Soil-degenerative and Non-sustainable Practices In Northern Oregon Coastal Forests

Below I've outlined roughly 105,000 acres around Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Astoria.

Picture one is 2012 while the second picture is 1984... is that progress? 2018 is last.

2012

1984

Today on the same coast:

Do we really think the Amazon is any more the "lungs of the earth" than our own backyard temperate rain forests?

I will make no footnotes or references except to credit all photos to google earth. If you take me seriously you will do the research yourself. I make no apologies… Let’s let the pictures talk.

The red outline is an agroecological study area I am involved in.

80 percent or more of the 100,000-acre (40,500 hectares) area of steep mountainous terrain feeding coastal rivers streams and springs was clear-cut over a two-year period. The area pictured above receives 50-120 inches (127-304 cm) of rain each winter. Traditionally these were fertile mountainous soils held together by vibrant forests and meadows for millennia. Snow pack does not occur and all winter rain is saved to flow through the dry season by soil and ecosystem services. Just to emphasize the majesty of what this ecosystem is about: a Douglas fir tree cut down on the Pacific Northwestern Coast North of here was the tallest tree ever notated on the planet at 469 feet (143 meters). It was measured while lying on the ground by multiple accounts and listed in the local paper at the time. The region in the background of the above picture is some of the best Douglas fir growing soil and climate in the world. The largest diameter cedar tree in Oregon is also in the pictured area at 17 feet in diameter (5.2 meters) and around 800 years old. The largest Sitka Spruce in the world was also 17-feet (5.2 meters) in diameter and also about 800 years old and was located in the center of the outlined area.

This area was traditionally a temperate rain forest and the same biome historically held some of the highest levels of biomass in the world measured in Carbon content at 1000 ton/acre more or less.

Today vast landscapes are clear-cut. The trees are taken off for sale, the brush is piled meticulously, and the brush piles are burned up into the sky to prepare for replanting. The process likely leaves as little as 5-10 ton/acre of Carbon on and in the land.

In the "beaver state" of Oregon, beaver are seldom permitted to take up residence in vast sections of the mountains where logging is king and where trapping is unregulated. Beaver would put roads and trees in jeopardy and turn dry soils into ponds, wetlands, and meadows above the springs, streams, and rivers of the region. Without beaver and with absolutely zero stream protections for 99% of the mountain streams (all the streams that do not have fish) the summer water flows are failing. Springs and streams are clear-cut over and brush is burned even on very steep hillsides. The area, including the streams and springs are then helicopter sprayed with herbicides, often several times, to help reestablish the most valuable tree species and eliminate other biodiversity which is considered to compete with profits.

All this is clearly evident by looking at Google Earth historical photos. The springs and streams can be see easily every time a logging operation is complete and for several years afterward. Watching a few years evidences vegetation control (biodiversity eradication) as well. This is official and “legal” Oregon Forest Practice. The practice is supported by a massive advertising/propaganda budget funded by timber taxes and it is also supported by clearly iterated Oregon State Laws and precedent that specifically disallow protect forest practices from lawsuits.

Despite "all our efforts and sacrifices" Oregon Salmon are not recovering, river lampreys are almost gone, craw-dad populations are in free-fall and springs that historically provided clean year round drinking water to Oregon residents are drying up. Our forests are no longer classified as temperate rainforest and drought conditions are common and typically affect cedar which no longer thrive except in some deep valleys or on North slopes. When winter rains come, rivers and streams rapidly rise to flood stage and then recede within hours to days.

Wetlands that are now rare to absent in the mountains for lack of beaver while wetlands are continually increasing in the populated lowlands as year by year the mountain soils erode and wash down the streams and rivers. Landslides are increasingly common throughout the region but interestingly, the most intensive focus of Oregon forestry plan review seems to be the quality of forest roads which are often constructed like little mountain highways.

Also, interestingly, the elk live on farms instead of in the mountains and forests of Northwestern Oregon. My father makes his living ranching and now lives also with a resident herd of 60 elk who find habitat on his farm that is now extensively absent in the mountains. The "good thing" is this is all legal in Oregon. In fact, anything except an unbroken stocking of “merchantable” trees across the landscape is heavily taxed and disincentivized. So, in Western Oregon, it is the farmers and school ball fields on their smallish landscapes that feed what are officially the “state’s” elk herds while the creation or natural evolution of habitat on “wild-ish” lands and extensive mountain scrapes is systematically prevented by policy and the reality on the ground.

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Let's take and example in pictures...

Whistle Mountain between Seaside and Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Whistle Mountain - 1,700 feet bare or 1,900 with mature forest

1999

2000

2003

2004

2005

2005 (2nd)

2007

2008

2010

2011

2013

2014

2015

2016

2018

Following are various pics showing forestry practice on and around the steep slopes of Whistle Mountain beginning with 2019 and all within the past 10 years.

Images are Google Earth generated representations from aerial photos with accentuation to help illustrate on paper what the conditions are like in the real terrain. By example the last picture represents Tillamook Head which rises 1000 feet (305 meters) out of the ocean and crests at around 1200 feet (366 meters). Whistle Mountain's closest peak is 3.3 miles (5.3 km) from the ocean and sea level and crests at just below 1700 feet (518 meters) elevation. Onion Peak just South of Cannon Beach, Oregon crests at around 3000 feet (914 meters) elevation and sits 3.75 miles (6 km) from the ocean with the closest of its peaks just two miles (3.2 km) in from the beach. This is rugged and beautiful country and we are simply wrong to practice or permit landscape level deforestation here.

As we go on worrying about Brazil--which we should--the coastal mountains from Oregon to British Columbia and Alaska are literally being desertified and the soils systematically destroyed for ease of short term profit. Ecosystems in Oregon's Coastal Mountains are being destroyed and eradicated over massive landscapes. Biodiversity is actually being eradicated by the mandate of Oregon state law to make way for "merchantable" species to grow and then log off. This is an actual requirement to qualify for property tax breaks. We hear about the dark ages; well sadly, future generations will speak of us in that same light.

Although I am demonstrating better practices in my farming for profit business I have also established a powerfully strategic non-profit organization to tackle these issues head on and not through protest. I have had enough of complaining and or even demanding and certainly with voting for change that never comes or is decades out in the future. WildCommons is working to create change and action plans for today. If you would like to support or work with us, please get in touch with me right away and with whatever support or extra hands and minds we have, our work and action will accelerate that much more. Thank you for reading and for caring!