Things have been very quiet on this blog but I haven’t. Over the last 2 years, my photography focus had shifted somewhat and I have transitioned from more frequent “local” trips to just a few multi-day trips down to the Umpqua River area in southern Oregon. So what’s down there, and why the change? In at least one way, it’s actually a natural progression from my own personal goals within photography. I’ve always enjoyed exploring off the beaten path or lesser known locations rather than gravitating towards popular destinations. In that quest to find new places to explore, I came to remember the Umpqua while researching old-growth forests in Oregon.
Twenty plus years ago, I was starting my first semester of grad school down in southern California and had received an assignment in a seminar which was to write a critique of a published essay. The essay I chose (or was assigned) was about the state of the world’s forests. As I crafted my critique, my research led me to a website for an organization called Umpqua Watersheds, which was based in Roseburg, Oregon. They were fighting against a slew of proposed timber sales on federal public lands (Bureau of Land Management & U.S. Forest Service) that were targeting late-successional / old-growth forests (or LSOG for short). The site had compelling narratives and photos and was probably ahead of its time in terms of publicizing its cause.
Despite the fact that the Northwest Forest Plan, which was created to end the timber wars between logging & environmentalists, had been adopted a few years earlier, 1995 brought forth a congressional bill named the 1995 Salvage Rider. You can read some background about it here and here but essentially this rider revived many timber sales targeting old-growth timber on public lands from the 1980s that had been defeated on environmental concerns. It took about 10 years for the dust to largely settle and, during that time, there were both wins and losses for both sides of the issue.
I followed developments via their website but- life happens. I moved from California up to Washington State to take a job and set up roots. Next thing I know, twenty years have gone by and I’m wondering whatever happened “down there.” Thus began a 2 year journey which brings me to the present. During that time, I reached out and connected with the folks from Umpqua Watersheds and that led to meeting and talking with Francis Eatherington who was, among other things, the person in charge of the website updates back then. I am, by trade, a map maker and GIS analyst and I used those skills to assemble an interactive map showing the locations of all the timber sale units that had been promoted and discussed on the old Umpqua Watershed website.
It had a lot of information but was incomplete in some respects since the timeframe of all this was literally the birth of the internet as we know it today. Although formally retired, Francis graciously offered me access to UW’s paper file archives and also offered to guide me in the field to some of those locations. I’ve spent about 30 days over the course of 4 trips scanning documents and crashing brush while exploring the timber sale units which were saved. Last year, I added a 360 degree camera into my arsenal and began capturing that information as well. I now had a lot of great content but it was scattered across several platforms / sites.
I wanted a way to bring all of it back together and that’s why I’m here to announce the launch of a new website: the Umpqua LSOG Project. This website brings together my photography, 360 degree video/photos, and maps all in one place. The main landing page has a story map (think of a PowerPoint presentation but with maps) which provides background about this region for the uninitiated and ultimately leads you to the other content. Fundamentally, this is the site’s purpose- to promote awareness and appreciation to a resource that’s been in decline for the last century.
Since the 2016 presidential election, a lot of awareness has been focused on areas like Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, & the Arctic Wildlife Refuge which all have had some level of protection in the past. These areas within the Umpqua have not been afforded the same level of protections and are very much in peril today as they were back in 1995. To that end, I have also included an interactive map called the Northwest Forest Plan Data Viewer which allows you, the public, to view the many datasets of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) in one place. The NWFP guides decision making on federal public lands in the Pacific Northwest and providing access to the supporting data allows the public to become better informed and provide more substantive public comments. This was the second purpose I had for creating this site.
The website provides a good snapshot in time but I do not intend for it to be a static website. As I create new content, I intend to add it to the website. I hope you’ll check out the website and become an Umpqua admirer like I have!..
