on the cover
LoG oN tO tHe
WoOd WiDe WeB
Story & photos by
MICHAEL EDWARDS
For the TODAY
Seven miles northeast of Waldport,
tucked into the steep hills above the tea-
colored Alsea River stands one of the
last remaining old growth forests on the
Oregon Coast.
Th e seldom-visited, 5,798-acre Drift
Creek Wilderness is home to 500-year-old
Douglas fi r, endangered northern spotted
owls and during the rainy days of autumn,
spawning Coho salmon. In this forest of
giant conifers, a careful observer hears a
wren fl itting about in the salal and then
glimpses a Douglas squirrel scrambling up
the trunk of a hemlock blanketed in atomic
green moss. Carved into a ghost gray snag
are the rectangular excavations of a pileated
woodpecker. Within earshot of the creek, a
water-saturated cedar log provides spruce
seedlings with an elevated foothold above
the densely vegetated forest fl oor. From the
stone slab of Drift Creek’s bank, visitors
spy a red-tailed hawk orbiting above the
gnarled crowns of the ancients. Drift Creek
Wilderness is a small fragment of what was
once common in the Pacifi c Northwest, yet
despite its diminished
size, this wilderness
and places like it will
play an outsized role in
revitalizing our planet.
A decommissioned
logging road paralleled
by second-growth forest
leads hikers to a narrow
dirt path that descends
into the wilderness.
According to the National
Forest Service, some of
the 50-foot-high, 30-ton
fi rs near the creek bottom
were seedlings when
Christopher Columbus
negotiated with Queen
Isabella about the specifi cs of his journey
to India. Growing at a glacial pace in the
miserly light provided by those ancient
giants, a hemlock waits for the summer
night when a lightning bolt will split the
crown of a nearby fi r and send the tree
crashing to the forest fl oor. Th e fi r’s demise
will open a gap in the canopy that will be
fi lled by sunlight for the hungry hemlock’s
droopy needles to photosynthesize and
transform into wood. Th at same fallen fi r
12 • oregoncoastTODAY.com • facebook.com/oregoncoasttoday • May 8, 2020
Directions
will provide food and shelter for numerous
insects, mammals and amphibians, which
will in turn provide nourishment for bears,
owls and woodpeckers. Below ground, the
forest’s fungal networks will creep into the
giant’s heartwood and begin a centuries-
long process of decomposition.
Every step that you take on this trail
will compact thousands of invertebrates
and miles of fungi that envelope the roots
of the trees. Fungi enhance the trees’
ability to extract vital nutrients from the
soil. Th e interlinkage of roots and fungi
creates a complex mycorrhizal network.
Th rough this network that some forest
scientists call the “wood wide web” healthy
trees provide nutrients to sick trees and
a tree under attack from insects will send
out subterranean distress signals to its
neighbors, warning them to boost their
defenses against the invaders. In our high
school biology classes, we all learned about
the concept of survival of the fi ttest and
of the continuous competition between
organisms for survival. But here in the old
forest, it is not only competition but also
cooperation that plays a signifi cant role
in ensuring that the self-generating forest
ecosystem endures.
About two miles into your walk
a remarkable example of this mutual
dependence is represented by two giants,
a western red cedar and a Douglas fi r,
wrapped at their bases in a lifelong embrace.
Th rough drought, hundred-mile-an-hour
gales and insect infestations, the fate of the
I was able to fi nd the trail by using the GPS
on my phone but for safety’s sake I would
bring a map as backup just in case your
cell signal cuts out. I also use the website
AllTrails.com to fi nd out about new hikes
and how to get to them.
Drive east from Waldport on Highway 34.
Turn left on Risley Creek road Forest Road
3446. After 4.2 miles, fork left onto Forest
Road 346 continuing for a third of a mile
to the dirt parking lot. If you have a high
clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle, this
would be the place to bring it. Drive slowly
and avoid the more fl ooded and craterous
looking of potholes and you should be
fi ne.
cedar is tied to that of the fi r and vice versa.
Forest scientists are not only increasing
their knowledge of the bonds that link
forest ecosystems together, they are also
learning how the forest’s infl uence travels
far beyond the boundaries of Oregon’s misty
coastal hills.
A recent study published by Oregon
State University‘s College of Forestry
explains how the forests of the Pacifi c
Northwest, specifi cally the wet forests
that thrive west of the Cascade crest, are
some of the planet’s most eff ective carbon
storing forests. According to these scientists,
preserving ancient forests like the one
protected in the Drift Creek Wilderness
could provide one third of the carbon
sequestration capacity needed to mitigate
the worst eff ects of climate change. Th ese
scientifi c fi ndings broaden the oft-repeated
lumberman’s phrase “this is a working
forest.”