Champion trees disappear all around us

Oregon Wild Old-Growth Campaign Coordinator, Jonathan Jelen talks about visiting the fallen Klootchy Creek Giant and the future of big trees in Oregon.

Recently I drove out to the Oregon Coast and found myself barely a hundred yards off Highway 26, staring at the remains of a fallen champion.

The Klootchy Creek Sitka spruce stood for decades as Oregon's largest tree until it toppled in a windstorm on December 2nd.

After the Klootchy giant showed signs of decay last year thousands flocked to see it while it still stood tall, just as many have made trips in the past months to bid it farewell.

The Statesman Journal has reported in previous weeks on the ongoing efforts to find and measure Oregon's next champion tree to be placed on the Oregon Big Tree Registry. It appears a 144-foot tall spruce on Cape Meares is the leading contender, after claims that a giant Sitka on Cape Perpetua is the State's biggest were proven to be false. The Cape Perpetua tree, it seems, is simply gigantic, rather than astronomically gigantic.

The interest in large, old trees is a natural human inclination. Here in the Northwest, marveling at trees that shoot hundreds of feet into the air is a cultural birthright. The question is, will future generations have any big trees left to look at?

The Klootchy Creek Sitka spruce was estimated to be 750 years old and died a natural death. However, across Oregon we have millions of acres of old-growth forests, ranging in age from 100 to over 1,000 years old, that face the threat of a very unnatural death at the whirring blades of a chainsaw.

Our forests have faced a consistent onslaught over the past seven-plus years as the Bush administration has ignored science and the public will in an attempt to increase logging of our old growth. Their most recent plan is the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR). This scheme would increase clear-cut logging of old-growth forests by 700 percent on over 2 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) forest in western Oregon.

That means the Bush administration wants to drastically increase logging of trees-some older than the Klootchy Creek giant-even while the broad majority of Oregonians want these trees protected.

Luckily, the Bush WOPR plan isn't the only game in town. In recent months, Representative Peter DeFazio and Senator Ron Wyden have been talking up plans to put forest management agencies on a path towards a sustainable future. Both Oregon officials say they want to protect the old growth we have left as a legacy for future generations and focus work in our forests that restores the natural landscape.

To follow through on this plan, DeFazio and Wyden will need the support of everyday Oregonians. For decades, private interests have treated our publicly owned forests as their personal piggy banks-extracting resources, devastating natural forests and leaving communities high and dry. These special interests won't give up their grip on our public forests without a fight.

The Klootchy Creek Sitka spruce stood for hundreds of years as a symbol of the Northwest and the natural heritage we have inherited. During that time, its presence awed visitors and made us all proud of the Oregon we call home. As we usher in the era of a new champion tree in Oregon, let us take this opportunity to make a commitment to protecting all the colossal, old-growth trees that leave us awestruck, not just the one that we crown the champ. Read the original story