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Rural Report
October 2023
The entire watershed of the Umpqua River lies in Douglas County. The heavily timbered county contains nearly 1.8 million acres of com-
mercial forest lands and one of the oldest stands of old growth timber in the world. The forest products industry continues to play a significant
economic role in the county.
NASA Imagery Maps Loss of Forest in Coastal Watershed Communities
FEMA Grants $2.2 Million
Aerial mapping from 1997 to 2022 shows 31% loss of Forest, impacting water quality t o 4 Fire Departments for Recruit ment
- Including 2 in Douglas County
Story by Scooter Brown
Oregon’s coastal communities rely on
drinking water from forested rivers and
creeks, which have lost substantial tree
cover during the last 20 years. Over 30% of
the forested land in 80 of Oregon’s coastal
watersheds, nearly 600 square miles, has
been logged during the last 20 years. That
logging impacts many communities who rely
on streams and creeks for their water supply.
Forests not only improve the quality, but
also the quantity of surface waters. They
prevent erosion, and filter, direct and store
rain and snow that passes into streams. More
than 80% of Oregonians, including most who
live on the coasts, get some or all of their
drinking water from surface water sources
such as streams, rivers and creeks, according
to the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality.
Young trees planted to replace logged
mature trees also end up sucking up more
water, further depleting surface water supply.
Planting new tree stands requires spraying
herbicides and pesticides, often from the air
and that can harm water sources.
There’s really literally hundreds of
protections that are put in place when
anything is harvested in the state of Oregon.
Stream buffers and harvest practices that are
very specific and nuanced with reforestation
requirements and steep slopes protections.”
Using data and satellite imagery from
NASA collected between 1997 and 2023,
four researchers from the agency’s Oregon
Coast Range Ecological Conservation Team
were able to look at logging impacts in forests
within 80 Oregon Coast watersheds identified
by Oregon Wild.
Its safe to say that logging in the Coast
Range wasnt done carefully and the aerial
photos mapped by NASA clearly shows that.
Logging operations across the Oregon
Coast Range and conventional logging
practices pose a risk of contamination to
surface water quality. According to NASA
DEVELOP and Oregon Coast Ecological
Conservation team, who partnered with
nonprofit Oregon Wild to map the extent of
clearcutting and commercial thinning in 80
Coast Range drinking watersheds between
2000 and 2022. This project used all available
Landsat data from 1997 through June 2023 in
Google Earth Engine. Sensors used include
Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper, Landsat 7
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, Landsat
8 Operational Land Imager, and Landsat 9
Operational Land Imager-2. The Continuous
Change Detection and Classification
(CCDC) algorithm was used with Landsat
observations to identify clearcutting patches.
Percent change in summer median Landsat
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
(NDVI) images were used to identify areas
of forest disturbance including commercial
thinning. The team concluded that logging,
including both clearcutting and commercial
thinning, impacted 31% of forested area
in drinking watersheds and the intensity of
logging remained consistent from year to
year. Clearcutting occurred primarily on
private land while commercial thinning
occurred primarily on state and federal lands.
The bulk of logging in watershed forests
during this time was on land owned by
industrial logging companies, followed
by state and federal agencies, tribes and
local municipalities. Those companies,
including Weyerhaeuser, Stimson Lumber
and Roseburg Forest Products, use a method
called clearcutting, defined by the NASA
researchers as the removal of all trees in an
area exceeding 2 acres.
Hopefully, the NASA analysis can spur
efforts by some Oregon cities to buy and
manage the forestland around their drinking
watersheds. The state recently passed
legislation to create a Community Drinking
Water Enhancement and Protection Fund
with $5 million available for communities
hoping to own or improve land around their
source drinking water.
Salem, September 6, 2023
Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced
that four rural Oregon Fire Departments, including
two in Douglas County, will receive a combined
nearly $2.2 million from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency for firefighter recruitment and
retention.
Wyden said, “Firefighters have been working
hard this past summer and year-round to protect lives
and livelihoods throughout Oregon and they deserve
quality pay and time-off”. Wyden said the federal
investment in Oregon is especially timely given
firefighter’s heroic work this summer battling blazes.
Merkley said, “As fires and emergencies can
break out at any time, its essential that we have
enough firefighters available to meet the moment”.
Merkley said the funding will help protect Oregon
communities by ensuring rural districts have the
staffing and resources needed when disaster strikes.
A release said the grants come from FEMA’s
Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency
Response Program, which awards grants to assist
local fire departments with staffing and deployment
capabilities to respond to emergencies.
The following funds will be allocated:
Over $492,000 for North Douglas County Fire and
EMS in Drain
Over $611,000 to Tenmile Rural Fire District,
northwest of Winston
Over $309,000 to Siletz Rural Fire Protection
District
Nearly $770,000 to Stayton Fire District