With declining rainfall in our region it is time to take drastic steps to preserve our forest. We can either wait for our trees to begin dying due to draught and insect infestation or we can take action now to begin thinning and dead limbing.
- All trees under six inches in diameter at chest height need to be removed.
- Increase spacing between remaining trees as necessary
- Remove all dead limbs
- Removal of Bitter Brush below tree drip lines, leave the rest for the deer.
Before I was asked to join the Board in 2008, I’d listen to people bitch at our “monthly” meetings about exterior lighting and forest conditions with no one volunteering. Makes me gag! Whiners!
Having never shied away from an honest day’s work, I raised my hand and said, “I’ll do it!” “You’ll do what?” I’ll put together a plan for our exterior lights and a comprehensive forest plan.
Sticking to the forest plan, I met with the Oregon Department of Forestry, Fish & Wildlife, Wild & Scenic/Bend Parks and Recreation to understand their needs as much of our property is governed by Wild & Scenic. And since we live in the middle of a National Forest, fitting in is preferred.
After meeting with the experts, I put together a scope of work, breaking that scope into three bite sized chunks for budgetary considerations. I then got on the phone to see who was interested in bidding for the work. My background says get 3 bids but 2 bidders was the best that I could muster. I held a bidders’ conference and we walked the property me setting expectations along the way. Any questions asked later were shared with both parties.
By this time I’d walked the 40 acres 4 times, marking trees with surveyor ribbon based on Stuart Otto’s (ODoF) spacing recommendations. After marking all the trees to be removed I informed the residents that if they felt the plan was too radical that they could feel free to remove any ribbon of their choosing. Most ribbons were left remaining.
Once again, the intent was to perform this work statement over 3 years but after the first year “our membership” decided to fund the remaining 2 phases by moving money from our reserve account, which we no longer have, to our operating fund.
Having depleted a significant amount of our reserve funds, the board asked the membership to make a decision on increasing our dues by $25, $50 or $75 per year per lot. The membership agreed to increasing our annual dues by $50 a year with the understanding that those funds would be held in reserve for common area forest maintenance. Where’s the money?
Our secretary says that we hired a professional arborist and that arborist says our forest is in top notch condition. Get a Refund!
This is why I can’t stress enough hiring professionals and taking the personalities out of the formula!
I’ll be putting together a comprehensive budget plan shortly based on all of the shortfalls I’m aware of. All member input is imperative.