| Notice Dasher’s crowbar-like horns. |
A Win/Win with Juniper Poles
This last week we visited In the Sticks, a north central Oregon sawmill, kiln, and source for juniper poles. Our (dear) goats test the pole structures and fence posts, breaking them off as they weaken. Perhaps they are in service of our certifying agency! When we began the certifying process, we discovered the treated poles that we were using were forbidden. Slowly our goats have put us on a program to replace all of them!
So, enter juniper. While juniper is a native tree in eastern Oregon, it has also become invasive to the native grasslands since white man arrived and stopped the periodic burning. Young shoots took hold. Recent restoration efforts include cutting these young trees. Juniper does not rot, so it is an ideal wood for pole structures and for fence posts.
| The young junipers are cut. One hundred years ago they would have been burned off. This is naturally a grassland. |
So we ordered a truckload of juniper fence posts and poles, and this fall we will begin the project of replacing fence posts and the llama’s pole structure that the goats are dismantling. We will keep you posted!