CHAPTER 4.

 

CATASTROPHIC FOREST FIRE PATTERNS, 1491-1951

 

The voyage from San Francisco is almost all the way in sight of land; and as you skirt the mountainous coast of Oregon you see long stretches of forest, miles of tall firs killed by forest fires, and rearing their bare heads toward the sky in a vast assemblage of bean poles - a barren view, which you owe to the noble red man, who, it is said, sets fire to these great woods in order to produce for himself a good crop of blueberries. When, some years ago, Walk-in-the-Water, or Red Cloud, or some other Colorado chief, asserted in Washington the right of the Indian to hunt buffalo, on the familiar ground that he must live, a journalist given to figures demolished the Indian position by demonstrating that a race which insisted on living on buffalo meat required about 16,000 acres of land per head for its subsistence, which is more than even we can spare. One wonders, remembering these figures, how many millions of feet of first-class lumber are sacrificed to provide an Indian rancheria with huckleberries.

(Nordhoff, 1878: 338)

 

The paths of the great forest fires of the last century or two are plainly marked by even-aged stands, consisting to the extent of at least 90 per cent of Douglas fir (if within the preferred habitat of this tree), regardless of the proportion of Douglas fir in the original fire killed stand.

(Munger, 1940: 1).

 

This chapter provides background on the "Great Fires " and catastrophic "fire years" of the Oregon Coast Range, and compares the nature and character of these events to the precontact Indian burning practices and resulting landscape patterns presented in Chapter 3. Maps, figures, and tables are used to depict spatial and temporal fire patterns, and to illustrate the intensity and dramatic environmental changes represented by these patterns of "stand replacement events".

 

 

         A. Catastrophic Fires: Background

 

Catastrophic forest fires, by definition, are wildfires that cover more than 100,000 acres of contiguous forestland during the course of a single event. Catastrophic fire years are calendar years in which more than 100,000 acres of forestland within a given area are burned by wildfire, whether during the course of a single event, or as a result of numerous events.

 

Map 4.01 shows the locations and boundaries of the "Great Fires" of the Oregon Coast Range. The ca. 1770 Millicoma Fire was likely caused by Indians; probably all, or most all, of the remainder were caused by whites (including the Nestucca Fire, blamed on a black settler clearing land near Champoeg; see Morris 1934b). Table 4.01 lists the Great Fires, their likely or known year of occurrence, and their approximate size. Drawings and photographs are used in the following pages of this chapter to show how the burns and reforestation resulting from these events must have appeared to Nordhoff (1878: 338) and other visitors to the region (e.g., Nash 1976; Munger 1916) in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These illustrations also indicate the dramatic change in wildlife habitat conditions (and probably wildlife population numbers, too) that occurs when tens of thousands of acres are burned within a few hours or days time. The next several sections of this chapter provide brief individual profiles of each of the events, as well as a general background on the fires' fuel histories.

 

 

 

 

Map 4.01    Historic Oregon Coast Range forest fires, 1750-1933.

 

Table 4.01

 

Table 4.01   Historic Oregon Coast Range forest fires, 1750-1951.

Name

Year

Season

Acres

Authority

Millicoma

ca. 1770

Unknown

100,000+

Smyth 2002: 7

Yaquina (1)

1849

Aug./Sep.

500,00

Morris 1934b: 322

Nestucca

1853

Aug./Sep.

480,000

Ballou 2002:67

Yaquina (2)

1868

Aug./Sep.

300,00o

Kirkpatrick 1940:33

Coos

1868

Aug./Sep.

126,00o

Chen 1997: 4

Tillamook (1)

1933

Aug./Sep.

340,000

Ballou 2002: 77

Tillamook (2)

1939

 

217,000

Chen 1997: 4

Tillamook (3)

1945

 

181,000

Chen 1997: 4

Tillamook (4)

1951

 

126,000

Chen 1997: 4

 

 

 

               1) Mystery of the 16th Century

 

Something happened in the Coast Range during the 1500s that resulted in widespread forestation in the 17th century, which in turn likely formed a majority of fuels consumed in subsequent wildfire events throughout the time of this study. Common speculation is that catastrophic forest fires deforested much of western Oregon during that time, including coastal forests (Pyne 1984; Agee 1993). This speculation is based on the assumption that 15th and 16th century fires burned vast tracts of old-growth forests (200 years or greater age), but little evidence exists to support that belief. If such fires did occur, it seems as likely--or possibly even more likely--they burned saplings or second-growth as older trees. Other possibilities include a cessation of widespread Indian burning (see Appendix F). Lightning fires are rare in the region, and historical fires of similar magnitude, such as occurred from 1849 until 1951, were all caused by people (see Appendix G). Were human populations greater in the 1500s than the 1600s, leading to more forest fires and/or more widespread land management practices? A subsequent decline in human populations might reasonably lead to an expansion of existing forestlands, as occurred in the early 19th century. Or could other factors, such as catastrophic winds, diseases, or insect infestations, been a cause? These hypothetical questions are examined in more detail at the conclusion of this chapter.

 

We know that widespread forestation took place in the Coast Range during the 17th century because, over the course of the last century, hundreds of people counted and recorded the rings of thousands of trees throughout the Oregon Coast Range (e.g., Kimmey and Furniss 1943; Weyerhauser Company 1947; Juday 1976). Tax revenue agents, timber cruisers, forest scientists, resource managers, and graduate students, among others, have done this work. Reasons for counting rings have varied: to measure tree growth; tax timber harvest, record fire events; track seasonal climate changes; or document disease. A common result of these efforts is tree ages have become known and recorded for a significant number of locations throughout the region. Very few of these trees have exceeded 400 years age, and none are known to have achieved 600 years; that is, almost all Coast Range trees described, measured, burned or logged in the last 200 years began to grow sometime after 1600--and the majority of those trees likely began to grow sometime after 1800. In other words, most of the trees known to have lived in the Coast Range during the past 400 years have been second-growth (less than 200 years of age) rather than old-growth, and the majority of trees that have achieved old-growth status spent the majority of their lives as second-growth. For example, over 90% of the Teensma (1981) and Connelly and Kertis (1992) study areas in the western Cascades became forest after 1535, Impara (1997) only has one Coast Range date before 1530, and Weyerhauser Company (1947) has no dates in Coos County before 1565 (see Appendix G). I have similar findings for studies performed on the Alsea and Siletz basins. This fact is of secondary interest to this dissertation, but should have important policy (e.g., FEMAT 1993), scientific (e.g., Agee 1993), and forest and wildlife management (e.g., Shea 1963) implications.

 

This is an interesting finding for several reasons. The Oregon Coast Range contains many of the largest and fastest growing species and specimens of forest trees in the world (CITE). Douglas-fir, Sitka spruce, western hemlock, redcedar, black cottonwood, red alder, and white oak all tend to live much longer in other regions of the Pacific Northwest (e.g., Franklin 1981), often taking many additional decades or centuries to achieve similar heights, diameters, or volumes in size. Douglas-fir, for example, is known to reach ages of 700, 1000, or even more years in areas of the western Cascades (e.g., CITE), Olympic Peninsula (Henderson, et al. 1987), or Vancouver Island (Schmidt 1970: 108), yet the height, diameter, and/or volume of those trees is not significantly different than the largest, though much younger, Coast Range trees (CITE).

 

Fig. 4.01 shows examples of old-growth trees established in precontact time. The upper left hand drawing of sailors measuring an old-growth Douglas-fir near Astoria was made in 1841 by Agate (Wilkes 1845), using a method in which a reflected image is traced. The method produces a drawing that is nearly as accurate as a photograph, particularly in regard to scale. In 1825, Douglas measured a barkless, three-foot high stump behind Fort Astoria that was 48-feet in circumference, which he noted had been logged "to give place to a more useful vegetable, namely potatoes" (Meany 1935: 53). The upper right photograph (B. Zybach 2003) shows a Douglas-fir located along the ridgeline "Indian Trail to Tidewater" surveyed in 1856 (see Map 2.11). The heavy lower limb structure indicates that the tree grew in the open, thereby reducing risk of crown fire. The leeward side of such trees provide good protection from wind and rain. In precontact time this tree would have been clearly visible from much of Alsea Valley and the surrounding landscape, adding potential value as a landmark or meeting site. The lower left picture is of old-growth oak (B. Zybach 2003), located near the town of Alsea (see Fig. 2.03) in an area containing numerous precontact artifacts (personal observation and informal interviews with owners and adjacent residents). Oak were prized by precontact Indians for many reasons, including their ability to produce acorns. In Coast Range areas where oak are left undisturbed by fire, grazing, mowing, plowing, logging, and/or other management process, they are soon replaced by competing conifers (Sprague and Hansen 1946; Zybach 1999: 102-117). The lower right hand corner (N. Lapham 2003) shows another, nearby, old-growth oak being threatened by second-growth Douglas-fir, several centuries younger in age. Many Indians highly prized oak trees and groves, and viewed most conifers as invasive weeds (Thompson 1991: 33). These trees are typical of certain precontact old-growth forms and species and demonstrate potential "functions" in earlier landscape patterns, dating to the beginnings of this study period.

 

 

Fig. 4.01      Precontact Douglas-fir and white oak old-growth, 1841-2003.

 

 

Fig. 4.02 (Williams 1912: 137) shows the change of values toward old-growth trees that accompanied the replacement of

 

Indians with whites across the Coast Range landscape. Large, sound conifer trees with a minimum of lower limbs were highly

 

prized by early loggers and sawmill owners, particularly if they were located near a major waterway or could be readily

 

accessed via railroad construction. These trees, as with those pictured in Fig. 4.01, likely date to the 16th or 17th century; a

 

key difference is they were allowed to grow in an absence of human disturbance, rather than be dependent on it.

 

 

Fig. 4.02      Logging of Clatskanie River basin, ca. 1900.

 

2) Millicoma Fire, ca. 1765

 

Shortly after W.W. II, in 1945 and 1946, Weyerhauser Company did an inventory of its land and timber holdings in Coos County, principally within the Millicoma River basin (see Map 1.03). Foresters traversed grids across the landscape, boring about 1500 trees, mostly Douglas-fir, and counting the rings, over more than 100,000 acres of forestland. They also noted species, diameter, the length of clear boles, and other measures of interest to timberland managers. Most of the trees, covering a swath more than 90,000 acres in size, were large second growth of the same age (Weyerhauser Company 1947): about 180 years old. One of the foresters who worked on the project, in concert with his peers, concluded the stand dated to a single catastrophic fire, that occurred about 1765 (Smyth 2002: 2-4). A few older clumps of trees, dating to the 1720s, were also included in the inventory and assumed to be possible seed sources for the younger stand. Adjacent stands of timber, notably the so-called 28,000 acre Pillsbury Tract (Shea 1963), were also possible seed sources, and dated to the 1600s.

 

The Weyerhauser timber cruise provides the first compelling evidence of a Coast Range catastrophic fire that dates to precontact times, although it remains possible the trees became established following some other form of disturbance. Fig. 4.03 (Smyth 2001: 53) shows a portion of the Millicoma stand as it appeared to foresters in the 1940s. Note that snags and large woody debris in this area appears to be from younger trees in the stand, rather than provide evidence of an earlier population. It is also possible that the ca. 1720 trees represent an initial fire in the stand, and that the 1765 component represents a reburn over much of the original fire's extent. Either--or both--date(s) would satisfy Morris' (1934b: 314) observation:

 

When land in western Oregon and western Washington is deforested by fire or cutting and then left unmolested, within a few years it is clothed with a new stand of trees almost uniform in age.

 

 

 

 

Fig. 4.03      Millicoma Fire reforestation, ca. 1946.

 

 

The Weyerhauser cruise covered most of the northern part of the Millicoma stand; the southern part extended into land

that became Elliott State Forest, most of which became established following the 1868 Coos Fires. Jerry Phillips, who worked

on the Elliott as its Chief Forester for nearly his entire career, mapped in the southern part of the ca.1765 stand (Phillips 1988), to an approximate boundary between the two events. These efforts conform fairly well to the 1936 Andrews-Cowlin map (see Map 2.10) as an extensive stand of large second growth. Smyth (2000: 2) gives a figure of about 200,000 acres for the fire, but doesn't acknowledge 28,000 acres of older trees (Shea 1963: 4) or directly account for another 80,000 acres that wasn't included in the 1945-1946 Weyerhauser cruise. Phillips (1988) shows the ca. 1765 fire as bordering directly on the 1868 fire, so there is no telling how much of the original boundary was burned again at that time. My best estimate from the cited sources is the original Millicoma Fire, whether occurring in 1720 or 1765, was about the same size as currently given for the 1868 Coos Fire: 125,000 acres. Reasonable speculation is the number 1765 is an average (I have been unable to obtain actual records from the cruise) and that the year of the principal fire is actually sometime between 1710 and 1760. One condition that would help resolve the issue of dating is whether the 1720 component existed in clusters, or were somewhat evenly distributed throughout the entire 1760 stand. Smyth further speculates the fire was caused by Indians and traveled from the northeast to southwest. Phillips' and Weyerhaeuser's maps seem to agree with the burn pattern, and general Coast Range fire history supports the likely cause.

 

3) Yaquina Fire, ca. 1849

 

The Yaquina Fire may be the largest of the Great Fires. Morris (1934b: 322) says it extended southwesterly from the South Fork (Rock Creek) of the Siletz River to the mouth of the Siuslaw River (see Map 1.03). William Smith (see Appendix C), an Alsi Indian, seems to be the only reliable eyewitness of record to this event (Frachtenberg 1920), and he agrees with Morris on the time (about 1849) and southern extent (Siuslaw River). Talbot (Haskin 1948) was in the area in late August, 1849, when he noted heavy smoke moving west from the area of the Marys and Yaquina river headwaters area, through early September, when he left Alsea Bay, crossed the Yaquina and Siletz estuaries along the coast, and returned to the Willamette Valley via the Salmon River. If the fire did occur in 1849, which seems likely, it must have covered most of its extent in September, after Talbot had traveled through its interior--which also seems likely. It may have also crossed the Siuslaw River and ended near the Umpqua River; if not in 1849, then maybe in 1857 or 1868 (Morris 1934b: 322).

 

Both Talbot and Albert (1848), who preceded him along the same general route in 1848, but in reverse, noted fairly large burns that had already occurred near the northeast extent of the Yaquina Fire:

 

[Talbot] Our road today [August 26, 1849] . . . [was] much obstructed by fallen trees and thick brush. We passed through one tract of burnt forest several miles in extent where the little trail which we followed, indifferent at the best, was often completely broken up, and we were compelled to have recourse to our axes to make a way through the heaps of charred logs. We descended, after a toilsome dayÕs journey, into a grassy valley, about half a mile in length, watered by a fork [Rock Creek] of the Celeetz [Siletz] river, in which we encamped, having made nine miles (Haskins 1948).

 

[Albert] The Celeetse [Siletz] prairie is level, rich, and the fern is eight or ten feet high. The prairie is surrounded by timber . . . Coming up the Celeetse river, we passed prairie bottoms or plains . . . The Celeeste river has many forks, but only two principal ones. The main river is larger than Pudding river . . . the timber, however, is not very good, having been badly burnt for some miles around the N. E. portion of it. The path from the Celeetse prairie is rugged, full of logs, &c. (Albert 1848: 1).

 

The burned logs may have resulted from clearing fires for the horse trail constructed recently by Klickitats from Kings Valley (Luckiamute River) to the Siletz and Yaquina rivers. This route follows the northern boundary of the Yaquina Fire (CITE). Both journalists noted extensive burns, brakes, prairies, downed logs, and big trees, but no evidence of the subsequent Great Fire. Munford (Nash 1976: 281) quotes James Blodgett:

As a boy, I knew this country well. A great fire in 1850, while my great-grandfather was in California, destroyed about 150 square miles [100,000 acres] of virgin forest. The fire stopped along a line approximately from Hoskins to Blodgett to Marys Peak. What is again dense forest was, in 1877, open fern-covered ground interspersed with the skeletons of burned trees. Burnt Woods [see Appendix B] takes its name from this feature.

 

I confirmed this story with Blodgett on August 23, 1984. He conceded the fire may well have occurred in the fall of 1849. His ancestors had been among the first to travel to the gold fields in California, having left in July, 1848. There, his grandfather (also named James) was born on August 12, 1850. The family returned to Oregon in time to be counted in the October 7, 1850 Oregon Territory census ["Dwelling #148"], when they had been "amazed" to see that "the entire area from Marys Peak to the ocean had been burned clean by fire" and had become a "sea of snags". They were also gratified to note their homestead, "Blodgett's Valley", to the west of Philomath, had been spared. Blodgett claimed this story had been told to him by his father in the 1920s, who had been told the same story by his parents in the 1890s. In sum, the Blodgett's had returned to their homestead on the eastern boundary of the Yaquina Fire sometime between late August and early October, 1850, when they found a fire had destroyed almost all of the timber between their home and the ocean. Talbot had noted large fires in the area in the fall of 1849, when the Blodgett's were still in California, and the Blodgett family history made no mention of smoke or fire in 1850--only burned land and snags. Therefore, an August/September, 1849 date and an east to west (east wind) burning pattern seem to be the most likely attributes of the fire.

 

Fig. 4.04 (Fagan 1885) shows results of the Yaquina Fire near Toledo, along the Yaquina River, a few miles east of Yaquina Bay. Note the location of Marys Peak in the background. Talbot noted on September 2, 1849 (Haskins 1948):

Should it be satisfactorily ascertained that ships may come in [to Yaquina Bay] with safety, this harbor will become exceedingly valuable, as it is surrounded by a country covered with forests of the finest kind of timber, has good mill-seats, and roads could be constructed which would afford a near market for the produce of the upper Willamette.

 

While traveling through the same area in 1848, Albert (1848: 1) noted:

 

The Yac-quin-na harbor, they [some local Indians] said, was long and deep, and also deep at the mouth . . . The land from the Yac-quin-na is rolling--in fact, mountainous, with heavy timber, and is really the prettiest building timber we have ever seen--containing many springs, and small prairies covered with fern.

 

Because a second (or third) major fire occurred throughout the Burn in 1868 (Fagan 1885; Bensell 1978), the "rolling" land behind Toledo in Fig. 4.04 remained largely unforested into the 1880s. A related factor is the Yaquina Tract was removed from the Coast Indian Reservation and opened to white settlement in 1865 to provide land for Civil War veterans, among others (CITE). The burned land was subsequently used for grazing, a use that extended well into the 1930s (Wakefield 1989: personal communication), and one that would have further reduced the likelihood of reforestation.

 

Fig. 4.04      Yaquina Burn, Toledo, Lincoln Co., Oregon, 1885.

 

The southernmost extent of the fire, as noted above, was likely near the mouth of the Siuslaw River. This location was described by Smith (see Appendix C), whose father and uncle traveled south from Heceta Head during the aftermath of the fire, and described their journey to him and other family members on their return:

 

Then they [Smith's father and uncle] started. Where there was a mountain [possibly Cape Mountain], that place there did not burn. So they two kept on going on that trail, and they arrived at where there was a place (covered) with grass. And only there did the fire reach. Then they two ascended. Now it was gradually getting light all over [the smoke was beginning to clear, after darkening the skies for about 10 days]; just a little (light) showed far away. At last they came below, whereupon they two started to walk on that beach. Then they two kept on going along the beach. Everywhere even the blossoms of the highest trees had burned down, (as could be seen) after the water came with them to the beach. Now not long (afterward) they two saw a bear walking along the edge of the water, just partially burned. At last they two arrived at the mouth of the Siuslaw River. All the pine trees (there) were partially burned. Only ashes (could be seen) all over, because all the pine trees had caught fire.

 

Smith's description conforms very well with subsequent maps of the area (see Map 4.01), which show the fire burning all the way to the coastline--right to the strip of shorepine noted by Smith that borders the beach--at the mouth of the Siuslaw River. Whether the fire continued southward to the Umpqua River, or whether the burned land between the Umpqua and Siuslaw dates to the 1868 Yaquina reburn or to the Coos Fire of the same year, is unknown. (It is probably also a relatively unimportant designation, except to those interested in determining a common boundary between the two fires in order to assign acreage to one or the other, or for some similar purpose.)

 

4) Nestucca Fire, ca. 1853

 

The Nestucca Fire is one of the least documented and most storied of the Great Fires. Munger (1944: 342) states there was only a single eyewitness accounting of the fire ("reported many years later to a now anonymous writer by Dick Harney, chief of the Nestucca tribe") that "certainly spread from east to west" and covered "300,000 or 375,000 acre expanse of the country's finest timber". According to Morris (1934b: 321), the fire extended from the Nestucca-Trask basins divide south to Siletz Bay, with a marked difference between the northern and southern portions of the resulting burn. Munger (1944) attributes the differences to subsequent land management history of grazing and land clearing, but the presence of precontact Indian prairies, balds, brakes, and berry patches undoubtedly affected fire extent, afforestation, and reforestation patterns. Cascade Head, for example, was noted by early coast surveyors as being identifiable by having only three old-growth trees and no snags on it (McArthur 1856), yet the area had become fully stocked by 1900, and was the made site of a 1988 OSU "Starkers Lectures" old-growth field tour because of the large size and apparent great age of its trees (CITE).

 

The oldest conifers on the 1935-1988 Cascade Head growth and yield study were established in 1852 (CITE). In 1940, the eleven "practically even-aged, uniform in stocking" growth study plots average 89-years old (Munger 1944: 344); that is, they were established sometime around 1850. Whether the new forest plots dated to a catastrophic fire or to a cessation of Indian burning is difficult to determine. Several of the plots still exist, but none of the literature mentions the existence of older trees, snags, stumps, or logs within their boundaries. Arthur (1848: 1), Talbot (Haskin 1948), and Vaughn (1923) were through the area in the late 1840s and early 1850s and made no mention of a fire. Ballou (2002) gives a date of 1853, but Vaughn probably traveled through the area a year or two after that time, without mentioning a large-scale burn. Morris (1934b) lists 1857 as a year of much smoke, and I suspect the principal Nestucca fire may have occurred at that time, with boundaries being extended in 1868.

 

Fig. 4.05 shows photographs of portions of the great Yaquina and Nestucca burns as they appeared around 1900 (Gannett 1902). Note the scattered "parent trees" that survived both fires and were likely seed sources to the reforested stands of the 20th century. Also, note the cleared area of land claimed by an early settler in the lower picture. The lack of snags in the clearing indicates a likelihood of regular precontact use by local Indians, and the presence of young saplings in the same area indicates the likely cessation of such use. These patterns of widespread snags, scattered surviving trees, tree-less prairies and openings, and the presence of young trees throughout are typical of much of the Coast Range. Also, note the similarity in size and distribution of Yaquina Burn snags in Figs. 4.04 and 4.05.

 

Fig. 4.05      Yaquina and Nestucca burns, ca. 1902.

 

5) Coos Fire, 1868

 

Fig. 4.06

 

 

Fig. 4.06      Coos Burn, Elk Lake slide, 1894.

 

6) Tillamook Fire, 1933

 

 

Fig. 4.07

 

Fig. 4.07      Tillamook Fire mushroom cloud, 1933.

 

 

Fig. 4.08

 

Fig. 4.08      Tillamook Burn snags, ca. 1935.

 

         B. Catastrophic Fire Years

 

I have used the 100,000 acre of burned forestland "catastrophic fire" measure as a standard for historical fire years,; i.e., any year in which 100,000 acres of forest burned in western Oregon, I considered a "fire year" for the region. To be conservative, I have listed all Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) records for years in which at least 75,000 acres are listed (Ballou 2002). This is due to inconsistencies in acreage measures and because there is uncertainty whether the ODF records include fires on federal lands for all yours (Ballou 2003: personal communication). For prehistoric fires, I have used tree ring studies to identify "severe" fire years. I have paid particular attention to Impara's (1997) study because: 1) it is located in the Coast Range, 2) he generalizes his findings for the entire Coast Range, and 3) it extends well into the recent (historical) past (see Appendix G).

 

Such fires are almost invariably caused by either people or lightning; Agee (1993: 25-26) claims more than 99% of all forest fires worldwide are started by one or both of these methods. In the Oregon Coast Range, there is no record of a catastrophic fire or catastrophic fire year caused by lightning. People, rather than lightning or other causes, have been responsible for the vast majority of wildfires in this region (Kirkpatrick 1940; Bonnicksen 2000: 392), whether measured by acreage or number of events (Ballou 2002). Lightning has been rare in the region throughout recorded history (see Chapter 1), and fires started by lightning are even more unusual (see Map 1.07; Kirkpatrick 1940; Morris 1934a). When lightning does occur, it is often accompanied by heavy rains and tends to put fires out, rather than start them (Morris 1934b). Thus, wildfire patterns preceding white settlement in the mid-1800s can reasonably be attributed almost entirely to Indian burning practices. Subsequent wildfires--particularly those occurring after 1843 (Carey 1971: 311), when Indian populations were low and restricted to a few wandering bands and minor communities--can likewise be attributed almost entirely to fires set by whites. (It is interesting to track how public and scientific opinions have changed regarding the sources of ignition for catastrophic Coast Range fires in the last 150 years, and the apparent racial bias attached to these perceptions. During the 19th century period of their occurrence, they were often attributed to Indians (e.g., Nordhoff, 1878: 338); more recently, they have mostly been ascribed to lightning (e.g., Agee 1993; Whitlock and Knox 2002); in one instance in which neither Indians or lightning were blamed, a black settler was held accountable (Morris 1934b), even though there were hardly any black people present in Oregon at that time.)

 

                  1) 1491-1825: precontact evidence

 

The only evidence of Coast Range catastrophic fire years in precontact time are Impara's (1997: 212) "high severe fire years" based on tree ring studies, and inferred severity, based on large-scale stands of even-aged trees, such as the Millicoma Fire, or widespread stands of similarly-aged trees, such as date to the 1600s. Note that Impara's (1997) two greatest fire years, 1852 and 1871, are both three years after the historical fire years of 1849 and 1868. Either the events were a lot more localized than he thought (bringing into doubt the utility of his 1880s and pre-1851 fires), or his methodology is adding a few years to his findings. This is an important point, because he uses the absence of personal findings in the early 1900s to conclude that federal fire suppression policies all but stopped fires (except for Tillamook, which he didn't find a record for) after 1910.

 

                  2) 1826-1848: early historical accounts

                  3) 1849-1910: the Great Fires

Background on the Great Fires was given in the first part of this chapter. Historical quotes and photographs were used to document specific events, and also to demonstrate the relative poor quality of information available on the topic for historical time. One consequence of poor record keeping is that it is difficult or impossible to identify specific years in which fire was widespread throughout the region, but in which no single event dominated. A combination of public awareness regarding forest fire destruction, modern technology (photographs, movies, telephones), and creation of large federal forest reserves in the 1890s, specifically intended to be protected from fire, soon changed the quality and focus of both news gathering and record keeping. In 1902, and then again in 1910, forest fires occurred throughout the entire Pacific Northwest, including the Coast Range. News media reported on these fires in detail, and state and federal organizations soon formed for the specific purpose of reducing wildfires and/or "battling" to control them (Pyne 1982: 239-321). The fires of 1910, and particularly the fires in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Wyoming that year in which millions of acres burned and dozens of firefighters died, focused attention on the US Forest Service and led to a national resolve to intensify wildfire control strategies (ibid.; 239-241). In Oregon, county fire control associations were established, funded at first by voluntary contributions of affected landowners. The Oregon Department of Forestry began consolidating records kept by the county crews in 1911 (Ballou 2002) and, in 1914, State Forester Elliott authorized and directed the assemblage of a statewide Fire Map (see Map 2.05).

 

Appendix G includes a summary of the forest fire record assembled for western Oregon by the Oregon Department of Forestry from 1911 to 2002, derived from state and county records. Table 4.02 lists that summary. Note that approximately seven times as many fires for this time period were started by people, rather than lightning. Because the large majority of western Oregon lightning strikes, lightning storms, and lightning-caused fires in western Oregon from 1925-1996 are recorded in the Klamath-Siskiyou mountains of southwest Oregon and in the western Cascades, the ratio of human-caused to lightning-caused forest fires in the Coast Range is likely much larger than the 7:1 ratio shown for the entire area.

 

Table 4.02   Historic western Oregon forest fire years, 1849-2003.

Year

Acres

People

Lightning

Authority

1849

500,000+

Yes

 

Morris 1934b: 322

1853

480,000

Yes

 

Ballou 2002: 67

1868

300,000

Yes

 

Kirkpatrick 1940:33

1902

170,000

Yes

 

Ballou 2002: 67

Total

 

 

 

 

1910

51,000+

Yes

 

Kirkpatrick 1940: 35

1914

146,000

1,107

147

Ballou 2002: 77

1915

109,000

1,170

85

Ballou 2002: 77

1917

258,000

1,468

177

ODF 1994; Ballou 2002: 77

1918

184,000

813

139

Ballou 2002: 77

1919

143,000

963

181

Ballou 2002: 77

Total

 

 

 

 

1922

179,000

1,312

95

Ballou 2002: 77

1924

252,000

1,577

311

Ballou 2002: 77

1926

208.000

996

150

Ballou 2002: 77

1928

104,000

913

154

Ballou 2002: 77

1929

298,000

1,355

117

Ballou 2002: 77

Total

 

 

 

 

1931

188,000

1,536

85

Ballou 2002: 77

1932

333,000

1,601

87

Ballou 2002: 77

1933

341,000

943

239

Ballou 2002: 77

1936

225,000

1,265

139

Ballou 2002: 77

1938

80,000+

957

188

Ballou 2002: 77

1939

309,000

965

294

Ballou 2002: 77

Total

 

 

 

 

1945

253,000

532

333

Ballou 2002: 77

1951

126,000

850

104

Ballou 2002: 77

 

 

 

 

 

1987

89,000

976

605

Ballou 2002: 77

1996

189,000

4

9

Coyle 2002

2000

110,000

8

4

Coyle 2002

2002

500,000

 

 

Ballou 2002: 67

 

                  4) 1911-1951: fire suppression policies

Recent occurrences of catastrophic fires in southwest Oregon have been blamed, in part, on dangerous fuel build-ups resulting from federal and state fire control policies adopted following the 1910 fire year. Although fire suppression policies may be a factor in such fires, there is little evidence to support this claim for Coast Range forestlands. Table 4.02 shows 16 catastrophic fire years in the three decades immediately following 1910 (1911-1940), or more than 50% of the years during that time period. From 1912 to 1951 the total is 18 fire years, or 45% of the 40 years following adoption of these polices. Then, from 1952-1986, there is a string of 35 years without a single catastrophic fire or catastrophic fire year for all of western Oregon, at which time (1987) the Silver Complex fire took place in southwest Oregon. For the Coast Range, the sudden reduction in catastrophic fire seasons and events is even more striking--not a single event in more than 50 years since 1951, continuing to the present time (2003). The record, then, is a dramatic and sustained increase in numbers and events of catastrophic fire seasons for the 40 years following fire suppression, and then an apparent elimination of such events from that time to the present. "Fire suppression policies", therefore, doesn't begin to explain this history. Something that occurred shortly after W.W. II seems to more likely answer this abrupt change in the environment. Possibly a combination of factors: e.g., public education, improved firefighting technologies, dramatic increases in road-building and clearcutting during the late 1940s and into the 1970s, increased reliance on fossil fuels and electricity for heating homes, and other conditions seem to be more likely causes of such change.

 

The question now is: Does the abrupt change in Coast Range catastrophic fire history signal a generally permanent departure from past wildfire events, or is it the "lull before the storm" in which fuels rebuild to hazardous levels and the area once again becomes the stage for uncontrollable wildfires of historic proportions?

 

 

C. Catastrophic Fire Patterns

 

The following maps show patterns of burning and logging that occurred throughout the Coast Range during historical time. GIS is used to construct subregional maps to directly compare catastrophic fire patterns with Indian burning patterns of trails and openings, as described and mapped in Chapter 3. The comparison of patterns, made possible by GIS methodology, constitutes much of the focus of this research.

 

1) North: Columbia River old-growth

The northern Oregon Coast Range has long been recognized as an area of giant trees (see Fig. 4.01) and logs (Fig. 4.02). Clark, for example, noted on November 9, 1805:

 

At 2 oClock P M the flood tide came in accompanied with emence waves and heavy winds, floated the trees and Drift which was on the point on which we Camped [in present Washington State, across the Columbia River from modern-day Astoria] and tossed them about in such a manner as to endanger the canoes verry much, with every exertion and the Strictest attention by every individual of the party was scercely sufficient to Save our Canoes from being crushed by those monstrous trees maney of them nearly 200 feet long and from 4 to 7 feet through.

 

 

Kimmey and Furniss (1943: 8) located almost all of their western Oregon old-growth study plots in the northern Coast Range, even though their definition of old-growth was very conservative by today's standards: "mostly over the age of 400 years, and with a usual d. b. h. ["diameter at breast height", a measure usually made 4 1/2 feet above the level surface of the ground] of about 40 to 100 inches or more (ibid.: 4). Although the age of Clark's and Kimmey and Furniss' trees are unknown, the diameter measures are nearly identical. The presence of such large trees, of course, indicates the absence of stand replacement events, such as catastrophic fires, for long periods of time. The proximity of such trees to the Columbia River increased their commercial logging value as they could be readily transported long distances by water to processing centers in California, or to international ports throughout the Pacific Ocean (Benson 1964).

 

Despite the presence of vast tracts of giant trees, however, wildfire, wind, insects, and diseases were major disturbance factors in northern Coast Range forests. Map 4.02, for example, is part of an extensive timber cruise of Clatsop County lands in Tsp. 4 N. (see Map 2.01). This cruise map of a 640-acre section by Wherry (Cabe[?] et al. 1913) is representative of the types of details mapped and tabulated during the cruise. Notes, maps, and tables are of varying quality, given the number of people involved in their creation and the general purposes for which they were assembled. Some of the information contained in these records include: a major windstorm (probably from the west) knocked down a significant amount of timber within 10 miles of the ocean in the 1880s; numerous fires occurred almost annually throughout the area, except within 10 miles of the ocean; a large-scale fire occurred in 1894-1895; major insect outbreaks in 1892-1893 preceded that fire and other fires in several areas; "worms" killed hemlock in much of Tsp. 4 N., generally avoiding fir; spruce and fir were also killed by "bugs" in several areas; the northern border of an extremely destructive fire from Tillamook County to the south is shown, possibly occurring during the 1902 fire year; clearing fires near the town of Elsie (Tsp. 4 N., Rng. 7 W., Sec. 6) seem to account for much of the escapement in that area. Clearings and settlements shown on the maps are likely locations of prehistoric artifacts, including Clatsop (Chinook) and Nehalem (Salish) artifacts along the coast, and Klaskani (Athapaskan) artifacts inland, particularly along the Nehalem ridges, peaks, and bottomlands. Artifacts include berry patches, grassy meadows, brakes, and balds. Onion Peak appears to be a virtual "no man's land", due to broken topography and limited access routes, although its name apparently comes from wild onions near its peak (McArthur 1982: 557).

 

Map 4.02 Tsp. 4 N., Rng. 8 W., Sec. 35 timber cruise map, 1913.

 

 

Map 4.03 compares a hand-drawn index to the 1913 Tsp. 4 N. timber cruise (Cabe[?] et al. 1913) with 1850, 1890, 1920, and 1940 excerpts from the "Teensma" map series (see Appendix E), and the 1900 (Gannett 1902), 1914 (Elliott 1914), and 1936 (Andrews and Cowlin 1936) GIS patterns described in Chapter 2. The Teensma maps correlate poorly, if at all, to the historical maps and are not further considered in this analysis. The scattering of fires shown on the eastern portion of Tsp. 4 N. corresponds to similar patterns in the 1913 cruise, as do the large fire patterns on the western portion of the 1914 map. The 1936 patterns show both similar patterns of fire, and subsequent logging patterns (black polygons) that conform to the unburned portions of the 1913 cruise.

 

 

Map 4.03    Clatsop County Tsp. 4 N. fire patterns, 1868-1936.

 

 

Map 4.04 was constructed by comparing (see Map 4.03) and layering GIS forest and fire history data derived from GLO surveys (Christy and Alverson 2003), Gannet (1902), Elliott (1914), Andrews and Cowlin (1936), and the patterns developed for Map 3.02. The 1720-1780 pattern was derived from a 1936 Douglas-fir size classification that also dominated the Millicoma Fire pattern at that time. There is no further evidence of forest fires from that time period. Two significant patterns emerge: 1) a large amount of forestland was left unburned during the past 250 years, and 2) there is a strong and obvious correlation between Indian burning patterns and subsequent wildfire locations (including ignition points) and wildfire boundaries.

 

 

Map 4.04    Northern Oregon Coast Range forest fire patterns, 1720-1936.

 

Several likely reasons exist for the relative absence of forest fires in this subregion: three of the four boundaries are large expanses of water--the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia River, and the mainstem Willamette River from the Falls to its mouth, making fire entries from the east and north difficult and unlikely; the climate is generally foggier with more rainfall than other parts of the Coast Range (see Map 1.04); the greater precontact population was comprised of Chinookan people, who tended to spend much of their time close to riverine environments, rather than managing upland areas; a large portion of native vegetation is spruce and hemlock forest, which tends to burn less frequently than Douglas-fir forest (Agee 1993); the topography is heavily dissected compared to the other subregions of the Range, thereby making fire more difficult to carry (see Map 1.02); and much of the area was logged (see Fig. 4.02) before it could burn.

 

There are several striking correlations between precontact Indian burning patterns and subsequent catastrophic fire patterns: 1) the majority of tideland, wetland and grassland prairies follow canoe and foot trails adjacent to the Columbia, Youngs, Clatskanie, and Nehalem rivers; 2) ignition points of most wildfires correlate closely with well-established riparian and ridgeline travel corridors and destination points; 3) the boundaries of most wildfires correlate to precontact prairies, foot trails, and canoe routes; and 4) fogbelt spruce and hemlock forests show relatively minor evidence of either precontact Indian burning or subsequent forest fires.

 

An additional pattern of land use activities represented by these maps is also of interest. The 1936 pattern of logging (black polygons) correlates closely to unburned areas represented on the 1900, 1913, and 1914 patterns. Map 4.05 and Map 4.06 provide additional evidence of this relationship. These maps showing logging and reforestation patterns for most of the Oregon Coast Range from ca. 1900-1935 (Lindgren 1935). The pattern of Tsp. 4 N. logging on Map 4.05 can be compared with fire and logging patterns shown on Map 4.03 to provide additional corroboration. Also note the close conformance between historical burn patterns of 1913-1914 with small diameter (less than 20 inches d.b.h.) conifer stands of 1935, adding additional credence to the assumed 1720-1780 fire pattern assumptions.

 

 

Map 4.05    Clatsop County logging patterns, ca. 1900-1935

 

 

 

 

Map 4.06    Columbia County logging patterns, ca. 1900-1935.