Elliott Forest: More Information

Cascadia Wildlands and allies demonstrate against the Elliott State Forest clearcutting increase (Trip Jennings).

The Elliott State Forest is a 93,000-acre publicly owned forest located just inland from the mouth of the Umpqua River. Surrounded by massive swaths of privately owned industrial tree farms, the public forests of the Elliott offer rare, native habitat that has never been logged. As a consequence, this coastal rainforest offers some of the finest remaining habitat in the Oregon Coast Range for a host of threatened and endangered species, including coho salmon, marbled murrelet and the northern spotted owl.

Much of the Elliott burned in the settler-started 1868 Coos Bay fire which burned across nearly 300,000 acres from Scottsburg south to Coos Bay. The forest has grown back naturally since the fire with the forest nearing 150 years of age today. Residual pockets of old-growth that survived the fire, some up to 500 years old, can also be found. Currently, this forest is in jeopardy. The Oregon Department of Forestry, the state agency in charge of our Elliott State Forest, auctions off the rights to clearcut nearly 850 acres of native forest to the highest bidder each year.

The Elliott became the first state forest in 1930. It is named after Francis Elliott, Oregon's first state forester, who worked for many years to create the forest by trading scattered state "school fund" lands for one large block of land. Today, the forest is being sacrificed in a "clearcuts for kids" scheme and has left the Elliott a fragmented landscape which will have disastrous consequences for two older forest dependent species in particular: northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

Northern spotted owl

In 1993, there were 69 spotted owls on the Elliott. Recognizing that the Elliott owl population was in pretty good shape in spite of its peril elsewhere, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) made a deal with Oregon in 1995 to allow them cut timber in the forest provided they took steps to maintain a viable population of spotted owls in the forest. The FWS set the number and the State of Oregon promised to protect 26 spotted owls through 2055 (by not clearcutting their nest sites). In exchange, Oregon could “take” (kill) 43 owls. This deal is known as the 1995 Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP).

Operating under the HCP the owl population on the Elliott plummeted down to 26 owls by 1998. The ODF had taken all the owls they were allowed to take over the 60 year period in just the first few years. Today, about 25 northern spotted owls (11 pairs) live on the Elliott State Forest. However, in order to increase the cut on the Elliott, the state of Oregon went out on a limb and recently abandoned the HCP and broke the mitigation promises it made as part of the 1995 HCP. The new 2012 Elliott plan calls for a nearly 40% increase in clearcutting with an average of 850 acres of native rainforest clearcut each year. The new plan does not have the support of the federal fish and wildlife experts.

To make matters worse, some remaining spotted owls are being displaced by the more aggressive barred owl. Unfortunately, the ODF refuses to follow the recommendations of the FWS to leave enough habitat for both owl species by not cutting down any nesting habitat.

Marbled murrelet

The murrelet is a remarkable seabird on the brink of extinction. Like all seabirds, murrelets have webfeet and eat only fish. Unlike other seabirds, murrelets depend on big trees near the ocean to nest and raise its young. It doesn't build a stick nest. Instead, it lays an egg in a depression of moss on a large limb. Since most of Oregon's coastal forests have been converted to young tree plantations, places with big trees, like the Elliott, are critical to the murrelets continual survival.

Murrelets are very secretive in where they lay their egg. Murrelet surveys can detect nesting murrelets in an area, so the entire area must be protected, as the exact nest tree site is usually impossible to find. Large protected areas are also important because 90% of nest failures are due to predation from jays and crows (corvids), which can predate nests on edges of forests, but not deep in forest interiors. Murrelets simply need old trees near the ocean in forest patches large enough to protect them from predation.

Because much of Oregon’s Coast Range has been previously clearcut and is seriously fragmented, optimal interior forest habitat list limited. The Elliott provides prime nesting habitat. When the seabird is detected in the forest, the state of Oregon is required to protect it by designating a Marbled Murrelet Management Areas (MMMA). However, the size of the MMMA's the state designates continue to get smaller and small each year. These inadequate reserves are currently subject to a lawsuit Cascadia Wildlands is involved in.

Salmon and other fish

The Elliott State Forest is home to a number of threatened and rare aquatic species in the Umpqua, Coos, and Ten Mile Lakes watershed. Ten sensitive fish species are present, or likely present in the Elliott, including Coho salmon, Chinook salmon, chum salmon, steelhead trout, coastal cutthroat trout, Umpqua chub, Pacific lamprey, western brook lamprey, river lamprey, and the Millicoma longnose dace.

The current logging plan on the Elliott was found inadequate for aquatic species by the federal fish experts and was subject to a number of critical reviews. The state of Oregon did not substantively change its streamside forest management approach even after getting the critical feedback.

Climate change mitigation

Scientists have found that coastal temperate rainforests in Oregon, like the Elliott, has the potential to store more carbon per acre than virtually any other place in the world, including tropical rainforests. Cascadia Wildlands has highlighted the Elliott's incomparable ability to store carbon as a possible funding source for school children. When logged, these old forests release extreme amounts of harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further exacerbating the global climate crisis. Cascadia Wildlands also advocates for restoration thinning in the forest's dense tree farms to generate revenue for school children.

Solution

The state of Oregon needs to work with the federal experts to devise a scientifically supported forest management plan for the Elliott that will allow for a reasonable amount of logging while genuinely protecting species teetering on the brink of extinction.

Location

The Elliott State Forest lies immediately south of Devil's Staircase in the Oregon Coast Range. Loon Lake is on it's east border, Reedsport is near it's northwest corner and Coos Bay is near its southwest corner.

Murrelet habitat threatened with clearcutting in 2012. Due to our lawsuit, the court ordered the chainsaws to wait.

Who makes the decisions on the Elliott?:

The State Land Board

John Kitzhaber, Governor
160 State Capitol, Salem, OR 97301-4047
Link to Email: governor.oregon.gov/Gov/contact.shtml

Kate Brown, Oregon Secretary of State

136 State Capitol, Salem, OR 97301

Phone: (503) 986-1523 Fax: (503) 986-1616

Email: oregon.sos@state.or.us

Ted Wheeler, Oregon State Treasurer

159 State Capitol, 900 Court Street NE, Salem, OR 97301

Phone: (503) 378-4329

Email: oregon.treasurer@state.or.us

Mary Abrams, Director Department of State Lands

775 Summer St. NE, Salem, OR 97301-1279

Phone: (503) 986-5224

Email: mary.m.abrams@dsl.state.or.us

RETURN to main Elliott State Forest page.

Categories: Save the Elliott Rainforest