Umpqua National Forest

Most of the unprotected roadless areas in the Umpqua National Forest are in the Diamond Lake Ranger District (RD). The roadless areas are about an hour drive east of Roseburg, Oregon. The roadless areas adjoin the Oregon Cascade Recreation Area, which adjoins the Mt. Thielsen Wilderness area.

These forests have never been logged either because the trees were considered too small or the sites are too harsh to have viable tree farms (over 5,000 feet elevation forests of Mountain Hemlock). For some roadless areas, the slopes were too steep to accommodate the construction of logging roads.

The roadless forests of Diamond Lake are home to rare and endangered wildlife such as the lynx and wolverine. Wolverine tracks were discovered less than two miles from one formerly-proposed logging unit, and a lynx was confirmed whose home range extends into the threatened roadless forests. A very rare wolverine den is even suspected to exist in the Mt. Thielsen Wilderness area.  In the past, the Umpqua National Forest has proposed to dynamite rock from a pit that sits near suspected wolverine habitat to build logging roads.

The Diamond Lake District is the most utilized recreational district in the Umpqua National Forest.

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