Cedar Rapids Today

City of Marion recently issued the following announcement.

Faulkes Heritage Woods is a 110-acre public area owned by the City of Marion which is protected by a permanent conservation easement that is monitored by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. The primary management goal for this property is to conserve a healthy native woodland habitat for enjoyment, aesthetics, safe recreational opportunities and a diverse wildlife habitat.  

On August 10, 2020, this woodland area was significantly impacted by the derecho storm. The damage sustained to trees throughout this property was substantial, and some of the worst recorded across the county.  

In response, the City of Marion has contracted with a private logging company to carry out a salvage timber harvest of all trees of species that meet the following criteria down to 12 inches in diameter in designated harvest areas:

• Trees lying on the ground or leaning with any roots exposed.
• Trees with 50% or greater crown loss.
• Tree with significant damage causing heartwood exposure.
• Multi-stemmed trees that split, or where one-stem meets the above criteria.

The goal of this salvage harvest is to remove trees that have a limited opportunity to thrive into the future due to the damage they sustained during the derecho, to minimize tree risk situations and to utilize openings created by the storm to re-establish pockets of mixed upland hardwoods such as oak.

“Unfortunately, there are many trees on this property that meet the criteria for salvage harvest,” said City Arborist Mike Cimprich. “There will be a significant number of logs removed from portions of the woodland which will dramatically change the look of portions of this property.”

The salvage harvest operation has begun and is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2021. There is a staging area on the southwest corner of the woodland adjacent to Tama Street. There will also potentially be a second staging area located north of Indian Creek.

The City will be accepting lump sum, sealed bids for multiple lots of cut logs regularly over the next three months. Visit www.cityofmarion.org/publicnotice to view the current Notice to Bidders.

This salvage harvest is only the beginning of the City of Marion’s effort to respond to the significant damage caused by the 2020 derecho. There is a long-term plan to continue to improve the future quality of this important woodland resource utilizing a variety of forest management activities.

Original source can be found here.