Editorial: Honor the forest by getting out, enjoying its gifts

Birthdays and anniversaries bring about an opportunity to reflect on the years that have passed and what they’ve meant. The centennial celebration of the Umpqua National Forest is no exception.

Imagine traveling the rugged drainage of the North Umpqua River on horseback in the early 1900s. It must have seemed so extremely vast and wild and yet, special. It made enough of an impression on President Theodore Roosevelt that he would designate nearly 1 million acres of the land to become the Umpqua National Forest on July 1, 1908.

We are fortunate that Roosevelt had the foresight to preserve the forest as public land that we all benefit from in so many ways.

Even if you only drive the North Umpqua Highway to Diamond Lake to view the forest’s sheer beauty and the unique, jade-green color of the wild and scenic river, you’ve got to appreciate having this gem in our county.

As magnificent as it is to look at, its natural resources have played an important role in the settling of Douglas County.

News-Review reporter Adam Pearson recounted the history of the forest in a recent article, pointing out how many young men would join the Civilian Conservation Corps, a work relief program in the 1930s that shaped the early forest.

The CCCs would build bridges, recreation facilities and forge the first road from Roseburg to Diamond Lake in 1940, opening up the forest to industry. The damming of the upper North Umpqua to create hydroelectricity from its rushing waters would be joined by a thriving U.S. Forest Service timber sale program, providing jobs for logging crews, trees delivered to local sawmills and wood products for a growing country. Roseburg would earn the name “Timber Capital of the Nation,” a motto it retains today.

By the 1980s, harvests would average 350 million board feet. The listing of the northern spotted owl as a threatened species in 1990 and lawsuits that prevented the implementation of 1994’s Northwest Forest Plan would nearly bring logging to a halt by the mid-1990s.

Today, only about 40 million to 50 million board feet of timber are logged annually from the forest. It’s unlikely that number will increase dramatically, but without thinning, the forest is at increased risk of wildfire.

Between 1996 and 2003, more than 108,000 acres were burned by wildfire. In the previous 56 years, fewer than 20,000 acres had burned.

The Umpqua National Forest seems to truly provide the multiple uses that Roosevelt envisioned 100 years ago. Recreationists have 350 miles of hiking trails, 54 developed campgrounds and 1,150 miles of maintained roads to explore.

Conservationists have seen the designation of three wilderness areas, encompassing 67,000 acres, and 33 miles of water committed solely to fly-fishing in a stream that still supports native runs of salmon and steelhead.

The forest so rich in Douglas fir and hardwoods also provides habitat for 16 other species of fish, 236 species of birds, 66 species of mammals and 27 species of reptile and amphibians.

Visions may vary widely for what the next 100 years of the Umpqua should be, but for now, we encourage everyone to honor the forest’s centennial by getting out and enjoying its beauty and diversity.