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City forester outlines 2026 watershed management plan, carbon-credit revenue
Summary
Astoria’s city forester presented a consolidated annual forest operations update, describing road inventories, replanting after a heat dome, a planned 48-acre thinning on the consent calendar and a carbon-project reverification that could produce ~32,000 credits this summer worth roughly $250,000–$350,000 for the watershed reserve fund.
Ben Hayes, Astoria’s city forester, told the City Council on March 16 that the city will complete a GPS‑tagged forest road and culvert inventory by May and pursue targeted forest-health projects in 2026, including a planned 48‑acre commercial thinning and about 40 acres of precommercial thinning.
Hayes said the city owns a roughly 3,800‑acre watershed that supplies drinking water to the city and that road maintenance, replanting and harvest decisions are being managed with that source‑water protection priority in mind. “The city is very unique that it owns a 3,800 acre watershed,” Hayes said. He described a planned inventory that records every culvert’s GPS location, condition and photos and includes recommended repairs for the next 10 years.
Hayes reviewed recent work: reforesting a 58‑acre harvest unit from 2024, replanting about 12 acres where seedlings died during a severe heat dome, and consolidating multiple presentations into this single annual update. He said the Forest Practices Act changes increased stream buffers and added a road‑assessment program for larger landowners, prompting the city to wrap a full road inventory into its stewardship planning.
On the city’s carbon project, Hayes said staff completed an inventory with Cougar Environmental and submitted modeling and documentation this winter. This is a reverification year that will support a credit issuance and possible sale this summer. “We anticipate we’re gonna be selling 32,000 credits, and that is valued at roughly 250 to $350,000,” Hayes said; he added that the proceeds are being reserved in a watershed fund for stewardship and future carbon‑project costs.
Hayes described the planned commercial thinning as a forest‑health project using a “sort sale” structure that separates road‑maintenance contracts from log‑buyer bids and gives the city more control over equipment and ecological outcomes. He said the thinning will retain large stream buffers (150 feet) and avoid building new roads; the intention is to reduce stand density and increase residual tree vigor.
The presentation also covered precommercial thinning (no merchantable product leaves the site, an anticipated 40 acres and roughly $10,000 cost), the city’s Forest Stewardship Council group certification and ongoing work to evaluate mitigation options tied to a 2021 road washout and the Cedar Creek culvert failures, for which staff are meeting with regulators on design options and anticipate a 2027 replacement.
Councilors asked about sedimentation risk near Bridal and Middle Lake; Hayes said the thinning drains toward Bear Creek and benefits from a 150‑foot buffer and from selective, light thinning practices. Councilor Adams asked which Forest Practices Act provisions most affect the city; Hayes pointed to stream‑buffer increases and the road‑assessment program. Hayes said the commercial thinning item is on the consent calendar and staff will answer follow‑up questions as needed.
The council did not take separate action on anything beyond the consent calendar placement during Hayes’s presentation.
