Amanda Lindsay is a certified silviculturist who has worked in silviculture on the Malheur National Forest for the past 8 years. During her time on the Malheur she has led and worked on vegetation restoration projects that include plantation thinning, planting and precommercial thinning in wildfire landscapes, aspen restoration, riparian enhancement thinning, and large landscape projects that are designed to restore ecosystem structure and function. She has planned and implemented variable density thinning, ICO (Individuals, Clumps, and Openings) thinning, an innovative new silvicultural system called Free Selection, and Designation by Prescription. She is also a Contracting Officer’s Representative, leading precommercial thinning, fuels reduction, planting, and riparian restoration contracts, as well as inspecting commercial harvest for the Malheur 10-year Stewardship. She is an active participant of the Blue Mountain Forest Partners collaborative.

Amanda Lindsay has a B.S. in Forest Management and an M.S. in Forest Science majoring in silviculture from Oregon State University. Her Master’s project studied planting and vegetation management in Northeastern Oregon.

Presentation Topic

Alternative Contracting Methods and Implementation Strategies for Commercial Harvest

Presentation Description

This presentation will discuss the differences, advantages, and disadvantages between timber sale contracting methods such as traditional timber sale, IRTC, IRSC, and the 10-year stewardship. The differences, advantages, and disadvantages between Forest Service mark and using Designation by Prescription, and how these methods of tree selection fit in with the different contracting methods, will also be discussed.

Advantages of using alternative contracting and tree selection methods include decreased sale prep time and cost, treating sales that may not be economically viable, and providing consistency to contractors. One disadvantage is the increased risk to the government. These contracting and tree selection methods have been used on the Malheur National Forest in the Starr Stewardship project, Marshall Divine, Soda Bear, and Galena. In addition, a comparison between Forest Service mark and Designation by Prescription was completed in the Starr Stewardship project to determine if there were any differences between basal area, clumpiness, and cost for these two methods. Since the Starr Stewardship trial Designation by Prescription has been used for several other projects on the Malheur, including Marshall Divine and Galena.