| Photos and text by Michael Ellis TVTU Conservation Director  On Friday, June 8th, TVTU members Jeff Price, Mark and Janet Rogers, and Michael Ellis Met at Mckenzie Farms Headquarters by Colton, Oregon to pick up over 100 culled christmas trees. |
All were in the 4 to 6 ft. Range. Mckenzie Farms is one of the largest growers of high quality christmas trees in Oregon.
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They had a surprise for us when we arrived. There was a crew ready to load our vehicles!
Those guys were good. They were really able to load trees. I was envious of their packing ability.
We were loaded up in less than 1/2 hour and we all left for our respective homes.
Saturday morning we got up early and drove to Seaside where we met TVTU members Doug Ray, Mike Coddington and Byron Thompson to drop off the trees at the work site.
from left: Jeff Price, Doug Ray, Mike Coddington, and Byron Thompson unload the U Haul truck
Our volunteers, from left:
Janet Rogers, Mark Rogers, Doug Ray, Byron Thompson, Jeff Price, and Mike Coddington
We then headed up to Longview Timber land to harvest more trees for the habitat project.
Doug and Byron handled the chainsaw duty while the rest of us cut with handsaws and loaded the trucks and trailers.
Jeff looks for more trees to cut
Byron had a trailer that appeared to be made from a 20 yard dumpster. It was huge.
In about an hour we had cut about all the material our trucks and trailers could hold so we headed back to add to the pile.
back at the Thompson property ready to unload
We collected lots of trees for habitat
Mark and Janet begin unloading their trailer
Mike starts unloading his pickup
Mike and Jeff next to the load from Mike's truck
now we start in on Byron's trailer
The pile has grown a lot today!
After unloading we walked around the Thompson property and looked at the wetland area Tualatin Valley Trout Unlimited is helping to complete. (see above photo)
Doug explains to the volunteers how and where we will be placing the trees we collected
Byron also showed us some incredible video he has been shooting documenting the utilization of the wetland area as well as the christmas trees by Coho salmon young. These efforts are really paying off. If you would like to see some of Byrons video, check out his facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/cohosanctuary . There are a few u tube videos, but his facebook page is the motherlode.
We are going to be helping place all this material in a large slack water pool on the Necanicum Saturday July 14. This pool is one of the best spots for juvenile fish on the river during the summer and the addition of the cover and food our tree rafts will provide will let them grow fat and sassy for heading out to sea! This should be a very interesting project to participate in. If you would like to help out with this project, let me know by e mail at tvturestoration@gmail.com .
Our dedicated volunteers, from left:
Michael Ellis, Mark Rogers, Janet Rogers, Byron Thompson, Jeff Price, Doug Ray, Mike Coddington
Thank you all for your help
Sincerely,
Michael Ellis
TVTU Conservation Director
