Nickolas Wilkinson has been hired as the new vegetation management supervisor. His responsibilities include overseeing the roadside vegetation program for the county’s 700 miles of roadways. Here’s some background from Nick:

I come from Missoula, Montana where I graduated from the University of Montana College of Forestry with a degree in resource conservation and an emphasis on forest management. I spent 6 years working as a wildland firefighter for private, state, and federal agencies. I eventually worked my way up to a Heli-rappeler for the US Forest Service based out of La Grande, OR on the Blue Mountain Rappelers. I worked in the environmental department of Wilson Construction in Canby for 3 years where I managed environmental portions of projects the company performed. This work included applying, obtaining and managing environmental permits, revegetation and restoration work, and ensuring permit compliance on all projects. I spent 2 years working in Portland as an arborist where I led crews to perform tree pruning and removal projects, disease diagnosis and treatment plans, and risk hazard assessments for trees in high traffic areas. I moved to McMinnville in 2015 where I met my wife and we now live in Carlton with our 2 children.

As the new Vegetation Management Supervisor for Public Works my goal is to help the county continue managing vegetation our right-of-way according to the ‘Roadside Vegetation Management Plan’ and the ‘Habitat Conservation Plan’. I am also in charge of implementing the DEQ’s ‘Willamette Basin Mercury TMDL’ mandate for the Yamhill River. The authority for the implementation of this program has been delegated to Yamhill County. The broad goal of this program is to keep mercury from entering our waterways. The main source of mercury in our county is that which has been deposited and sequestered in the soil and then mobilized in surface water. That means that erosion and sedimentation is the primary focus to prevent contamination to our waterways. The old practice of applying herbicides to ditches to clear out existing vegetation to leave bare soil needs to be replaced with revegetation of those ditches with low growing grasses. My goal is to work hand in hand with landowners to come up with a plan to vegetate the ROW ditches that border their land, keeping both parties interests at the core.