I have roots in both California and Southern Oregon. I have a lifetime of perspective of the good intentions on all sides of the issues involving forest management. It could be my Native American blood (grandma was a Choctaw, born on the reservation) that has drawn me to take one small one hundred and sixty acre piece of what is truly God's country, and return, as much as possible, to what it was before the arrival of the Europeans.

 

The beauty of what is commonly referred to as an old growth Douglas Fir forest can take your breath away. But what are we truly seeing?  Westward settlers figured out immediately that the Douglas Fir tree was the highest quality tree for lumber and one of the fastest  growing trees. Whereas the Natives cultivated the oak trees in the valleys, burning the grass under it, fir trees offered them relatively nothing. With the arrival of the Europeans, the value of fir trees increased. It resulted in ingenious ways to log, mill,  and regrow fir trees,  which including leaving a strip of seed trees on the top of the ridges, to seed to hillsides below. On top of the logging practices, it became law in 1964 that required that fir trees be planted to receive tax benefits. 

 

In Oregon the top of the Cascade Mountain Range from Canada to California has been designated for protection since 1914, including half of the one million acres in the Umpqua National Forest. Up until the the early 1980s, half of the National Forest was managed for timber production and recreation. This intensely managed, scientific forest brought forth hundreds of thousands of acres Douglas Fir trees, growing in different stages. Over eighty years, supplying the timber to build millions of American homes,

 

The environmental movement successfully crippled an entire way of life by succeeding in totally  banning  logging on the entire National Forest by litigation. One of the most damaging  consequences of this is it becomes necessary to source wood products and pulp from un-managed sources in third world countries, like in the Amazon rain forest, Africa and Indonesia. Civil Rights, ending the Vietnam war, those were causes. To stop logging managed forests to save trees is foolish and destructive. It is our responsibility as the worlds most powerful nation to be an example to the world of proper forest management, and natural resource management in general.

 

Basic services like schools were recipients of Federal dollars from timber sales. One of the results of the lack of basic services was the Cartel's growing of huge illegal pot farms. That's why I'm here! They were draining, up to their ability, a fish spawning stream on this land.  

 

The population of the Spotted Owl has decreased by sixty two percent in the National Forest since 1992.

 

It is painfully oblivious that catastrophic fires are decimating our forests in the Pacific Northwest. Our economy  and ecology are in shambles. Honestly, how could it have come out any worse? Keep reading.

 

Large Investment corporations, like Weyerhauser, have successfully lobbied the Oregon Legislature to ELIMINATE any tax on timber since 1999. The result is starving rural communities without any money for basic services, let alone fire prevention and environmental issues. Meanwhile, Weyerhauser is logging over a million acres of their own privately owned land in Southern Oregon, exporting the logs to China, while employing less than 1000 employees in Oregon. They log on a 30 year cycle, apply pesticide and fertilizer with helicopters, then export the logs to China. Does that make Oregon a tax free tree farm?

 

Two Hundred years ago nature would have grown Mountain Hemlocks on exposed knobs, giant Red Ceders in the cool creek bottoms. Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Suger Pine, oak, and madrones mixed. Natural meadows, cool wallows. The concept is simple, not inexpensive nor easy to replicate.. To replicate what was once natural. Remove multiple invasive plants, plant native grasses.....

 

My career in the timber industry began in 1975. I was fortunate to be the mill Plant Superintendent for Nordic Veneer, Inc., for a decade through the eighties. Working for a small, family wood products company in Roseburg, Oregon. In the timber industry my thirty year career went from choker setter to owning an International timber export company in Southern Oregon and Northern California, and everything in between.

 

I've witnessed corporate greed, Government incompetence and the not so well intentioned and ignorant environmentalist movement transform Southern Oregon into a human caused environmental and economical nightmare. 

 

Not that there was not over cutting.

 

We are now tasked with bringing back hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land. 

My simple timber guide:

Old growth. Trees on land that has never been logged.

Bastard growth. Trees on land that has been altered because of modern human involvement. 

Plantation trees. Planted Douglas Firs trees.

 

One hundred percent of litigation involves bastard growth trees.

 

It is my dream to bring this land back one acre at a time. As we move forward learning more about forest management, maybe we can bring a few places like mine back.  Expose young people to nature and it's beauty, bringing young people to Douglas County, Oregon to experience nature and learn a little. Let's enjoy it all with friends and family. 

 

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If any knowledge gained through the restoration of this property can be shared to assist other land owners, please contact me thru this website