2018 has continued my focus on the remnant late-successional / old-growth forests on federal lands within the Umpqua River basin in Southern Oregon. This summer, I launched my Umpqua LSOG Project website, which serves as a main hub for the photography, 360-degree video, and mapping content that I’ve created since beginning my efforts back in 2016. This year, I finally relented and purchased a drone (the DJI Mavic Air) to expand my options while documenting old-growth. Drones are expensive and noisy but they offer an undeniable perspective. I will point to this photo essay by the International League of Conservation Photographers as my original inspiration for pursuing this but Canadian photographer TJ Watt has also been using drones effectively in his work with the Ancient Forest Alliance to preserve the old-growth on Vancouver Island that has been getting decimated by logging.
In the spirit of that brand of activism, I’d like to share ten photos taken this year with my drone. To be clear, the photos were taken either on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or Forest Service land but not inside any prohibited areas like designated wilderness or national parks. After all, those lands are protected from logging and these locations are not.
1. Lone Rock Timber Access Road
Local activist Francis Earthington stands next to a 400+ year old stump that was logged back in May of 2018. Using a nearly 60 year old reciprocal right-of-way agreement with the BLM, local Roseburg company Lone Rock Timber was able to cut down old growth trees located within federally designated Northern Spotted Owl Critical Habitat (Unit WCS-6) without any public comment or appeal. Lone Rock claimed that it needed the access road to reach its adjacent property which they intended to log. The right-of-way agreement guarantees this type of access and the agreement was crafted before the passage of the Endangered Species Act. To this date, the company has yet to log the specific stand of trees is alleged it needed the access to. Furthermore, during the uproar when this action became public, it was discovered that the company had not filed plans with Oregon’s Department of Forestry about their planned operations. Thanks to Oregon’s anemic Forest Practices laws, the company received little more than a tongue lashing for omitting 6 acres of harvest from their plans (and the timber revenue that they would owe the state).
2. Woodchuck Timber Sale Unit 01
This BLM timber sale near Days Creek is currently held up under appeal by Umpqua Watersheds to the Interior Department’s Interior Board of Land Appeals. Unit 01 is one of the largest units from the sale and lies within the nesting habitat range of 5 different Spotted Owl nests. This beautiful multi-trunked Madrone tree has proven a challenge to photograph from the ground since my camera is always pointed up into the sky but this top down vantage from the drone worked out great.
3. Emile Timber Sale Unit 01
Between the previous photo and this one, it’s one of my favorite drone photos so far since it shows the multi-story canopy characteristic of old growth forests. This BLM timber sale was proposed in 1998 and was located along the western edge of the Umpqua National Forest up the Little River valley outside of Glide, Oregon. Although the Forest Service was beginning to change its philosophy about clearcutting old growth, the BLM did not share that view and was determined to clearcut 3.5 million board feet of lumber from the sale’s ten individual units. The sale was ultimately ruled illegal in 2001.
4. and 5. White Castle Timber Sale Unit 08
White Castle was the second of two pilot projects envisioned by noted Pacific Northwest Forestry professor Dr. Jerry Franklin. Unfortunately, this pilot project was an attempt to rebrand traditional clear cutting as a new term- variable retention harvest. Environmentalists weren’t impressed with the results of the 1st pilot project (named Buck Rising) so when White Castle was proposed in 2011, they immediately got to work to prevent it. Unit 08 of White Castle was even home to two tree sit protests (watch a video about that here). The day of this particular photo had several passing showers so I had to work quick to get my drone up for some photos before the next round of hard rain re-appeared. I also missed peak fall color by one week as well!
6. Layng Creek Timber Sale Unit 05
This Umpqua National Forest demonstration sale from the late 1990s was located within one mile of the City of Cottage Grove’s municipal water intake valve. Thankfully, this sale was eventually withdrawn and not subsequently re-advertised. This photo is an excellent example of a drone’s ability to make sense out of chaos. The understory here is dominated by Vine Maple. If I were to photograph this area from the ground, the results would not be good. All the branches and trunks of the Vine Maples would just create a busy scene with no order. Using the drone to just gain 20 feet above the Vine Maple canopy provides a pleasing sea of maple leaves.
7. and 8. Upper South Myrtle Harvest Plan Units I and J
These two units were identified as part of a 10 year harvest plan for the Upper South Myrtle Creek watershed east of the town of Myrtle Creek. The plan was released in 1997 and proposed clear cutting 11.2 million board feet of lumber. Many of the identified units (including I and J) had unstable soils. The four sales born out of the harvest plan were held up by lawsuits and ultimately stayed. I like these two photos for once again showing the multi-story aspect of the forest canopy.
9. Quartz Integrated Project (White Timber Sale) Unit 20
This Umpqua National Forest project is still very much threatened with logging. Several groups including Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild sued the Forest Service for a temporary stay claiming that the Forest Service had violated the NEPA process twice. Unfortunately, the week before my only visit to the various sale units, the courts denied the stay. This project is important because it will impact about 75 active Red Tree Vole nests. These small rodents are a primary food source for the endangered Northern Spotted Owl. I had one rain soaked day to visit and document as much as I could. This was from the end of the day during a brief lull in the rain when I could pop my drone up and take a picture from the top of Unit 20 looking north down into the Clark Creek drainage. Despite the ruling in favor of the Forest Service, the logging has not begun thanks largely to the onset of winter and the snows that come with it. It is unclear what will happen when spring returns.
10. and 11. Devils Canyon Portion, 2017 Umpqua North Complex Fire
The summer of 2017 brought huge wildfires to Oregon’s Southern Cascade range in the Umpqua National Forest. One portion of the wildifre crept down an unnamed ridge into a beautiful area known as Dog Prairie. The fire reached the valley floor but stopped on the banks of Dog Prairie Creek. Sadly, the fire advanced through a 13 acre remnant patch of old-growth that had been a flashpoint during the late 90s for a timber sale on the Umpqua National Forest known as Snog. It was (and still is) home to 6′ diameter trees and had been included in the sale as Unit 2. This patch of remnant old-growth was so highly regarded that it became a tree-sit protest site while the sale was still a reality. The site was eventually withdrawn from the Snog sale but there was no escaping the fire in 2017. The fire that did sweep through was primarily a ground based fire so the thick bark of the biggest trees was able to protect them. These two photos are located just a mere stone’s throw from the boundary of Unit 2.
12. Little River Demo Unit 3
The final drone photo I have selected was taken in one of my personal favorite units that were spared the axe. The Little River Demo Sale was a Forest Service sale proposal from around 1998 and its sole purpose was to “study” the impact of clearcutting on an undisturbed old-growth forest. The five units of this sale are located around an area known as Willow Flats in the North Umpqua Ranger District and is home to some very large trees including the President Taft Grove which contains a nearly 10′ diameter Douglas Fir. This photo is from Unit 3 which was to be mostly logged (40% of the trees were to be retained). Unit 5, it’s next door neighbor and equally as impressive was supposed to be logged even more with only 15% of the trees to be retained. It would have been a huge tragedy for these units to have been cut but, thankfully, the forest received a new superintendent who immediately recognized the importance of this area and cancelled the sale.
My primary use of a drone was for the photography but I also shot some video during my trips. Here are the video compilations from my two trips this year:
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