The
Summit Lighthouseâ and
Church Universal and Triumphantâ
Business Office
October 9, 2002
The Forest Management Plan
Dear Friend of the Royal Teton Ranch,
Thank you for your feedback during the comment process on the Forest Management Plan for the Royal Teton Ranch. We received 19 responses to our communication on the Forest Management Plan. Most of the responses commended the plan. There were several replies that raised good questions. We are grateful for all of the comments received.
Some of the feedback confirms much of what the Board of Directors and Presidents have stated in the past. Some of the comments include the following:
“The property (the Royal Teton Ranch) is a huge and vital stewardship, and its management must always be conducted under the direction of the Holy Spirit and the (Ascended) Masters.”
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“Having witnessed the devastation in Arizona’s beautiful White Mountains with the recent Rodeo-Chedeski fires, along with the sparing of those few areas that have been responsibly managed in recent years, I feel that it is the proper course to protect the Royal Teton Ranch property by a comprehensive and adaptive management plan as has been proposed.”
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“I grew up on a farm where we harvested trees and more than replaced them. Trees are a renewable resource if properly managed. I am fully aware that lack of management creates problems of disease, parasites, and more.”
Others who wrote have witnessed previous forest fire devastation in their own states and do not want to see it happen at the Inner Retreat, our sacred land.
The following are answers to some of the questions asked about The Forest Management Plan.
Field Oversight of the Forest Management Plan
The organization has hired William Smith to assist us in overseeing and monitoring the fieldwork in our forest management project. He has been at the site insuring that the prescription for the Little Joe Fire area was carried out as specified. He will continue to work with us in this capacity as we move into other management blocks. William has excellent credentials. He is a registered professional engineer since 1982; worked on staff at the Ranch for 14 years serving as Chief Engineer of the Church’s Engineering & Planning Department; worked closely for Mother and Edward from 1983 through 1995 to prepare the facilities at the Ranch including ranch headquarters, ranch office, Golden Age Village, Sphinx Mountain mobile home part and the Heart Conference facilities; and he was superintendent of commercial construction projects. In addition to his engineering, management and field experience, he brings a spiritual sensitivity from years of working with Mother. William does not have financial ties to the outcome of the project. He is a devoted member of the organization with a great love of the land and the expertise needed to oversee the fulfillment of the plan. President Kate Gordon and Judith Filbert, who manages our Business Office, will also be visiting the project sites at least once a week to oversee the progress made.
Recently some additional roadwork was added to the property as discussed in email communications to the field on October 12, 2001 and April 12, 2002 regarding the plans for restoration and salvage work in the Little Joe Fire area. With the event of the Little Joe Fire it became apparent that the roads are poorly laid out and not optimally located for fast and efficient fire deployment.
As we became more aware of what makes a good backcountry road, we created objectives for improving the roads on the ranch over time. Our objectives involve protection for the environment by eliminating or correcting poorly configured stream crossings and removing road segments that lay close to streams. They also include removing steep grades and sharp turns in the roads.
One existing road, known as “The Hoppe Creek Road,” currently fails all our objectives. It does not conform to our streamside goal standards and is steep. The road runs about ½ mile along Hoppe Creek from the intersection of the Aldridge hazardous mine sign to the point where it connects with the Beattie Gulch Road, near the Forbes Barn. We will abandon and relocate that road.
We will also abandon the spur road from the Hoppe Creek Road out to Forbes Pond. These abandoned roads will be blocked off to motorized vehicles, allowing them to naturally recover. We will also take steps to reclaim scarred segments of these roads by reseeding and replanting them in places. While we will block use of these roads to vehicles, we will keep them open as foot, horse and bicycle trails for member recreational use and for administrative use.
The relocated road will take off from the existing “Homer’s road,” and end up by the Forbes barn. The relocated road will provide safer access to all the same areas for both fire fighters and members and its location will be far beyond the ordinary limits of streamside protection.
Finally, by careful planning of the new roads, we are pleased to report that the changes in the total road system, when completed, will reduce the overall amount of road on the property by one and one-quarter mile.
Some have asked what will be the percentage of trees cut. Actually people who do forest management do not typically speak of percentage of trees cut. They refer instead to the number of trees per acre. Each area within forest management blocks will have a specific and detailed prescription written by our forest consultant based on the assessment made for that particular area. Examples include:
· If an area is heavily infested with insects, then we would want to remove those dead and dying trees.
· Should there be a problem with soil slippage on the hillsides an adjustment would be made to leave more trees to hold the soil.
· In areas where no sun reaches the ground, trees will be thinned so sun and soil nutrients will provide for healthy trees and undergrowth. Each management block will be examined and site specific characteristics considered, rather than harvesting a percentage of all trees on the ranch.
· The holistic structure of the forest will be considered before and after the treatments.
The philosophy of the Board of Directors and the management of the Church and the organization is to continue sound forest management practices for the property of the Royal Teton Ranch. This is in line with current thinking on the subject as recent newspaper articles and television programs confirm what many have known for some time—sound forest management can prevent forest fire and create healthier forests.
President Bush has recently outlined a sweeping plan called The Healthy Forest Initiative that calls for a fundamental change in how the nation views and manages its national forests. You can find more details about the President’s plan at this link, http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/healthyforests/toc.html. In August while visiting the fire in Ruch, Oregon, President Bush made the following statement, “Had we properly managed our forests, the devastation caused would not have been nearly as severe as it has been….”
Today’s fire conditions in the nation are the result of a century of land management, which included aggressive fire fighting. In addition to that, extreme levels of dry fuels have lead to unprecedented wildfires that expend billions of dollars of public and private funds.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said on September 12, 2002 “Foresters, firefighters and scientists understand the problem. A century of aggressive firefighting in the West’s…forests has created an unnatural buildup of fuels. Wildfires that once burned on the ground and at a low intensity now outrun all possibility of suppression. We can’t do anything about climate or drought or geography, but we can do something about fuels.”
For more information on the fire suppression policy in the West over the last 100 years, we recommend a video “Fire Wars”, a NOVA production that is available by calling 800-949-8670.
Dan Pittman, our forestry consultant, has been asked to assess the forest on our property. Dan wrote the overall Forest Management Plan and will make recommendations to the Board of Directors as to how to proceed with the Forest Management Plan, in order to insure that we leave the land and forest for future generations in better condition than it is currently. The Presidents and Board of Directors agree with Dan’s comment, “If we do not manage the land and the forest, nature will do it for us, through fires and insect infestations.”
There were some inaccuracies in a couple of the letters that we received that were also sent to a broad section of membership and we would like to correct these:
· Dan Pittman did not have pneumonia. Another person who was working on the Forest Management Plan did have pneumonia.
· There is not a predetermined number of board feet of timber required to be removed from our lands.
We are grateful for the support of all of the members who love the land of the Inner Retreat. One member wrote: “I was impressed by the presentation at the conference and am in full support of our plan to manage our forest lands responsibly.”
We hope this helps you better understand the steps we are taking to care for this land, not just for ourselves, but also for future generations to come. Please continue to invite the Masters and the angels to overshadow, assist and protect all who are working on every aspect of The Forest Management Plan. We can also call for the Will of God for the forest, for all elemental life and the protection of the light contained therein. We welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit in all of our decisions on behalf of the Masters and the membership of The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant. God bless you all for your service to the light. Please contact Destyne Erickson at derickson@tsl.org for further information.
In the Spirit of Victory,
Judith Filbert
Business Manager