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Beaver County moves ahead with Upper Lake forest treatments, timber-sale planning and campground preparations
Summary
After extended discussion, commissioners authorized staff to advance hand treatments, pursue a cooperative timber sale with Trust Lands and prepare contracts to begin work on priority county property at Upper Lake; staff said bids could be out within weeks and completion targeted in 2026.
Beaver County commissioners authorized staff Sept. 16 to move forward on forest-thinning and fuels-reduction work at the Upper Lake county property, including hand treatments in campgrounds, coordinated timber sales on larger sections and cooperative work with the state Trust Lands forester.
At the meeting county staff, a contracted forester and Trust Lands representatives described a two-track approach: hand treatments in high-use campground and cabin zones and a commercial timber-sale approach in other red-highlighted sections. The county’s project proposal described roughly 186 acres adjacent to the county property and an additional roughly 150 acres on nearby parcels that Trust Lands may include to improve marketability of timber sales.
Why it matters: the work is intended to reduce wildfire risk around proposed campgrounds and infrastructure, to create defensible space near recreational development and to capture potential revenue from saleable timber to support ongoing property maintenance.
What commissioners authorized and discussed - Scope and priorities: Staff recommended prioritizing Beaver County’s property—particularly the campground and main-use areas highlighted on the project map—for hand treatment. Hand treatment would focus on removing low-value alpine fir (staff recommended removing alpine fir 10 inches and under in treated zones) while retaining select leave-groups and aspen and spruce specimens. - Timber-sale coordination: Staff said they are discussing a cooperative memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Trust Lands forester to administer a timber sale on the red sections that would recover some merchantable volume and return revenue to the county subject to state stipulations. Staff said Trust Lands would assist with administering the commercial sale to make the overall offering more attractive to bidders. - Firewood and pile management: The county plans to separate merchantable firewood piles from burn piles and allow wood-cutters or community groups to remove firewood; the approach mirrors practices staff said have worked on other Trust Lands projects. - Timeline and bidding: Staff said they want the hand-treatment scope of work out for bid by the end of the month and would aim to begin work before snow if bids are awarded quickly; overall completion for the multiyear program was described as targeted for 2026.
Funding and feasibility questions County staff said one central uncertainty is whether commercial timber sales will generate material revenue and whether any receipts are required by state rules to be returned to specific accounts (staff said terms differ by program and that they will verify how revenues may be applied). The county has applied for an ORI grant and staff said they have also submitted a separate ORI-related proposal; one figure mentioned for an ORI grant application was $2,000,000 to support related infrastructure and campground development.
Staff and the forester (George Mason) said they had walked the property and recommended splitting approaches: hand-thinning in campgrounds and mechanical/commercial logging on thicker red blocks where merchantable timber exists. The hand treatment specification included removing alpine fir up to 10 inches and below in much of the targeted treatment area and leaving groups of younger trees in flagged units for future stand structure.
Next steps and commission direction Commissioners voted to authorize staff to send the contract package to the state purchasing process and to start the work on county property once contracting is complete. Staff said they will share the final scope of work with commissioners before state purchasing and that they expect to send the bid package out within one to two weeks after final edits.
Ending: The county emphasized Beaver County property as the top priority for early treatment; staff will return the final contract/scope of work to the commission before the bid advertisement and will report back on any terms regarding timber-sale revenue use that the Trust Lands or state purchasing process requires.
