An Uncertain Future
Human actions pose an uncertain future for the burned forest in three ways: the effects of climate change, invasive species and continuing forest management.
Research with a broad geographic scope reveals that inexorable climate change is increasing fire frequency and severity. In the Pacific Northwest an abrupt harbinger of future warming may have been the unprecedented 110+ degree heat dome of June 2021. This multi-day extreme heat event scorched green foliage on some of the trees trying to recover from the fire nine months before. A gradually warming planet and sporadic temperature spikes like the heat dome effect, will challenge the resilience of this emerging forest in new ways.
Clearcut logging and single-species tree planting operations have been widespread across this region. Most of the industrial forest lands have been clearcut several times and planted with Douglas fir seedlings only. The McKenzie River Trust is leaving most of the carbon on site, allowing the burned trees to remain to decompose slowly, thus nurturing a natural forest with greater biodiversity and resilience to face the uncertainties ahead.
A pile of rusty cans marks the boundary between the former logging camp and the forest beyond; it marks less certain boundaries as well. Invasive plants are spreading from the gardens and lawns of the old logging camp into the forest, displacing native species. We can sense the challenge of restoring native forest as the land undergoes a transition from management objectives of intensive forestry to conservation of native ecosystems – a transition of ownership from a forestry company to a land trust.
We are uncertain how these and other factors will play out individually and in combination over time. We are creating this record of careful watching so others can follow and steward the forest into the future.
Photopoint FRR26, August 2021.
The first spring after the fire some bigleaf maples close to the riverbank put on a new crop of foliage in their attempt to survive, but an extreme heat event for several days in June 2021 scorched the fresh foliage, turning it brown. Some nearby Douglas fir (upper center) retained green foliage through the heat event.
Photopoint FRR26, May 2022.
The ground fire scorched the canopy from below and the heat wave scorched it from above, which led to death of the main stems of the maples. Douglas fir retain their green foliage in the tree tops.
Bigleaf Maple Sprouts, August 2021
Many maples sprouted vigorously from their bases in the first spring, but then the heat wave scorched the margins of some of the upper leaves where water stress may have been greatest. Unlike the tree-top maple foliage, leaves on the sprouts persisted after scorching and the shoot put out a new flush of foliage, though with more stunted form.
Bigleaf Maple, Stunted Sprouts, January 2022
Autumn leaf fall from the maple sprouts revealed the altered growth form that was a biological response to the extreme heat wave in June 2021.
Photopoint BRCE 07, Mar 2021.
The fire burned through a young Douglas fir forest established after clearcutting of an old forest, which left decomposed stumps and a log on the ground (foreground). A cluster of maple trunks stands on the right and the forest floor has scattered downed trees, which may in part be the result of toppling by wind during the fire.
Photopoint BRCE 07, August, 2021.
By summer 2021 greenery returns in the forms of bigleaf maple sprouts from the base of trees, ferns sprouting from surviving rhizomes (root-like structures), flowering fireweed whose seeds blew in from afar, and other species. A gentle breeze rustles the new growth.
Photopoint BRCE 07, January 2022.
Clearcutting (“salvage logging”) in the summer of 2021 removed the standing trees, crushed the old, rotten log in the foreground, and left piles of slash (scrap wood left from the logging operation) and decks of logs along a skid road (upper right).
Land Use Legacy
A pile of rusty cans – marks the boundary between the Little Arky logging camp (to the right) and the forest to the left. Another legacy in the form of invasive vetch, Scotch broom, and other plants is spreading into the forest and displacing native species.