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Mountains in the Clouds Oregon’s Elliott State Forest Steven Holt

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Page 1: Mountains in the Clouds - STOCKPIX.COMstockpix.com/mountainsintheclouds2nded.pdf · Mountains in the Clouds ... The clean cold water in the Millicoma and other ... I find deep wellsprings

Mountains in the CloudsOregon’s Elliott State Forest

Steven Holt

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All text and photos copyright © 2016 Steven Holt/ Soaring Seal Productions. All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, web distribution, or information storage retrieval systems without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Soaring Seal Productions and Stockpix.com

For more information or to obtain copies of this book contact:Soaring Seal Productions http://soaringseal.comPOB 1614Bandon, OR [email protected]

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

I wish to thank all the dedicated volunteers at Coast Range Forest Watch, with special thanks to Max, Jeanette, Clark, Maria and Teresa. I also wish to thank the kind folk at the Audubon Society of Portland for use of their action alert. Also thanks to Cape Arago Audubon Society, Cascadia Wild, Umpqua Watersheds and Oregon Wild for all of their fine works and to Greg Martin and David Turim for their assistance.

Finally, the advice of Barb and Wolf who have lived beside and loved the forest for over 50 years was invaluable in the production of this book.

All errors and omissions in this book are mine and mine alone. - Steven Holt

DeDication

This book is dedicated to the honorable members of the Oregon State Land Board who have the power to decide the fate of the Elliott:

Kate Brown, GovernorDennis Richardson, Secretary of StateTobias Read, State Treasurer

I would like to thank Governor Kate Brown and former State Land Board Members Jeanne P. Atkins and Ted Wheeler for postponing a decision on the sale of the forest and for seeking additional options.

As Governor Brown noted, “our public lands are irreplaceable assets.” May we all work together to keep the Elliott in public hands.

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INTRODUCTION

I have come to love our Elliott State Forest and hope you will be inspired to save it for all future genera-tions.

We have recently seen the acquittal of armed anti-government extremists whose radical privatization agenda is not altogether dissimilar from what the Oregon State Land Board intends to do with the Elliott. Board members will ultimately be on the wrong side of history if they sell this forest for a one-time cash infusion that falls far short of its true value. And we should not let this be the legacy that we leave to the next generation.

Children splash in the Elliott’s waters. Hikers, outdoorsmen, mushroom pickers, and nature lovers value the diversity and beauty of this forest. Rafters and kayakers enjoy the whitewater rivers emerging from the Elliott, and fishermen and anglers value the great anadromous fish habitat that allows this small chunk of the Coast Range to produce more wild coho salmon than any other single forest in Oregon. Hunters love their free access to elk, deer, bear and gamebirds, and endangered species find a refuge in the Elliott’s native forest, taking pressure off of private timber lands. State law prohibits logs from the Elliott from being exported in raw form, benefitting Oregon millworkers. And as carbon credits grow in value so too will the value of the Elliott’s forest. But the opportunities that this forest provides to Oregonians and its critical wildlife habitats will be reduced or even completely lost if the Elliott is sold into private ownership. Our children and all future generations of Oregonians deserve to responsibly profit from and experience the Elliott State Forest as freely as we do today.

Steven Holt

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Mist rises over the Elliott after an early fall rain. With 91,000 contiguous acres the Elliott is a rarity - an unbroken publicly owned block of wildlife habitat that benefits adjacent private land by sustaining endangered spe-cies unable to survive in degraded forests. (View south and east from the 3000 road showing the forest’s south end.)

As a result of natural reseeding after 1863 fires, the Elliott is species, structure and age diverse. Its vibrant understory is totally unlike most privately managed Coast Range forests which are replanted so tightly as monocultures that mushrooms are often the only surviving understory.

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For much of the year mists cross the Oregon Dunes and cover the mountains in the Elliott. This makes these Douglas fir dominated forests cloud forests. The Elliott is also considered a rain forest by dint of the sheer amount of rainfall received annually.

Frequent mist bathes Douglas firs causing an explosion of epiphytic plants, including numerous species of lichens and mosses. Oregon Myrtle is an aromatic tree that is common in this diverse forest.

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Big leaf maples turn to gold in the fall. Some Native American tribes used wood from this maple to make paddles and called it the “paddle tree.”

Oregon or big leaf maple is a common and largely riparian species found along most stream courses in the Elliott. This mossy giant is living along the West Fork of the Millicoma River, an area that easily rivals any state park in Oregon.

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Pileated Woodpeckers dig through a red alder snag in search of insect larvae. The largest woodpecker native to Oregon, pileateds require mixed age and species forests. Oddly, dead trees usually contain higher percentages of living biomass than live trees, so they are an extremely vital habitat in an ecologically healthy forest.

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A Great Blue Heron flies downstream toward the Umpqua River. Wading birds are not particularly common in this rugged mountainous habitat, but Great Blue Herons, black bears and Bald Eagles all find abundant sustenance in the Elliott’s healthy riparian areas.

The clean cold water in the Millicoma and other streams is a direct result of the Elliott’s large uncut stream buffers and is the key to healthy wild salmon populations. Fully 22% of Oregon’s wild spawning coho salmon breed in these lovely waters. Private entities in the rest of Oregon are only required to provide a 40 foot stream buffer, tragically insufficient for healthy wild salmon production. The requested minimum buffer for the Elliot is 120 feet.

Waters of the Elliott are also wonderful for boating, swimming or simply dangling your toes.

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The Elliott remains a mystery to most Oregonians. But it is a joy for those who know it and offers exceptional opportunities for those who find it. Its loss would be a tragedy for all. No signs point Oregonians into the Elliott, and there are few within the forest.

Carbon capture and storage is a vital function of Oregon’s forests. This growing value is not reflected in the price being asked for this forest, and the profits will be lost in perpetuity to the students of Oregon if the Elliott is sold.

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A historic photograph of recently burned old-growth on the upper West Fork of the Millicoma. The man holding the photo grew up on this ranch.

Though much of the Elliott burned in this huge crown fire conflagration about 150 years ago, areas in the north near Loon Lake and south like this area in the Lower Millicoma were spared. Ancient trees of very large dimension are common here and in other scattered pockets. There is an arrogance in humanity that allows us to blithely kill these lovely beings of incredible age.

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A red alder is festooned with lichens that trap moisture from the fog. Alders capture nitrogen from the air in root nodules and fertilize the ground surrounding them, benefiting other species growing nearby. Scientists recently discovered that 80% of lichen species are actually com-mensal groups of three completely unique organisms - an algae, a yeast, and a fungus. Scientists found the long overlooked yeasts when doing DNA analysis of lichens and confirmed their initial discovery through microscopic 3D imaging.

The sun tries to burn through rising fog shrouding the 3000 road in the southern Elliott. Two parts of this vista have recently been logged in different sales.

Virgin forest still exists in forty-nine percent of the Elliott, and while most of this half burned in the 1800s, it has never been cut by the hands of man.

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A few old-growth Douglas firs stand beside a clear cut with second growth mixed forest in the background. Had younger stands like these been offered for sale, lawsuits might have been completely avoided. In the last few years, the Oregon Department of Forestryproposed timber sales that violated the Endangered Species Act.

How do we value a forest? Is it only the standing timber or are there values that transcend the merely economic? Is there some form of magic that makes a forest? Can this magic enrich and recharge us? Or do we sell a living breathing forest at a steep discount for just a portion of the value of the harvestable trees on the log scale?

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Large mossy branches are the only nesting habitat for endangered Marbled Murrelets in Oregon. These small sea birds require large enough blocks of old growth forest to achieve nesting success since predators find them too easily in smaller patches. When the state cut back on murrelet science, dedicated young volunteers did hundreds of predawn surveys at proposed old-growth timber sales and stopped several illegal sales.

Roosevelt elk are native to the Coast Range. Though their antlers may be smaller than the Rocky Mountain subspecies, they are larger and have heavier bodies. Much of the private forest land in the Coast Range is now behind locked gates, and hunters are increasingly being charged large fees for access.

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Should this road carry Oregonians into a forest they own or massive logs out of a forest they have lost?

There are significant risks if the Elliott is sold. Potential purchasers are asked to develop plans that protect at least 25% of the forest including old and ancient stands, but it is questionable whether this condition would be legally enforceable. Black letter law states that the Elliott may not be sold, and a court decision has yet to be made regarding the legality of a previous sale by the state of a smaller parcel.

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Do Northern Spotted Owls and other endangered species have any right to exist in Oregon’s old-growth forests, a right predating every human claim by millions of years? This owl’s future is in serious doubt, since only the endangered filibuster may save the Endangered Species Act from recent shifts in political winds at the national level.

If the Endangered Species Act is repealed in the next two years, the legal landscape of the Elliott’s old-growth forest may change completely. The management of our federal lands may shift to a more aggressively extractive posture and privitization of some federal lands may be promoted. If this happens, the habitats in the Elliott will be even more vital to retaining the full biodiversity of Oregon.

The biodiversity of the Earth is increasingly under direct and indirect assault from a rising tide of humanity. Since the rise of humanity, extinction has risen to 1,000 times higher than baseline pre-human levels. Choices being made by our generation and the choices to be made by our children’s generation will likely determine the biological richness of the world for the next hundred million years.

In both economics and ecology it is known that with higher diversity there is higher stability. As the climate becomes more energetic from the buildup of greenhouse gases, weather is becoming more violent and unstable. We must start to choose more wisely if we want to avoid leaving a very different, much less pleasant and less biologically rich world to all future generations. There is zero question that Oregon’s children deserve a great education. But they also deserve a great future on a lovely and vibrantly alive planet. The Elliott State Forest is an important part of their future that we must protect both today and tomorrow.

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I find deep wellsprings of inspiration in the misty mountains of the Elliott and hope that the magic of this forest will inspire everyone to come up with a more creative solution than its sale.

Please encourage the Oregon State Land Board members to save the Elliott for all future generations of Oregonians to cherish and enjoy. Let them know that we will not soon forget if they fail us in honoring this sacred trust.

For more information on how to help, visit savetheelliott.com.

Part II

Endangered Old Forests

This and the following pages contain images of old-growth forests not included in the initial reserve areas in Lonw Rock’s“Plan A” proposal.

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The Department of State Lands (DSL) requirements for protection of public values do not effectively safeguard the Elliott’s older forests or the murrelets and other endan-gered species that depend on them. The DSL reduced the price of the forest in exchange for its expecta-tion that the buyer would create a reserve of at least 20,625 acres. Lone Rock Timber Company has agreed to this set aside, but the conservation easement it proposes is so broadly written that stands of any age can be included within the boundaries. While connectiv-ity corriders are important, they shouldn’t take protection away from actual surviving habitat. The easement also provides for continual logging of the older forest by allowing reserve boundaries to be changed every five years. Trees can even be logged within existing reserve boundariesif Lone Rock wishes to build roads or decides that commerciallogging “could help maintain older forest characteristics.” Lone Rock can also include already requiredriparian buffers in the acreage it sets aside for the reserve.

Please note that land containing the old growth timber in Site 1 on this map has already been sold to a timber compay and is no longer open to the public. Site 8 is the Silver Creek Heritage Forest. This map is countesy of Steve Cole and ESRI .

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Govenor Kate Brown has proposed $100 million in state bonding as part of a plan to remove the Elliott from the Common School Fund. Althoughboth Secretary of State Dennis Rich-ardson and State Treasurer Tobias Read voted to sell the forest at the last meeting of the State Land Board, Treasurer Read says that he now sees a viable path to retaining the Elliott.

Dennis Richardson has said that the Elliott “is no Yosemite”. This is true, but he compares the Elliott to the wrong national park. I recently returned to the Elliott after a visit to Olympic National Park’s Hoh rain forest. And the Elliott’s moss-draped vine maples along the Millicoma River are just as beautiful as the bigleaf maples drawing up to 22,000 visitors a month on the Olympic Peninsula.

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Saving some of the best of the thousands of acres of potentialendangered forest for last, the Silver Creek Heritage Forest stands up valley from Gold and Silver Falls State Park. This lovely 50-acre stand includes 220 to 250-year-old Douglas fir and western hem-lock trees. This area was not burned during the Scottsburg Crown Fire of 1868 and resembles what much of the Elliott would have looked like at that time. This grove has been actively preserved by the state’s Department of Forestry, but the core of it is not included in the reserve proposed by the Lone Rock Timber consortium. This stand with its intervening lands would make a great addition to Oegon’s state parks.

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Take Action to Save the Elliott

Call or write members of the State Land Board and your legislators. Land Board Members: Gov. Kate Brown - (503) 378-4582 Tobias Read - (503) 378-4329 Dennis Richardson - (503) 986-1523

Legislators: Find Your Legislator: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/FindYourLegislator/leg-districts.html. Governor Brown believes that bonds can be used to partially fund the divestment of the Elliott from Common School Fund lands. Encourage your legislators to support her plan.

Visit mountainsinclouds.com and savetheelliott.com for updates on the Elliott State Forest.

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Steven Holt has been deeply moved by his experiences in the Elliott State Forest and hopes Oregonians will always be free to discover its beauty. He is a widely published environmental and wildlife photographer who has livedin the Coos Bay area for over twenty years. To see more of his work on the Elliott, visitmountainsinclouds.com.