Camille Park oaks

Excerpted from the Beaverton Valley Times, April 19, 2012

Just east of Highway 217 and accessed by Southwest 105th Avenue or Marjorie Lane, Camille Park is a 12-acre oasis with amenities both the young and old can enjoy.   A 700-foot plastic-decked boardwalk system provides year-round wetlands access, which right now includes a lower-lying camas lily meadow that blooms in spring.

The park’s rare Oregon white oak habitat – one of the most endangered environments in the Pacific Northwest – was enhanced by thinning some fast-growing ash trees, opening the canopy and providing more light. A wetlands meadow was also replanted with native species, and invasive plants and shrubs were removed.

 

District Park Ranger Kyle Spinks said the restoration of native plants and the boardwalk through the park’s marshier areas should prove popular among nature lovers of all stripes.

“We sought to turn it into an interactive wetland/shrubland,” he noted. “The idea is you can walk in and see what (Oregon) wetlands are all about.”

Lonely Tree

Milwaukie, Oregon filmmakers highlight movie on Three Creeks Area

By Ellen Spitaleri - The Portland Tribune, Apr 9, 2012

Steve Berliner, director of the Friends of Kellogg & Mt. Scott Creeks Watershed, and Eric Shawn, work to protect the Three Creeks Nature Area recently vandalized by BMX riders. Police placed branches on the trail to try to discourage riders. Becca Quint / TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Forget the red carpet treatment.  Two local filmmakers think a green carpet would be more appropriate for the first showing of their movie, “Lonely Tree,” part of Milwaukie’s Watershed Event, on Friday, April 13, at the Masonic Hall in downtown Milwaukie.

The film’s title is actually, “Lonely Tree — Old Growth in Peril at 3-Creeks,” noted Greg Baartz-Bowman, the director and editor, and the producer, along with cinematographer Mark Gamba, both Milwaukie residents.

“If we keep cutting down all the trees,” like the Oregon white oaks at the Three-Creeks Natural Area near the North Clackamas Aquatic Park, “then all we will have are lonely white oaks spread around the county, like the one oak tree at the roundabout that is all by itself,” Baartz-Bowman added.

The event will also showcase three other films: “Greatest Migration,” by Andy Maser, which follows the wild salmon as they travel into Idaho; “Trout on the Wind,” by Sam Drevo, a dam-removal film about Trout Creek on the Wind River in Washington state; and “Of Forest and Men,” a United Nations film, culled from a larger film called “Home,” that is narrated by actor Edward Burns.

The point of all four films is that “watersheds and forests need each other to survive,” Gamba noted.

MUST takes action

Milwaukie’s Watershed Event is co-hosted by MUST — Milwaukie Understands Sustainable Transitions — an organization founded by Gamba, a member of the city’s planning commission and a professional, internationally known photographer, who has worked for The National Geographic.

“I decided to get together a group of people more forward thinking and more sustainably minded, to be a voice to the City Council,” he said.

Baartz-Bowman, a MUST member as well, has been employed in the film industry in Los Angeles, working on screenplays, feature films and corporate training films for Logolite Entertainment. He and his family moved to Milwaukie in 2007, and he founded Straw Bale Films in 2011, because he wanted to establish a film company in Clackamas County that would focus on sustainable practices and environmental concerns.

The film is completely self-financed, Baartz-Bowman noted, and Milwaukie’s Watershed Event is free. Seating is limited, but if there is enough demand to see “Lonely Tree,” another showing may be arranged, he said.

Trees in peril

The two men decided to make “Lonely Tree,” as they became aware of the Sunnybrook Boulevard Extension project, a proposed less-than-one-mile road from the intersection of 82nd Avenue and Sunnybrook, cutting through the natural area behind the Clackamas Community College Harmony Campus and the North Clackamas Aquatic Park. 

The county wants to build the road to give increased access to the college campus and to push traffic onto Harmony Road. To do that, many of the 200-year-old oak trees and surrounding vegetation would have to be cut down.

Baartz-Bowman said he first became aware of the Three-Creeks Natural Area through reading news stories, and then took a tour of the area.

“There is a legacy oak forest in my backyard. When I went out there and saw how beautiful the trees are, I decided the best way to stop the road was to make a film. Those trees are so special, and when I saw how much we have neglected and abused them, I had no choice,” he said.

Gamba also toured the Three-Creeks area, and called it “an amazing little piece of original Willamette Valley habitat.”

He is generally opposed to spending money to build roads, and pointed out that we cannot continue to burn the amount of carbon fuel that we do today, not to mention how much we will burn in the future.

There is a very real chance oil resources will be totally depleted, and the county is proposing to cut down 200- to 300-year-old trees to build a road that will only be good for two decades at most, Gamba said.

‘Rare pockets’

The two men spent more than 100 hours of their spare time making “Lonely Tree,” which Baartz-Bowman called an “advocacy documentary.” The overall goal of the film is to acquaint the audience with the road project, which was shelved in May 2011, but could return.

The two men hope that people will contact the county commissioners and ask them to keep the Sunnybrook Extension permanently off the table.

Books have been written as to why it is imperative to preserve dwindling natural areas within urban areas, Gamba said.

“Studies show that people in cities value nature, parks, green areas,” he said. “Those are rare pockets these days. To build a road to nowhere through one of the last remaining green spaces is ridiculous.”

Baartz-Bowman pointed out that the state has less than 1 percent of legacy white oaks left, and “we need to maintain our native landscape to save it for us and future generations — we have to take positive action, or it will be gone.”

It is ironic, he pointed out, that Metro is spending millions to recreate natural areas, “when here in Clackamas County we already own an oak forest. And it is in the watershed, important to drinking water, clean water and fish. The ultimate goal is to create a wildlife sanctuary, and getting the road off the books is the first step.”

A local band called The Old Light provided some of the music for the film’s soundtrack. The title song, “Lonely Tree,” was written and recorded by Baartz-Bowman’s younger brother 20 years ago.

“He was in a reggae band called The Ravers, and he wrote and sang a song called ‘Lonely Tree.’ The lyrics are: ‘There stands a lonely tree where a forest used to be. Can you tell me what can we do?’ Now, with this film, I feel like I have answered his question,” Baartz-Bowman said.

Magic of nature

Hundreds of words have been written about the Three-Creeks Natural Area, but both men noted that they experienced something that goes beyond mere description as they interacted with the site.

“I had a magic moment when I stumbled on two deer that did not run away. They wanted to be filmed — it was special. I felt honored,” Baartz-Bowman said.

“Nature enters you in a way it doesn’t when I am on a sidewalk. Ways you can’t predict — suddenly you are different, in a good way.”

“It is the same thing I have experienced in other groves of old growth — something not discernible by eyes, ears or nose. The best word is magic. Old growth everywhere has a power that you have to experience. Three-Creeks is somewhat diminished, but the old trees are still there,” Gamba said.

Audience members will see many familiar residents voicing their opinions about Three-Creeks, the two men said, including Chris Runyard, the head of the Tsunami Crew, a group of volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the site.

Others include: Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette, an Ardenwald resident; former Milwaukie City Council member, Deborah Barnes; Milwaukie Mayor, Jeremy Ferguson; Jim Labbe, an urban conservationist with the Audubon Society of Portland; many Clackamas County residents; Tsunami Crew members and more.

Shaun Lowcock, a Milwaukie resident, helped with the production of the film and provided the narration, Baartz-Bowman said.

‘Un-Dam-It’

Baartz-Bowman and Gamba are now hard at work on the next project for Straw Bale Films, “Un-Dam-It,” another advocacy documentary, designed to make the removal of the dam at the mouth of Kellogg Creek a high priority. The city has $1 million from the federal government earmarked for the project, but Gamba estimates that the overall cost would be closer to $4 million.

“The big holdout is all the sediment around the dam is heavily polluted, with DDT and more. That needs to be removed and/or treated, and that will cost an estimated $2.5 million,” he said.

Dam removal is critical for fish passage, he noted, saying that the Willamette River has almost no spawning grounds left, and Kellogg Creek was a big one in the past, with tens of thousands of salmon going up the creek.

Based on old records, the two men said that as many as 30,000 salmon could return to the creek, once the dam is removed. They noted also, that this could be a big tourist draw for Milwaukie; if the dam were removed, people could ride Milwaukie Max to the site, stand on the bridge and watch an enormous salmon run.

Gamba added: “My goal is to see that dam come out during or just following the construction of light-rail’s Kellogg Bridge.”

See the film

Straw Bale Films and MUST present Milwaukie’s Watershed Event

Doors open at 7 p.m. on April 13

Venue: Milwaukie Masonic Lodge, 10636 S.E. Main St.

The event is free, but seating is limited, so patrons must RSVP to info@strawbalefilms.com.

To see a clip of “Lonely Tree — Old Growth in Peril at 3-Creeks,” visit www.strawbalefilms.com.

How to stop spread of Sudden Oak Death

From Oregon State University Extension Service:

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A newly updated publication outlines how the public can help stop the spread of a disease that has killed more than a million oak and tanoak trees in 14 coastal counties in California and thousands of tanoaks in Curry County, Ore.

"Stop the Spread of Sudden Oak Death" (EC1608) is available for free online.
Sudden Oak Death is the common name for the disease caused by a pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum.

"No one knows where the pathogen came from or how it was introduced in Oregon," said Dave Shaw, an Oregon State University plant pathologist. He and Ellen Goheen, plant pathologist with the U.S. Forest Service, are authors of the publication.

Other hosts for the disease are California black oak, Douglas-fir, grand fir, coast redwood, Pacific madrone, Pacific rhododendron, evergreen huckleberry, and many other tree and shrub species common in Oregon and Washington forests. The disease also causes branch and shoot dieback and leaf spotting on a large number of woodland and nursery plant species.

Hosts in the nursery trade include varieties of rhododendron, camellia and Pieris. A complete host list is on the USDA-APHIS website.

P. ramorum spreads naturally when mist and rain move spores within forest canopies – from treetops to stems and shrubs below, or across landscapes from treetop to treetop.

"Humans help spread the disease when they transport infected plants, plant parts or infested soil," Shaw said. "State and federal inspectors survey forests and nurseries in Oregon regularly to detect the disease. Infected plants and adjacent host plants are destroyed to slow spread of the disease."

State and federal quarantine regulations minimize the risk of new infections and prevent human-assisted spread. Complete texts of these regulations (ORS 603-052-1230 and 7 CFR 301.92) are on the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture websites.

People can spread Phytophthora ramorum across long distances by moving infected plants either purchased at a nursery or collected in the wild, or by moving infected wood, leaves, stems or soil.

The authors say there are things persons living, working, or visiting in the quarantined portion (map printed in publication) of Oregon's Curry County can do to help stop the spread. These include:

• Become familiar with the most recent regulations on Sudden Oak Death (websites in publication).
• Do not collect and remove host plants or plant parts from the forest.
• Do not collect or remove soil.
• Stay on established trails and respect trail closures.
• Before leaving infested areas, clean and disinfect equipment such as saws, shovels and pruning equipment you used in infested areas; wash soil off tires, wheel wells and the undercarriage of your vehicle; clean soil off shoes, mountain bikes, horse hooves and pet paws.
• For best protection, use a 10-percent bleach solution for cleaning.
• Buy healthy plants from reputable nurseries.

For more information, contact the OSU Extension foresters in local county offices, or a forester working with a state or federal agency.

OSU Extension, Curry County, 29390 Ellensburg (Hwy 101), Gold Beach, OR 97444, 541-247-6672 or 1-800-356-3986

Oregon Department of Forestry
USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region

Author: Judy Scott

Source: Dave Shaw

Ponderosa Pine: companion tree to Oregon White Oak

Loggers give unique Oregon Ponderosa pine a lifeline

by Catherine Ryan; From the March 19, 2012 issue of High Country News

On a gray February afternoon, rain falls in huge drops on Chuck Volz's 65-acre property near Springfield, Ore. It drips from the brim of his faded camouflage baseball cap and rolls off his tan jacket as he walks down a muddy path crisscrossed by deer hoofprints. He stops at a young ponderosa pine and frowns: "Horn rubbing," he says, fingering a sappy spot where a buck scraped off the bark with its antlers. He hates to see his trees under duress.

In the last decade, Volz, a retired engineer for the lumber company Weyerhaeuser, has planted roughly 1,500 Willamette Valley ponderosa pines -- a type of the ubiquitous Western conifer that's found only in this valley. Unique genetic characteristics have been discovered in the pine's chloroplasts, the part of a plant cell that conducts photosynthesis. And ponderosas taken from dry eastern Oregon and replanted in the soggy Willamette Valley usually die within a few years. With this evidence in hand, scientists are now in the process of getting Pinus ponderosa var. willamettensis formally recognized as a distinct variety.

Settlers decimated the trees when they built homes and cleared land for agriculture, and until recently, the pine survived only in scattered stands between Hillsboro and Cottage Grove. It suffered more than other species because it grew on the valley floor -- unlike Douglas fir, which occupy hillsides -- and was softer and easier to mill than hardwoods. Animals that relied on the tree for habitat and food -- including the Lewis' woodpecker and the slender-billed nuthatch, which both nest in the tree -- declined along with it. Today researchers believe that the persistence of ponderosa pine here depends on the survival of the remaining native stock.

The valley's ponderosas are beginning to rebound, thanks largely to former loggers like Volz. In partnership with the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine Conservation Association -- a group composed mostly of timber industry retirees -- has worked since 1994 to preserve the tree's genetics, re-establish it on private and public lands, and create a commercial market for its lumber. They aren't ecologically motivated: "Some folks want to save every tree," says Bob McNitt, the group's executive director, who brags about the number of trees he used to fell. "We want to grow 'em and make products for people." Yet their championship of the valley ponderosa has been, in effect, an act of conservation.

By preserving its genetic diversity, the loggers have given this uncommon tree an evolutionary lifeline. Had the valley ponderosas been left to themselves, inbreeding within remnant stands containing only a few trees, coupled with pressures from development, could have led to the variety's collapse, explains Larry Miller, Oregon's state forest geneticist. "The association captured a solid sample of the genetic resources of valley pine," Miller says. "Now, landowners who plant the pine are expanding its range, and increasing the diversity within that range."
McNitt, who retired from industrial forestry partly because he didn't "want to deal with that crap with the environment or environmentalists," did much of that genetic reconnaissance and preservation. He spent nine months in the mid-'90s roaming northwestern Oregon with a GPS and a notebook, recording the locations of roughly 450 native pine stands -- drastically fewer than what once grew here, according to 19th century surveys. There were still enough to constitute a genetically viable pool, but the distance between stands prevented the trees from cross-pollinating, so their seeds were likely to be inbred and unfit for survival.

McNitt and others collected seed and scions -- branches cut from adult trees and grafted onto rootstock -- from many of those sites, then partnered with the Oregon Department of Forestry to raise them. The fruits of that effort now grow on a 14-acre seed orchard. When the trees flower, wind carries pollen from the unrelated individuals throughout the orderly rows. Once the fertilized flowers become pineapple-shaped cones, orchard employees break them open to get at the seeds, which are distributed to nurseries where landowners can buy seedlings. The state also plants a small number on public lands.

When the association began its crusade to save the pine, before the economic downturn, individuals and lumber companies were thrilled by the variety's potential. Valley ponderosa thrive in poor soils where timber staples like the Douglas fir tend to falter. They also grow fast, ensuring a relatively quick turnaround from planting to harvesting, and their lumber can be sold for shavings or even biofuel. And though the initial fervor has cooled as the timber market at large teeters, McNitt remains optimistic. "My feeling is that demand will cycle around again," he says. For now he's focused on increasing supply, urging friends, neighbors and strangers to plant the tree with an almost evangelical zeal.

Hundreds of thousands have been planted in the last decade, though the sluggish economy means fewer seedlings are bought these days. At the same time, the recession is indirectly protecting established pines. The real estate bust halted the feverish construction of the mid-2000s, and for the time being, forested land -- including ponderosa stands -- is less likely to be sold and converted to housing or strip malls, Miller explains.

Still, the reforestation effort hasn't been a definitive victory for habitat restoration, cautions David Hibbs, professor of silviculture at Oregon State University. Historically, the pines grew widely dispersed among other species, particularly oak. Now, people are mainly planting them in tightly packed mini-plantations. "You don't want to mistake this with restoration," Hibbs says. "They're not creating the habitat that the pine used to be a part of."

It's better than nothing, though, says research wildlife biologist Joan Hagar. "They certainly couldn't (bring back the habitat) if they weren't replanting the ponderosas," she says. If McNitt and other loggers get their way, some will be cut down. But others will thrive and reproduce. And the future lies in those seeds, says Hagar: "They're preserving options by keeping the pine in the ecosystem."

© High Country News