The Tillamook: A Created Forest Comes of Age

by Wells, Gail

• ISBN13: 9780870714641
• ISBN10: 0870714643
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

It was Oregon's most notorious conflagration -- a series of four major fires that struck the Tillamook forest beginning in 1933 and recurred with bizarre regularity at six-year intervals through 1951. The fires burned 355,000 acres of virgin forest in northwestern Oregon and became collectively known as the Tillamook Burn. In her engaging history of the Tillamook, Gail Wells recounts the story of the famous fires and the cooperative efforts of foresters and ordinary citizens -- including thousands of schoolchildren -- to get young trees growing again on the burned landscape. It became one of the largest forest rehabilitation efforts ever, resulting in a created forest that promised "timber forever" to the people of Oregon. Now a state forest, the Tillamook is coming of age at a time when attitudes toward forests have changed and "timber forever" is no longer the guiding principle. With its trees now big enough to harvest, the question becomes "What happens now on the Tillamook?" Wells explores this question by tracing the historic roots of competing perspectives on forest use and by examining the contemporary debate over forest issues. In considering the potential futures of the Tillamook -- and of the many other second-growth forests in the West -- she raises the possibility of a workable synthesis, "a truly stable, sustainable, and humane relationship with our forests." An important and timely work, The Tillamook is intended for general readers interested in the historic and future role of forests in the Pacific West.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vi
Series Editor's Preface	vii
Art acknowledgements	viii
Introduction	1	(6)
The Legend	7	(12)
Timber Forever	19	(18)
Tillamook Legend and Frontier Culture	37	(19)
The Legend-spinners	56	(13)
Field Trip: Mark Labhart ``I just call it a win-win''	69	(25)
Field Trip: Bill Emmingham Creating Biodiversity	94	(15)
The Search for Sustainability	109	(16)
Field Trip: Sybil Ackerman Saving the Tillamook Forest	125	(19)
Field Trip: Ric Balfour Taming the Wild West	144	(10)
A Walk Up Gales Creek Canyon	154	(21)
References	175	(5)
Index	180