Ancient Trees Saved

Sun., June 22, 1997

Associated Press

National forests

From a distance, the ancient Douglas fir looks dead. But near the top of its 270-foot-high crown, a few branches are festooned with green needles. After centuries of living in the damp, verdant Little North Santiam River valley 42 miles northeast of Salem, Ore., the ancient Douglas fir still clings to life.

“A coring study estimated the age of the tree at 1,000 years,” said Marty McCall, executive director of the Friends of Opal Creek. “They say it takes a tree that old 200 years to die. It will have another life of 200 years standing in place, then another life on the forest floor of at least 500 years. Most of the other Douglas firs around here are its offspring.”

The tree is on 13,640 acres of land put under federal protection this month under a bill submitted by then Sen. Mark Hatfield, thus ending a long, bitter fight over Opal Creek between conservationists and developers.

More than $750,000 is earmarked to help remove 5,500 cubic yards of toxic mine waste from the area.

Much of the beauty of the Little North Santiam and Opal Creek, one of its headwater tributaries, is subtle and takes time to seek out and enjoy - the light filtering to the forest floor through 200-foot-high trees, the white fungus that makes its home on 8-foot-thick tree trunks, the moss and ferns that paint the forest floor a permanent shade of green.

Protected status likely will put the area in more guidebooks and increase its popularity, especially as the population of the Willamette Valley grows.

The area already draws about 50,000 visitors annually.

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