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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 2020)
september17 2020 free VERNONIA’S volume14 issue18 reflecting the spirit of our community Vernonia Celebrates Grand Opening of New Senior Center Vernonia Honors 9/11 Vernonia senior citizens were fi- nally able to show off their brand new, beautiful Senior Center facility at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, September 12. Vernonia Cares, which shares the other side of the facility, also officially celebrated the grand opening of their new food pantry at the same event, although they have been operating from the building for sev- eral weeks. The project, which has been in the planning stages for decades, is now fi- nally a reality, although, unfortunate- ly, use will be limited while COVID restrictions remain in place. Vernonia Mayor Rick Hobart opened the big event with a few words, noting that a ground breaking ceremony took place at the same spot almost exactly one year ago. Senior Citizen Board President Ilene Grady and Vernonia Cares Board President Vernonia Senior Board President Ilene Grady Tina Dean took part in a ribbon cutting cutting the ribbon at the Grand Opening. continued on page 9 The Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District and Vernonia Volunteer Ambulance Association held their annual 9/11 March to honor the fallen heroes. Vernonia First Responders have held this ceremony every year since 2002. The Timber Industry of Today Part 3: Alternative Timber Management By Scott Laird In this multi-part series we’ve been exploring the timber industry and its impact on Oregon’s economy and forest ecosystems. In Part 3 we look at how the timber industry is regulated in Oregon and some alternatives to the in- dustrial business model most of us are familiar with. To say the timber industry runs in Peter Hayes’s veins would be an un- derstatement. Hayes is the fifth, direct generation of his family to work the forests, and the Hayes’s children are the sixth. He and wife Pam currently manage Hyla Woods, which sustainably owns and cares for 1,000 acres of forest- land in Northwest Oregon. Many other members of the Hayes family lineage have also owned or worked in the timber industry, several who were closely linked with timberland giant Weyerhaeuser and the conquest of the Pacific Northwest’s forests. But in the last several genera- tions, the Hayes family has drifted away from the business model Weyerhaeuser pioneered. Today Hyla Woods is a template for alternative forest management prac- tices and a leader in the discussion about how we can better care for our forest ecosystems. “Our thought is that the for- ests have been good to us, why not try to return the favor,” says Hayes. “The opportunity we have is to try and make things better. We see ourselves as prob- lem solvers and one of the problems we’re trying to address is how to create more opportunity and vitality for rural people.” Hayes’s great-great grandfather, Orrin Ingram, got involved in the tim- ber industry as a young man in the Ad- irondack Mountains in New York in the early days of western timber expansion. He worked his way west along the Great Lakes, through the upper Mississippi region, and was an early competitor of Frederick Weyerhaeuser, before joining him as an investor and shareholder in the company that would change the face of the timber industry. Ingram also in- vested money in his own venture – tim- berland and a sawmill in Willapa Bay in southwest Washington. Ingram’s grandson, Edmund Hayes, is Peter’s grandfather, and was also involved in the timber industry, learning about timber cruising, logging, sawmill operations, and sales as a young Weyerhaeuser Company trainee, before becoming an independent operator in the late 1920s. In 1938 Edmund was elected to the Weyerhaeuser Board of Directors and in 1951 became a Vice President. As part of the Weyerhaeuser Company, Ed- mund was at the table when major new strategies in how timber would be har- vested were being hatched, from the cut- and-run model that had seen the industry move all the way across the continent, to the new “tree farm” model that took shape, with replanting and single spe- cies “crop plantations” leading the way. Edmund even privately entered the mar- ket with a partner by purchasing 5,000 acres of cutover timberland near Olney and established the Elk Mountain Tree Farm. “Through careful stewardship, they developed and improved the land, and demonstrated, to themselves and others, that staying put could be a viable business model,” writes Peter Hayes in a family history he drafted. continued on page 7 inside 3 from the editor 6 diggin’ in the dirt 12 wyden’s response to western wildfires The view of Bridge Street from Vernonia’s Cory Hill on Monday evening, September 14 after a week of wildfires in Oregon. The air quality remained poor in many parts of the state, but cooler temperatures and a small amount of rain brought some relief. Reports were calling for the smoke to dissipate toward the end of the week.
