Siuslaw National Forest logging
City of Corvallis looks the other way as Siuslaw National Forest logs the city's water supply area
The city of Corvallis and the Siuslaw National Forest have been partners in logging the Corvallis Watershed since 1952. Back then, the city allowed the Forest Service to conduct all its logging operations. Today, the city and the Forest Service continue to share the watershed's logging roads, which the Forest Service maintains to what they claim is a "gold standard". Doug Pollock and Jim Fairchild hiked up to check out the roads on Siuslaw National Forest property in April 2024 to see for themselves. They found a heavily logged forest on steep slopes above Griffith Creek, one of the city's water supply streams. Roads were a muddy mess, as you can see from the photos below, taken by Pollock.
Is this the way to manage a watershed for drinking water?
Logging roads and timber operations on Siuslaw National Forest within the city's drinking water supply
All photos taken by Doug Pollock 04/13/24 on Siuslaw National Forest property above Griffith Creek, one of the drinking water supply streams for the city of Corvallis. Turbid runoff from logging roads flows directly down steep, highly erodible slopes to the creek. Other shots show the over-logging of the forest, which the Forest Service claims is "creating structural diversity." The open canopy resulting from removing ~70% of the trees allows rain to fall directly on the soil on these steep slopes.
