completely flattened. All tolled, they found about 1,200 acres of salvageable timber blown down. Those parcels have been opened up to a special timber sale.
"What we could sell immediately, we did. The rest we're selling today during our regular timber sale opening," he says. "We're anticipating 25% to 50% less for the timber, just because it is damaged. Operability is more difficult."
He says it?s difficult to put a cost on the damage, but the winds did significantly impact two of the county?s nicer oak stands. Natural Red Pine and White Pine were also damaged.
A portion of the timber sale revenue goes to reduce the county's property tax levy.
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