Oregon Natural Forestry

Michael Ahr, at the Hagenstein Lecture thought many small landowners are getting interested in active forest management, but what is interesting about it?  I don’t think there is any one answer to the question as the diversity of what a forest owner would like to do is probably as diverse as the flora and fauna (above and below ground) in any one stand.  Some may want to lead with wildlife, others a steady stream of income or perhaps a place in the forest made as resilient as possible to fire, climate and pests. What’s so interesting about active forest management it’s all the directions it can go.  Starting with listening, more listening, probably more listening, learning about the stands, soils, wildlife and then writing it all down and making some decisions.  I once heard a State Forester asked if one acre of forest could provide clean water, timber harvest and meet the wildlife needs for all of the species expected to live in the forest.  He said no, but...

"(Forests) need to be restored to a new future condition” said Nicole Strong.  What will this forest look like, how can resilience be built in, can you get there with the current high density of small trees? Big questions that can probably be best met locally, YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) here in the US with Forest Practice rules or Best (Forest) Management Practices helping to guide the work.  These rules require re-planting, harvesting to conserve the soil resource and protecting water quality.  How to do it would have to depend on the site, sunny, shaded, are homes nearby, and a whole bunch of other things to consider.  The main thing would be to get going, doing nothing, does not seem to be the best course of action.  Jobs, sustainable jobs, in manufacturing wood products  which can also generate sustainable jobs developing US products. How could you tell the wood being used is sustainably sourced? If you are building in Portland, Oregon and you are...

From Sarah Deumling at the Women Owning Woodlands part of the Hagenstein Lecture recently completed in Portland, Oregon.  What the speakers brought was passion and as much as they wanted to deny it, a unique perspective on forest ownership.  Thinking generational seemed to come naturally, watching a tree start from a seedling is like children, Sarah again “be patient, trees grow faster than you think”.  She added that they do not sell pulp (really small tree segments that paper is made from) and instead leave it in the forest to act as fertilizer to enrich the soil. All of the speakers knew that the values of clean water, wildlife habitat and healthy air can be created in a forest, making them valuable ecosystems for our future.  What they wanted was a way to ascribe a value to these forest benefits and not just to the logs removed.  Currently the only substantial way a forest generates value is from log sales, and value is important to maintain forest owner...

This is a September headline from the Coloradoan that describes the death toll as 1 in 15 trees, it could be a Halloween horror story.  The reason given is decades of misguided forest management.  Now a devastating wildfire can threaten clean water sources and the homes of many. The idea proposed in the article is that forests need fire, I see it a bit differently, forests need people with a vision.  A vision that all tools available are used to restore forest health.  Removal of some of the dead trees, spacing trees out so they can utilize sun and water and not being afraid to challenge the status quo and try something different.  It will take using what has worked in the past and probably something more to restore forest health.