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THIS EVENT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED.
Please check back on our website and social media for more field checking opportunities this summer!
You can email Madeline to let them know you are interested in future field checking outings.

Field Checking involves exploring and documenting an area that is within a proposed timber sale on public lands. Cascadia Wildlands monitors timber sales on U.S. Forest Service managed lands including the Willamette, Umpqua, and Siuslaw National Forests as well as Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed lands in the Coos Bay, Northwest Oregon, and Roseburg districts.

The post Field checking the Calloway timber sale — May 17 first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

The post Sign Up — Field Check the Forest Service’s Divide Project first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

On a bright October morning I had the honor of joining a group of volunteers and staff from Cascadia Wildlands for a day of field checking in the woods.

Field Checking is the tactic of comparing existing conditions in the forest with conditions alleged in Forest Service sale proposals. Often, these proposals irresponsibly misrepresent the state of the forest. Unmarked waterways, old-growth stands, and crucial wildlife are invisible to the abstract paperwork of resource extraction. We’re out here to see if what they’re saying about the forest is true. This was my first time, and the Cascadia Wildlands crew did a great job of orienting me to the task.

We gathered on a forest road spur in the Willamette National Forest north of Blue River, where the Calloway Timber Sale is currently targeting 8,757 acres of Pacific Northwest forest for harvest. Caravanning up the road we set out to inspect the first unit, which was to our right as we ascended upwards of 3000 feet of elevation.

This unit had clearly been previously logged. Stumps and overgrown root bulbs dotted the land as it inclined to a nearby ridge. While this was not an old-growth forest, we set foot into the unit to make note of its many other defining ecological characteristics — various native plant and fungal species, and a wide range of tree species. Then we came quickly upon a large clearing.

This unit (which we found through cores to have trees of 30-40 years of age) and units like it, are often marked for harvest as a thinning measure, with the stated aim of reducing the unit’s fire risk, or increasing ecological functionality. This tactic in itself is questionable.  We found this unit in particular to already contain a clearing, and  did not appear otherwise to be overly dense in its growth pattern. So, the Forest Service’s rationale for harvest on this count was put into question.

We continued our journey through the forest and made note of a variety of tree species. The site contained noble fir, western hemlock, douglas-fir, and western redcedar. Species diversity, or stand complexity, is a sign of a healthy forest — one that does not require intervention to be valuable to local fauna. We noticed plentiful signs of mountain beavers, woodpecker foraging and elk scat.

As we reached the top of the ridge, we made note of the significant increase in slope on the downhill side. Certainly greater than 45 degrees. Steep slopes make for poor harvest candidates. The risk of post-logging erosion and landslides is significant. The potential damage to the ecological health of this ridge and adjacent areas could potentially preclude this unit from any harvest activities.

As noted earlier, the stand contained trees approximately 30-40 years in age. Younger trees at relatively low density lessen the commercial value of the stand. Low density trees, presence of clearings, a steep slope… This was starting to look like a unit the Forest Service should re-evaluate.

Having completed our survey of the first unit, we made our way towards the second. The road that should have taken us into the unit was unrecognizable, it was full of brush, presumably unmaintained for at least a decade or two. Undeterred, the group decided to carry on and hike down the unmaintained road.

As we make progress through the brush, it’s clear that the expired roadway had become a landslide in the recent past. Above us, old-growth Douglas-fir bare their roots to a steep eroded hillside, seeming to be clinging for dear life to the crumbling slope beneath them. Any harvesting activity on this unit would require extensive repair to a road already incredibly ill-positioned to begin with. We make note of these conditions.

The group tacked up into this adjacent old-growth, making quicker time than the eroded roadway allowed. Beautiful, ancient trees extended hundreds of feet into the sky above us, while vine maples sparkled in their fall yellow foliage. Chanterelles peaked out of the duff and the whole group moved in quiet awe, tilting our ears towards a woodpecker’s call. The slope steepened and the way proved difficult, but we continued with our day, taking measurements including DBH (Diameter at Breast Height) and core samples.

This area contained some compelling signs of a slight draw, as earth in a nearby fold in the landscape was beginning to be pushed away from the underlying rock with recurrent flushes. I found myself enamored with the complexity of the forest that we saw that day. Our notes are comprehensive and should well impress upon the Forest Service the incompatibility of this area’s true ecological state with their harvest goals. Thank you to the Cascadia Wildlands crew that shared their knowledge of field checking with me, thank you to my fellow volunteers who became new friends, and thank you to the forest for its breathtaking beauty. There are 361 units in the Calloway sale slated for harvest – and ample evidence these forest lands are incompatible with a harvest regime.

The post BLOG: Field Notes from the Calloway Timber Sale  first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

Saturday, October 21st was marked in bold on my calendar, as it was my first time meeting up with other WildCAT volunteers to conduct a field check in the Calloway timber sale. I walked through the fog early in the morning to meet-up with two other volunteers, Becky and Emma, who were to be my road trip companions for the day. We drove east towards the Cascades along highway 126 up through the Santiam Junction where we met up with the rest of the group. We had an opportunity to introduce ourselves and get to know the team, go over the plan for the day, and then we were off to the first unit in a small caravan up the rocky logging roads. The Calloway project area is located in the McKenzie River and Sweet Home Districts of the Willamette National Forest north of Blue River, Oregon. Cascadia Wildlands and volunteers have been working on fields checking and holding the U.S. Forest Service accountable in this area for over 25 years. At elevation we were clear from the fog that had settled for the day over Eugene and Springfield, fortunate with clear skies and crisp air to work in. 

This field check followed a WildCAT monthly meeting which doubled as a crash-course in using offline mapping software to document data. Led by Lily Kuentz, the Field and Event Coordinator for the summer of 2023, we learned the finer points of how the Forest Service makes data available — or unavailable, and how to use that data to support on-the-ground field checking. For this project, the Forest Service only provided a large scale, pdf map. Having no adequate maps useful for navigating or identifying other features on the ground from the agency, a fellow WildCAT put together some maps for field checkers to use. These maps show where the units are, and also LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data which offers an estimate of the tree’s height. A road we planned to drive down to look at additional units under review had been removed — even the road bed had eroded and fallen away — so we spent the rest of the afternoon hiking. We had to quickly adjust the plan and find a new path, eventually reaching a mountainside that gave us a much deeper breath of information on the area. Together we took core samples, collected data on tree species and sizes, and identified a wide variety of shrubs, fungus, and signs of animal activity. 

While hiking the south side of this unit, we noticed that the road had suffered from a landside. Intense road construction would need to take place to access the timber in this unit, which would be an expensive and invasive undertaking. This unit’s complexity, road conditions, and slopes showed us one thing: that the forest is unlikely to benefit from thinning or logging activity here. The unit has scattered open areas, a diversity of flora and fauna, as well as areas of mature-growth forest. We intend to take all of the information we gathered and share it with the Forest Service so that they might reconsider the units we visited as viable for the timber sale. 

Our work field checking was an incredible experience.I learned not just how to look at forests in a new way, but had access to so much wisdom and experience from the other WildCAT volunteers. As winter weather starts to settle in, field checks slow down, but I’m excited to be learning more about the ins and outs of the process, and the other amazing campaigns Cascadia Wildlands is working on.

The post BLOG: Field Checking for the First Time first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

by Chelsea Stewart-Fusek
Cascadia Wildlands Legal Intern, Summer 2020

On a gorgeous day earlier this month, the Willamette Valley Broadband of Great Old Broads for Wilderness joined the Cascadia Wildlands field checking team to survey some of the units in the QMS timber sale in order to help us better understand what is at stake if this sale goes forward.

The QMS project is located on U.S. Forest Service land 20 miles northeast of Sweet Home in the Willamette National Forest. This is a massive sale, encompassing 89,000 acres spanning North from Highway 20 all the way up to Detroit lake, with units bordering on protected wilderness areas and in some of the most scenic locations in the Western Cascades. Included in the sale is the harvest of Unit 166: a particularly large unit which contains incredible old-growth forest as well as rare structural diversity. Here are some of the things that we found:

Riparian Ecosystems

We came across multiple streams in this unit that weren’t marked on the USFS’s project map. At least one appears to be a perennial stream that feeds surrounding bogs. These bogs create unique plant communities and provide important habitat and food supply for insects and reptiles. Each of these waterways would need to be protected by a buffer if USFS logs here.

Large, Old Trees

Numerous large, old-growth trees exist in this unit and it appears it has never been logged—a rare, wonderful sight! We measured multiple, and some were as large as over 70” diameter at breast height. Some of the trees we came across were likely over 150 years old. These huge, old trees store a significant amount of carbon, mitigating the impacts of climate change. They are rare on the landscape as a whole and should be not be removed. Further, large, old trees provide critical habitat for northern spotted owl, red tree vole (“RTV”), and fisher. And when large trees die they create large, high-quality snags, a critical component of this ecosystem. These trees should not only be retained but should also be protected by a buffer, as their root systems are shallow and heavily impacted by disturbance and by the removal of the trees around them.

Incredible Forest Complexity

There is also a high quantity of structures in this unit, known as “legacy structures,” which provide critical habitat complexity for a variety of species, including northern spotted owl prey. These include snags, broken top trees, and downed woody debris. It’s important that USFS retain all such structures, especially because harvest of the stand as a whole will decrease snag and woody debris recruitment long-term, negatively impacting habitat availability and overall forest complexity. Finding this abundance of woody debris and legacy structures is uncommon and the USFS should recognize this is another good reason to drop this unit.

Species Diversity

This unit has spectacular conifer diversity. We identified at least six conifer species in our survey: Douglas fir, hemlock, cedar, grand fir, noble fir, and Alaska yellow cedar. It is rare to find this many conifer species in one area and this diversity should be protected. We also discovered bear scat, cat scat, and are aware of northern spotted owl habitat in the area (critical high-value designated habitat for northern spotted owl is referred to as “RA32”). Red tree vole “RTV” has also been found in this unit. Every tree a vole — or sign of a vole — is found, needs to be protected by a buffer.

A Fire-Regenerated Forest

We came across signs of previous fire in this unit, indicating that the trees here are resilient and that fire has played its natural role on this landscape. This unit should be preserved in its natural state for that reason alone, especially as fire seasons continue to worsen. Preserving fire-resistant trees is critical to reducing fire severity in this area, which is not far from a community.

After field checking this unit, Cascadia Wildlands cannot support the USFS’s plans to cut it. This unit is old-growth forest with incredible structural diversity. It is fire-resilient and contains important habitat features for numerous native species. Simply put, this is an old stand that should be left out of the QMS project. The damaging effects of logging on this area’s ecosystem do not outweigh the benefit of fulfilling one of the three stated purposes of the QMS project (timber yield), especially when so much of the project area would need to be buffered (see map above). While buffering does mitigate some impacts of harvesting, it also disturbs habitat connectivity and is not a great alternative to the USFS dropping this unit all together.

What’s Next?

The USFS plans to release its Environmental Assessment for the QMS project this winter, at which point public comments will be accepted over a 30-day period. Until then, let the USFS know the importance of dropping Unit 166 from their harvest plans by emailing your comments to USFS NEPA Planner and Project Lead, Joanie Schmidgall at joan.schmidgall@usda.gov. Project documents can be found HERE.

*All photos above by Chelsea Stewart-Fusek.

The post FIELD REPORT / BLOG: Quartzville-Middle Santiam Old-Growth on the Chopping Block first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

We’ve been keeping our eyes on the forests during the Pandemic. The crisis and response is revealing hidden priorities, shifting alliances, and revealing inequities. The public land agencies, the Forest Service and BLM, and the State governments, have been closing recreation, canceling restoration, and moving forward with logging projects. The basic grassroots work of forest monitoring has never been more important.

Priorities Laid Bare

The disparity between recreation and restoration on the one hand, and resource exploitation like logging on the other, is striking. In our area of Western Oregon, all of the controversial timber sale projects are going forward, even as trailheads, campgrounds, parks and waterways are broadly closed to public access. Restoration projects and prescribed burning to reduce wildfire danger are also on hold.

The timber industry, on the other hand, has sacrificed nothing and is receiving special treatment to boost their bottom line. BLM and USFS staff telecommute to keep logging projects running, granting exceptions to environmental rules, and pouring more native forests into the timber pipeline. The BLM went so far as to issue a press release bragging about how much timber it had sold during the Pandemic.

Here is a quick run-down of what we’ve seen recently in the forests of Western Oregon:

Rock Creek

On the coast range, the Coos Bay BLM district has projects in all the phases of development.

We passed active yarding in this unit on Kenyon Mountain, part of the BLM’s Rock Creek project, on April 8, while scouting a nearby project slated for auction. It is incredible and dismaying that, in the year 2020, during a global Pandemic, we are still clearcutting old-growth on public land in the Oregon coast range. I count 205 rings on this stump, one of many old-growth trees cut in the area.

While forests fall at Kenyon Mountain, the BLM announced its decision to auction off another 84-acre cut on the Upper Rock Creek Project, just up the road.

This forest is the kind of forest grove that is especially sad to find when field checking. Oregon, especially the coast range, is at its best in this kind of small-featured beauty. There aren’t documented spotted owl nests that are legally protected, or towering waterfalls to support a busy trailhead. It is *merely* a beautiful, diverse natural grove of healthy mature trees that is full of life. If we loved the world better, these are the kinds of forests we could save.

Cascadia filed a legal Protest of that sale decision. Among other objections, we are crying foul at the agency’s total failure to address the implications of the Pandemic and logging. With restoration canceled, would the planned mitigation still take place? How can the public and expert processes take place when offices are closed? Are workers safe? Does anyone at the Federal government even care?

Typical of their byzantine procedures, even now BLM refuses to accept email protests. Never mind that those same offices are closed to the public. So we masked up and hand-delivered the Upper Rock Divide Protest.

Thurston Hills – Destroying backyard forests, increasing fire danger

At Thurston Hills at the edge of Springfield, the BLM is still going forward with the Pedal Power timber sale. Just off of 79th street and the Willamalane natural trails, these are exactly the kinds of under appreciated backyard forests that are proving their value during the lock-down.

The recreation and fire safety benefits of the forest there are more important now than ever. The proposed clearcutting would create “high” fire hazard to the neighborhood and make things that much more dangerous for residents and firefighters. Both BLM and Seneca have obstinately refused to consider thinning alternatives, which we support.

While the agency has not made a decision, the sale is still under contract to Seneca and every indication is it is on the fast-track to be clearcut. The neighboring recreational trails may be closed, but the logging roads in the timber sale area are grubbed out and trees marked to log (photo below).  

Our volunteers have been keeping close tabs on this project, and we are not about to let industry take advantage of the Pandemic to log it.

> > > You can take action to stop the Thurston Hills project HERE.

Poor Windy

In southwest Oregon, the Medford BLM thinks their timber sales are “mission critical” and have insisted on charging forward. The Poor Windy project is a large and especially terrible sale that would log old-growth west of I-5 and south of Canyonville.

Cascadia joined Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Oregon Wild in filing a legal Protest of the “Blown Fortune” project. At times like these, we have been grateful to work with so many other wonderful, local grassroots organizations.

Showing the recent pattern, that timber sale auction on April 21 did not draw any bids. “The BLM seems committed to meeting arbitrary volume targets regardless of whether anyone wants the timber or not,” George Sexton of our close friends at K-S Wild, told the local newspaper.

Mission Critical?

The timber industry touts itself as an “essential” industry and the BLM thinks selling old-growth timber is “mission critical,” but a closer look shows that is mostly bluster. Timber is no more important than anything, and in fact mills have been closing down due to “severe oversupply.” Local leaders have options, if they want to use them.

Shortly after the National Emergency was declared, the CISA Guidance designated “essential” workers and industries. These are those “who conduct a range of operations and services that are essential to continued critical infrastructure viability,” and so ought to try and remain operating.

On the list, under the heading “food and agriculture” is the bullet “Workers who support the manufacture and distribution of forest products, including, but not limited to timber, paper, and other wood products.” But, exactly what is critical about the logging industry is left open to interpretation. Industry press put out their spin in the immediate aftermath, pointing out that new hospitals would be made of wood.

You might assume that public agencies would use health-related logic, but that assumption would be incorrect. As the Medford BLM manager explained in an email, they think BLM’s timber program is “mission critical” because logging results in jobs.

Why logging jobs are any more important than other jobs is a mystery.

Mill closures cause real pain to real people. Despite a generation of job-killing automation and exports, mill jobs remain truly central in many rural communities. So, if mill jobs are important (and they are!), then keeping mills open and small operators in business is what matters. Generating massive amounts of bargain-priced logs does not.

Supplies of logs are not where the supply chain is limited. Mills are operating right now on a “severe oversupply.” Many have scaled back or closed altogether.

A closer reading reveals that the Homeland Security designation shows it is only a recommendation. Our Governors have a lot of leeway to make their own priorities. The Homeland Security advisory reads:

“Accordingly, this list is advisory in nature. It is not, nor should it be considered to be, a federal directive or standard in and of itself.”

“Instead, State and local officials should use their own judgment in using their authorities and issuing implementation directives and guidance. … All decisions should appropriately balance public safety while ensuring the continued delivery of critical infrastructure services and functions.”

A better world is possible

As our Grassroots Organizer, Sam Krop argues in her brilliant op-ed, “What is really essential,” a better way is possible.

To that end we are rallying behind this Petition, directed to the western state (Cascadia) governors, demanding that Pandemic strategies prioritize natural and human health, not corporate profits.

The post FIELD REPORT / BLOG: In the Forest in the Age of COVID-19 first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

By Sam Krop, Cascadia Wildlands Grassroots Organizer

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we spent the weekend field checking a threatened area of old growth forest along the proposed Jordan Cove pipeline route out in the Oregon coast range between the towns of Remote and Sitkum, by Coquille.

As we drove along the coast range, we couldn’t help react at how nuked with clearcuts/tree plantations the area is. Both on private and BLM land, drainage after drainage of hillsides expose bare, eroding soil, murky streams and endless logging trucks hauling massive Douglas fir rounds to the mill. Most of the forest stands that we drove through were uniform — unhealthy and fire prone tree plantations that were protected as late successional reserve (LSR) by the NW forest plan in the 90s.

Thankfully, we had a tip about a potential spot of old-growth, spotted owl habitat somewhere deep off trail along the pipeline route. Skeptically, we drove through clearcut after tree plantation to get to the place we were told the old-growth could be. We parked at the end of a dusty logging road and looked into a dense and dark tree farm. Donning our coats and hats to protect from the thousands of delicate and flammable young tree branches in the plantation, we dove in.

In about a quarter mile of bushwhacking through the young tree farm, the forest began to change and open up as it sloped downwards towards a steep drainage where we could hear a stream noisily flowing below.

Emerging onto that waterway from the crowded and dark young forest was like the unraveling of a tension you don’t know you’re carrying. Soon we were greeted by massive old-growth trees and ancient snags, the guardians of a network of waterways at the base of the slope. We followed a trail across the first creek, which we later named ‘stinky creek’ after the many stink currants we identified growing all along it.

Looking down, we saw bear and coyote scat and even came across scattered piles of elk bones feeding the forest floor.

Looking up, we admired towering ancient and rotting snags with their myriad pock-marks from woodpeckers, sapsuckers and insects, the forest’s very own ecosystem engineers. These critical habitat snags were marked by the pipeline workers with bright orange flags that read “killer trees.” Laughing at the backwardness of reducing these life bearing snags to murderers, we noted that these would surely be the first cut if pipeline construction were to occur in this forest.

Walking through this forest, we simply couldn’t wrap our minds around how someone could see this place and think to destroy it.

We cut south from the pipeline route to follow the maincreek, lured in by the picturesque Cascadian river, which we later found out is home to threatened coastal coho salmon.

The river pools and bubbles up around rocks, flows under low hanging branches, splits and rejoins itself running steadily west through the forest.

Just as we felt things couldn’t get more beautiful, we stumbled upon a waterfall—a perfect smooth buttslide branching from the main stream, fed from some unseen tributary originating deep in the forest north of the river.

When we scrambled to the top of that waterfall, low and behold, we found another, even bigger waterfall with a little swimming pool at the base. In shock, we realized that this double waterfall is just a couple hundred feet south of the marked pipeline corridor.

After centuries of survival through fire, wind and flood, the idea that a pipeline would destroy this pristine area is unthinkable.

What’s more, the presence of fire on the landscape is notable in the context of a highly explosive fracked gas pipeline. In a place where fires are recurrent and necessary for forest health, an inevitable fire coming into contact with a hazardous pipeline is terrifying even to consider. This situation is made more concerning by the highly flammable young timber plantations that surround this patch of pristine forest.

Settling down for the evening in our campsite just above the old-growth, we couldn’t help but wonder how someone could plan to construct a pipeline through the pristine forest we explored that day. It’s conceivable only when realizing that those behind this destructive project have likely never been to this place or seen any of the places the pipeline would impact for themselves. Pembina, the Canadian pipeline corporation backing the Jordan Cove LNG Project, are completely disconnected from the places and communities they plan to destroy. They don’t care about the old-growth or the threatened species that depend on it. They don’t care about the sacred places for indigenous cultures along the pipeline route. They don’t care about the landowners who would have their family properties used as right-of-way, against their will, for the construction of this fossil fuel transport project. Those responsible don’t know these places, and they really don’t care to.

As we readied for bed that night, a dark shadow flew over our heads and let out an owl’s hoot. Moments later, that call was joined by another owl responding from the darkness just above our heads. We sat silently and listened, thrilled that we were visited by these feathered friends spying on our dwindling campfire. While we were convinced that it was a family of spotted owls communing with us on behalf of the forest –  we later ID’d them as barred owls, which made sense given that we were camping in the young plantation just above the old grove. Still, we felt the forest was greeting us after our long day appreciating it, and it felt pretty amazing to make a couple bird friends during these isolating times in the COVID pandemic.

______________________________________________

Cascadia Wildlands is proud to be a part of a strong and growing coalition of conservation activists, landowners, tribes, and community members working to stop the Jordan Cove LNG pipeline. We are a part of this movement because we know intimately what is at stake if this project were to be built, and with that knowledge in mind, we won’t stop until the pipeline is stopped once and for all.

If you can help with this important effort, please take a moment and learn how to get involved. Last week, 29 members of US Congress sent a letter to FERC demanding a halt to construction and approvals during the coronavirus outbreak. None of Oregon’s Federal Representatives signed on to this letter to FERC.

Send an email to tell Oregon’s Congressional Delegation to urge FERC to halt approvals and construction during the coronavirus outbreak.

You can check out the album here with photos from our trip to this slice of old-growth in the pipeline path.

The post BLOG: Field Checking Old-Growth on the Jordan Cove LNG Pipeline Path first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

On a cool Saturday morning, over twenty people met in the Cascadia parking lot to prepare to go out on the first public field checking trip of the year into the Flat Country timber sale. Covid-19 had been declared an international pandemic three days earlier, and terms such as social distancing and flattening the curve had not yet become the center of our thoughts and interactions. We caravanned into the forest, into snowy mountains, and away from the impending crisis that would soon envelop the nation. 

Flat Country is a public lands timber sale in between Eugene and Sisters at the headwaters of the McKenzie river, just north of Blue River  and adjacent to the Mount Washington Wilderness. The sale encompasses over 5,000 acres of management, including 1,000 acres slated for regeneration harvest (aka clearcutting with minimal retention) in forest stands ranging between 40 and 140 years old. 

The Forest Service opened up the comment period for this sale in the winter, making much of the sale inaccessible to field checking due to snow, but Cascadia Wildlands’ field-checking team has been busy exploring the units we can access, and we’re finding a lot of old, and healthy forests. 

That Saturday morning, we drove up along the western border of the sale to check out unit 1300, an older stand that the Forest Service has proposed to be commercially thinned. Diving into the unit from the gravel road, we walked over soft forest ground, covered with snow, wet moss and decomposing wood.  We came across a couple of rapidly flowing streams ,and we all had very different approaches to crossing. The braver of us used the leap and pray method, others strategically scouted out a route over solid logs, and some of us mistakenly picked mushy logs to step on that resulted in puddles in our boots… ok maybe that was just me. But once we crossed the last stream we walked into a beautiful meadow with an epic old alder snag (pictured above)! 

We then broke into smaller groups to tackle different parts of the unit and cover as much ground as possible. My group decided to check out the southeast corner area of the unit. We walked through the forest that was between two streams and taught folks new to field checking how to collect data such as diameter-at-breast-height measurement of trees, slope measurement and canopy coverage estimations. We animatedly shared our plant and tree identification knowledge with each other as we walked through the diverse area. One of the environmental studies students shared their dream of seeing a spotted owl before they lose the chance due to the destruction of their remaining habitat, like the lush forest full of snags and old legacy trees that we were in. I, being the new field checking intern, was mostly focused on my map — adamant to not get our group lost. 

As we entered new areas of the forest we kept exclaiming “there is no need to log this!” The trees were healthy, with scattered remnants of ancient Douglas firs, cedars and hemlocks. Natural gaps were present throughout the area and plenty of downed decomposing wood littered the forest floor. Everything was very much alive, growing and thriving.

As we walked between the two streams, we got pretty fond of the area and named it after the fertile land between two rivers, Mesopotamia. It was an epic last jaunt in the woods with Cascadia before the state mandated lockdown! Walking through this beautiful old forest with a great group of knowledgeable folks, I fondly recalled my first field checking trip last spring at Breitenbush. After that trip I was sold on forest defense work, especially field checking, as it consists of venturing in wild places and directly utilizes experiential learning. Now, it’s a year later and I’m in a new forest, but I still feel the same sense of amazement and joy at the experience of field checking. 

It is very clear that the resilient forest in this unit is well on its way to becoming an old healthy forest, and does not have the attributes that necessitate commercial thinning. Just walking through the area, I couldn’t help but feel guilty, for the forest floor was teeming with life, and I felt that I was disturbing so many complex biological processes. Logging equipment and the construction of new roads across the swiftly flowing waterways and rich forest floor, would cause drastically more harm than good in this forest stand. Cascadia Wildlands urges the Forest Service to drop all regeneration harvest (aka clearcut) for older stands in the Flat Country sale, and choose Alternative 3 in the Environmental Impact Statement.

No Clearcutting and No Logging Old Forest in Flat Country!

Field checking is the most effective way for the public to protect our forests. Field checking directly contributes to shaping our land ethic and knowledge about the incredible but threatened Pacific Northwest forests. Our government agencies too often rush through the survey process, relying more and more heavily on remote technology to determine what a forest “needs,” and often missing what’s on the ground in front of them. All to sell off the forest to the highest bidder. Oftentimes, old native forests are listed as under 80 years old, waterways go unmarked, and essential habitat for key species are overlooked. Sometimes, we uncover old-growth patches tucked deep off trail that we name—like Flat Country’s Mesopotamia—and plan to visit again and again.  

Identifying and advocating for threatened forests is a responsibility of the public, and one we should take seriously. I would be more upset at the injustice of destructive logging happening in public lands except that it has given me the chance to venture into forests all over our state, build relationships with community members of all ages, and learn vast ecological knowledge. I will be spending this spring field checking with my “quarantine circle,” and I’m so grateful to be able to safely spend time outside and be of service to our forests during this pandemic. But I can’t wait for the time that we can all gather again and go field checking together!

The post INTERN-al UPDATE: A Snowy Field Check in Flat Country first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

* The deadline for this action has past.
* This hike has already happened.

Our field checking intern wrote up a blog post from the visit to Flat Country. Check it out!

Join Cascadia Wildlands for a visit to the Flat Country timber sale, a 5,000 acre logging proposal in the Willamette National Forest. We will spend the day learning about this sale and exploring old forest stands that would be impacted. Attendees will get a hands on lesson in the basics of field surveying for public lands defense, and walk away with next steps each of us can take toward engaging in the comment process and protecting this special place.

The Flat Country sale proposed to do “regeneration harvest” (clearcut-style management) on 1,000 acres of old and mature forest at the headwaters of the McKenzie watershed. This sale is also adjacent to the Mt. Washington Wilderness and is an excellent setting for recreation in the relatively flat terrain that the name suggests . Many of the stands slated for clearcut contain healthy old forest and species and fish bearing streams

CARPOOLS leave at 9:30am from Cascadia Wildlands office east side parking lot (120 Shelton McMurphey Blvd, Eugene) for return by 4:30pm

The post Field Trip to Flat Country Timber Sale — March 14, 2020 first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.