Umpqua Watersheds, Inc.
monitors the bioregions of our home in the
Umpqua, Coos, and Coquille Watersheds
in Southwest Oregon
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Oregon |
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| "Protect the Best, Restore the Rest!" |
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LEFT: We have proposed an area of unique geology and
rich biodiversity in the Umpqua National Forest, at the crest of the Cascade mountains
as a National Monument. RIGHT: The coastal watersheds have their special challenges due to the checkerboard ownership patterns of the O&C lands managed by BLM. |
Tributary to the Coquille River |
The Umpqua National Forest is located in the southwest part of the State of Oregon, on the western face of the Cascade Range of mountains. The one million acres fall in Douglas County (84%), Lane County (15%), and Jackson County (1%). The Forest is entirely within the Fourth Congressional District.
In general, UNF goes from the crest of the Cascade mountains west to the borders of private and BLM land near Glide, Oregon. It is bordered on the North by Willamette NF, and on the South by Rogue River NF. To the east at the mountain crest, it borders Winema NF and Crater Lake National Park.
More specifically, the Forest extends eastward from Mace Mountain, 12 miles northeast of Glide, to the crest of the Cascade Range. The Forest extends from the foothills southeast of Cottage Grove, along the Calapooya Divide and Cascade Range, to the Rogue-Umpqua Divide near Tiller.
The Roseburg District of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is located within the Coast Range of western Oregon, and in the southern part of the district, in the Klamath Mountains. BLM lands are primarily in a checkerboard ownership pattern. (Click here to get a definition of BLM.)
In general, BLM lands start where the UNF leaves off, on the west side of the UNF. BLM owns every other section for a few miles, and then not much over the farming area surrounding Roseburg. West of Roseburg, the Coast range begins and farming ends. This is where BLM starts every other section ownership again, until it meets with Coos Bay BLM to the west, Eugene BLM to the north, and the Siskiyou NF to the south.
Roseburg, the county seat of Douglas County (population 94,649 in 1990) is in the approximate geographic center of these forests.
The Umpqua National Forest has one million acres of land (as of 9-88). To be exact, it has 1,029,309 acres, including 44,475 acres of private land. Elevations range from 600 feet above mean sea level to 9,182 feet at the summit of Mt. Thielsen.
The headwaters of the North Umpqua and South Umpqua Rivers and the Row River, a tributary to the Coast Fork Willamette, begin on the Umpqua National Forest. The North Umpqua River was once a nationally recognized anadromous fishery. Now the Umpqua Cut Throat Trout is an endangered species. In 1993, only one fish was counted swimming upstream.
Diamond Lake a 3,000-acre glacial lake on the Cascade Crest, in the Diamond Lake Ranger District, attracts a large number of the tourists in the Umpqua. Also on the Diamond Lake Ranger District is the Toketee hydroelectric power project, which has created the Toketee and Lemolo reservoirs. The dam is scheduled to be relicensed this year. The UNF has 3 small wilderness areas, Mt. Thielsen (22,700 acres), Boulder Creek (19,100 acres), and the Rogue-Umpqua Divide (29,027 acres).
The UNF is generally characterized as a conifer forest which used to have a considerable component of mature and old Douglas Fir trees. In the last 20 years it has been highly impacted by clear-cut type logging practices. At high elevations, other tree species, such as mountain hemlock, lodgepole pine, and the true fir species, are present. Hardwood tree species are present on the Forest in scattered locations and along many stream courses. A few natural meadows are found in the Forest, mostly at higher elevations.
Deforestation in the Umpqua National Forest has averaged about 300 mmbf per year since 1970. Umpqua National Forest is one of the ten largest producers of Federal timber among all the Nation's national forests. The annual timber produced from this deforestation is about one percent of the nation's softwood production. This supports about 4% of the jobs in the primary zone counties.
BLM manages 423,928 acres, about half the amount of forests than the UNF, of which 391,578 acres is O&C land. That leaves 18,426 acres of public domain land, and 13,924 of Coos-Bay Wagon Road lands (land from the Coos-Bay Wagon Road Company because they failed to meet requirements of their land grant in 1919, similar to O&C lands). 367,500 acres of this is commercial forest land. The annual average deforestation from 1984-1987 was 254.64 mmbf (almost as much as the UNF from half the land). This contributed 1,560 jobs to the county (.017% of the county population in 1990).
Throughout the district, slopes range from 0% to vertical and average about 60% (that's steep). Elevations range from 150 feet at Elkton, 500 feet at Roseburg and 650 feet at Myrtle Creek, to 4,800 feet at Huckleberry Mountain.
The three old (pre 10/96) Resource Areas of the BLM are South Douglas (south), Mt. Scott (east) and Tyee (north). The South Umpqua River flows through the South Douglas Resource Area, and the North Umpqua through Mt. Scott. The rivers join near Roseburg, and flow as one Umpqua through Tyee Resource Area. In October of 1996, the Mt. Scott and Tyee Resource Area were combined into the Swiftwater RA, and South Douglas changed its name to the South River RA.
The BLM plan reads "In support of the timber management program, an average of 60 miles of road per year have been constructed and an average of 1,100 miles of road per year maintained during 1983-90". That's a lot of tax dollars used to support the timber industry just for BLM land alone (some call it corporate welfare). The PSQ (estimated volume of trees cut) for 1995 is 45 mmbf. So far they have exceeded that tremendously because of the salvage rider law.
Information on this page was gleaned from the Forest Plans of the two agencies. The UNF plan had far greater detail in an easier to read format, thus the information here from BLM is a little short.
Over 298 species of animals including birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles are also dependent on the Forest. Threatened and endangered species include the northern bald eagle, peregrine falcon, spotted owl and the Umpqua cut throat trout. Much attention is given to managing wildlife for hunters, which brought about the recent introduction of wild turkeys (not native to our area). Large mammals that can still be found in the forest include "big game" species, such as elk, deer, bear and cougar.
O&C Lands
There is a special category of Federal lands within the boundaries of the UNF and BLM, called Oregon and California land (commonly referred to as O&C land). These resulted from Congressional giving public land to the Oregon and California Railroad in 1866 and 1869. The O&C land, which was to be sold by the company to aid in offsetting the cost of building the railroad between Portland and the California border, included all odd-numbered sections of land for a distance of 20 miles on both sides of the railroad. After the company failed in its obligations, the unsold portions of land were returned to the Federal government on June 9, 1916. The O&C lands were put under the management of the BLM.
In 1956, there was a major transfer of O&C lands between the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The UNF O&C lands (138,000 acres) are located on the Tiller, North Umpqua and Cottage Grove Ranger Districts. The rest are on all resource areas of the BLM. These lands return 50% of the monies derived from deforestation to the counties in lieu of taxes (this is compared to 25% returned from National Forest lands). Recently the timber industry has been pushing to exchange O&C lands so they can be deforested without federal environmental protections.
