SOS Forests

You gotta be kidding. There was a SAVANNA past Oakridge? No way! I can’t believe there are surviving oaks in there, either. What kind of voodoo is this?

Seriously, this project sounds pretty interesting. I hope that after it is done I have the time to go peek.

You betcha. Oak savanna, past Oakridge. When the record snowpack melts, I’ll take you there myself.

And higher up, too. There was a savanna in the Lava Lake basin right below Mt. Jefferson. Scattered Douglas-fir overtopping beargrass and huckleberry fields. Above 4000 feet. Hundreds of square miles of it, actually. Way up there. Those Indians got around, and took fire with them wherever they went.

I know of another overgrown savanna-type forest north of Oakridge, in the upper reaches of the North Fork drainage, and it’s at around 4800 feet. A pretty interesting one; an incense cedar savanna. It used to be the lower portions of Grasshopper Meadow and covered about 15 or 20 acres. Unfortunately most of the large, open-grown, and still fire-charred cedar were felled and left in place way back when, probably during the 40’s when the area was grazed. Probably by the permittee to provide for more grass growth but it seemed to have the opposite effect as the area is now almost completely occupied by a 50 to 70 year old stand of incense cedar, grand fir and some Douglas-fir. This would be a real nice place to restore, but unfortunately its in an inventoried roadless area.

The Lava Lake Basin was a beargrass/huckleberry field covering ~25 square miles. Scattered 350-400yo DF and another cohort of noble fir ~220yo. Then almost completely filled in with ~100yo mixed conifer. Been heavily logged. Older cohorts mostly gone. But the stumps are there.

It is even called “The Parklands”!!!!

Right below (west of) the Santiam Pass, east of Tombstone Pass. Drains down to Fish Lake and thence into the MacKenzie watershed.

Twenty-five square miles!!!! And that’s just a tiny part of the entire anthropogenic/cultural landscape that includes ALL the Santiam and Willamette watersheds.

Molallas most recently, probably Kalapuya before that, but the trail system was used by people as far away as the Klamaths and Chinooks. Main routes to Obsidian Cliffs, the “Pittsburg of Oregon” for thousands of years. Major knife, arrowhead, sharp object source. Major source food, fiber, too. Most at-risk fire conditions on the Willamette NF. Prime for MAJOR landscape restoration.

Tim, I want to restore the Lava Lake basin. What can I do? How do we pull that off?

I formed an Institute. We have a cadre of world-class experts. Will that help?

Hmmmm; I’m not real sure what the best way to proceed would be for that goal. Despite all the recent decentralization in the Forest Service, the process of identifying and implementing specific management projects is still very decentralized; as far as I’ve seen it’s ultimately up to the local District Ranger to develop a program of work.

Talking to an ecologist might be a good place to start but they really don’t seem to have a whole bunch of influence on the program of work. That might be primarily due to the fact that most ecologists I’ve run across are more interested in collecting data than managing the land. It might be best to directly contact the District Ranger. I’m pretty sure the Sweet Home Ranger is new to the job and as such may be open to new ideas, but could also be approaching the job very conservatively. Heck, it took me over 2 years to convince the Ranger to do the JC project. I’ll think about this some more and let you know if any flashes of insight come.

Mike, here’s a few more thoughts on this matter, based in large part on my experience with the Jim’s Creek project. I think it would be best to approach whatever decision-maker with a group of diverse folks who are already in support of the general proposal. One entity, be they an individual or an Institute, will likey not carry much weight. I think we got the Jim’s Creek project the support that it had by reaching out to the research, academic community that already had an abiding interest in oak/pine restoration and it was really helpful to have a group like the Oregon Oak Working Group in the Willamette Valley that had already documented the need for restoration of that particular vegetation type. So your time might be best spent up front drumming up a lot of third party, private interest in the area you’re interested in and then petitioning the Forest Service for action.