Wildfire Risk Reduction and Forest Cleanup Come to the KP

What is it like to mow down 80 acres of Scotch broom and blackberry brambles? 

Just ask Dan Wehmeier. 

This winter the forestry contractor spent four months mowing and mulching to restore a large brush-choked forest near Vaughn. “The Scotch broom was 12-foot tall,” Wehmeier said. “It was so thick that when it died, it didn’t fall down, and you had dead tinder standing there.” Blackberry vines reached 20 feet into trees. 

This summer a thick carpet of mulch stretches around young trees that are again free to grow. 

The effort fell under the Washington Department of Natural Resources service forestry program. In 2021, House Bill 1168 — known as the Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience Act — introduced Eastern Washington’s forest resiliency program to Western Washington, along with funding for a cadre of consulting foresters and cost-share opportunities for various forest management treatments related to forest health and fuel reduction. DNR paid for 75% of the Vaughn project. 

Lenné Musarra of Tacoma owns the land with her family. She said her attempts to manage the overgrown forest had become futile. “You could come out here and chop away by hand and make a little dent, and you come back in another week or so and it’s right back where it was.” 

DNR service forestry specialist Nat McPherson-Segrist, who managed the project, said she works with many landowners in the same situation. “You’re wanting to steward your land, but you’re not sure how to without the resources, financially or physically.” 

When Wehmeier started the project, it took him two hours with a machete to hike to the middle of the property. He has a small armada of machinery to tackle heavy brush, starting with a Prime Tech forestry mulcher. On tracks, it is specially built to cut, chop, and spread brush as mulch. Working around hidden stumps and young trees as he goes, he uses it to cover large swaths, then he follows with a small excavator equipped with a mulching head to reach into tight spots around trees and over rises. 

“The big focus is to not tear up the land,” Wehmeier said. 

It is easy to do more long-term damage than good. A wrong turn of the treads or pushing to work when the ground is too soft can result in more Scotch broom seed brought to the surface and damaged tree roots. 

The 4-inch bed of mulch left behind is intended to both suppress the regrowth of invasive species and provide a boost of nutrients to the soil. It also allows all material to stay on site. The price per acre for mulching is a fraction of what the hauling and disposal cost would be, according to Wehmeier. 

Follow-up work involves spraying blackberry resprouts and, over time, interplanting other native tree species with the Douglas-firs already on site. 

Musarra’s parents bought the land in the 1960s. Her mother, Eloise Holden, grew up a Girl Scout in the woods of Minnesota. When Holden went to college she wanted to be a forester, but as a woman she was steered into other studies. After she and her husband moved to Tacoma, the Vaughn forestland gave her the chance to be a forester anyway, self-taught. 

The land had an old cabin and barn and an abandoned fruit orchard. Otherwise, it was old forest, Musarra remembered. “We came out here and brought our church group and made apple cider. We had seasonal activities going on.” Her parents eventually harvested the timber in three phases, most recently in 2009. While Douglas-firs were replanted, they could not work free of the brush. 

Musarra said her vision is to return the land to the way she knew it as a child. “I want it to remain in perpetuity as a forest.” 

Wildfire risk was a big motivator for the mulching project. Scotch broom is highly flammable. “When I show up to a wildfire and see a field of Scotch broom,” DNR service forester Gretchen Happe said, “I say, all right, this is going to be a hot one.” 

Heavy brush also acts as a ladder, carrying fire from the ground into the canopy. But fire preparedness is a delicate balance in Western Washington, according to Happe, as it is native brush — shrubs and understory trees — that gives our west side forests much of their value. The native understory provides habitat, shades the soil, and holds water in the soil longer into the summer. Unlike in Eastern Washington, where wildfires are naturally frequent and low-intensity, the fire record in Western Washington shows infrequent, high-intensity fires, on the time scale of centuries. 

That math may be changing. Sources of ignition are multiplying. The wildland-urban interface is a term used to describe areas like the Key Peninsula, where fire-resistant older forest types are being fragmented and more homes are built in places where they are vulnerable. Education, communication, and sharing of resources are critical in such environments, Happe said. 

Increasing spacing between trees and adding species diversity are two classic forest health objectives that also impact wildfire safety. “It’s a win-win,” Wehmeier said. “These projects really help improve the forest health while mitigating fire risk. 

“It really doesn’t matter from 1 acre to 5 acres, every little piece helps to improve the overall picture.” 

DNR’s service forestry program works with tribal, county, and private landowners with holdings between 1 and 5,000 acres. Its service foresters provide site visits and walk landowners through whatever challenges they are facing. No forest management plan is required. Many management tasks, from tree planting to roadbuilding to pre-commercial thinning are eligible for cost-share support. The program can also reimburse landowners who want to do their own labor for half of the value of their time. 

This is important for people who may be land-rich but cash-poor and are forced to consider selling their land to investors. “We don’t want to see that,” said forest resiliency district manager Matthew Axe. “We will do whatever we can to help make sure a landowner can keep their land in forest. That’s our goal.” 

“Disposable income doesn’t usually go to the forest,” McPherson-Segrist said. She said her goal is to remove barriers and requirements that may prevent landowners from pursuing help. 

The program also aims to develop a statewide pool of forestry contractors who have the skills and equipment to take on projects like this. Axe said giving grants to local landowners has a direct effect on building local economies around sustainable models of forestry. 

“I saw a real need for this,” Wehmeier said, referring to forest maintenance. “So we went all in. Our family’s been logging, and I’ve been logging forever. Want to buy a log truck? It’s an expensive lawn ornament right now.” With his fleet of specialized mulchers, he is tackling projects from Poulsbo to Westport, with regular work across the mountains. 

Even with the funds lined up, Musarra found it difficult to find a contractor willing to consider the project. She called eight, many of whom left her hanging before she found Wehmeier. 

“That was disheartening,” she said. “How can we be encouraging young people to be contractors? We need to start from the ground up and get young people involved in caring about land, trees, and forestry.”