June 26, 2018

Fire, Then Recovery

By roadsrus

 

Ruth’s Aunt Cleta married in Missouri and emigrated to Oregon.  It was from Cleta and her husband Homer that I learned about The Tillamook Burn.

Also known as the six-year jinx, the Tillamook Burn commenced in 1933.  Before that the forests east of their town were logged.   Timber harvesting and jobs were the focus before the first fire.  This was, after all, during The Depression.   On August 14 of that year, a logging company manager ceased cutting operations due to extreme fire danger.  One canyon crew didn’t hear about it and dragged a log over another causing a spark that ignited a forest fire.  The film in the Tillamook Forest Center about the fire that ensued says that it caused a roar like an earthquake and ash fell on the decks of ships 500 miles out to sea.  The 1933 fire raged until September when fog and rain finally rolled in and helped to smother it.  A charred landscape full of snags, dead or dying trees that were still standing, remained.   Snags made it hard for the forest to regenerate in a natural way.

Fires repeated every 6 years after that.  The 1939 fire burned 190,000 acres.  The devastation from 1945’s fire, the best known because it affected travel through the forest, could still be seen in the 1970s.  It was caused by a tossed cigarette.  The 1951 fire was the most contained because the focus on logging was shifting to conservation.   Only 32,000 acres burned.   The total acreage destroyed in the 4 forest fires was 355,000.    One of the largest reforestation efforts in the world began.  A billion seeds were scattered and 72 million seedlings were planted.  The recovering Tillamook State Forest was declared 45 years ago.

Today a drive through this forest is thrilling because everyone sees the greenest, most incredibly beautiful trees and vegetation  on Planet Earth.  Out of disaster came both knowledge and healing.  In June of this year a prescribed fire burned only 60 acres of the Tillamook State Forest.  It was controlled so it wouldn’t spread.  About halfway through this incredible forest, a Center has been built along the Wilson River to provide access to trails and inform travelers about both The Tillamook Burn and the efforts that created today’s lush growth.  When we were there last Sunday, wild foxglove flowers were everywhere and the Tillamook Forest Center was full of families.

Hank

 

 

About roadsrus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roadsrus
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2018 at 8:42 pm and posted in Oregon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Comments are disabled.

%d bloggers like this: