Chehalem Ridge Natural Area

A view from the peak.  On a clear day, all five of the closest volcanoes are visible.

Last year, after voters approved a bond measure, Metro purchased Chehalem Ridge.  It's 1,143 acres near Gaston, and is not yet officially open to the public.  We visited recently as part of a special tour given by Metro,  and their naturalist James Davis was leading.  It was thoroughly fascinating.  

Under the Douglas fir trees, all the lower branches are dead.

Salmonberry blossom.

Evidence of beavers.

They face a special problem at Chehalem Ridge, which has a long history of use as a tree farm.  Despite what the timber industry would like you to think, tree farms are not forests!  Douglas firs were planted in neat rows, with the idea of thinning them out gradually before clear-cutting and replanting.  Instead, at some point they simply stopped work, and the trees that remained grew close together.  Their branches intertwine to make a nearly impenetrable shade, and the forest floor seems sterile and lifeless.  They grew thin, reaching higher and higher in an effort to get to the sun.  Attempting to restore the woodland creates special problems that have no clear answers or precedents.  Leaving the trees the way they are perpetuates the dead zones under the trees, as well as a monoculture that is highly susceptible to infestations and diseases.  Clearcutting is ugly.  And selectively thinning them leaves the spindly trees that remain highly vulnerable to wind damage.  What they would like to see in the future is a forest where the Oregon white oaks and pacific madrones flourish.  They showed us an area where white oaks had been encouraged by clearing the Douglas firs that surrounded them, and lead us into the neat rows of Douglas firs to see for ourselves how weird it looked.  

Skunk cabbage blooms smell nasty
to attract flies as pollinators.

Holes left by a sapsucker.

Mr. Davis made the trip really enjoyable by pointing out many amazing things we would otherwise have missed, and telling us all about the animals, seen and unseen, that surrounded us.  

Jasper was very excited to give Mr. Davis this newt.

A beaver dam.

Yet more beaver evidence!