Nearly thirty years ago, the small town of Oakridge, Oregon lost its last sawmill. And almost overnight, what was once a booming logging town lost the brunt of its economic affluence to the newly listed as endangered northern spotted owl – a cryptic species which require large swaths of intact old-growth forest to persist. With its need for dense, contiguous stands of forest, the northern spotted owl had thrown a rather large stick in the spokes of a thriving logging industry – one that likely would have logged every square inch of old-growth forest left in the Willamette Valley if it had been left unchecked. As protections for the struggling species continued to ramp up, Oakridge and the surrounding towns continued to decline. People fled as jobs vanished, and local businesses shut down. For decades poverty and unemployment ran rampant and became an issue many thought would leave Oakridge down and out for good.
Now, some thirty years later, swaths of clear-cut have begun to slowly recover, and ribbons of mouth-watering singletrack run through them. The scenery is beautiful and the trails are flowy, and people have begun to take notice. A bike shop, a pub, and a bakery have sprouted up to feed the needs of the town’s increasing visitors – the numbers of which have been growing on an annual basis. In short, this quaint town tucked into the verdant foothills of the Cascades is now well into its transition from depending entirely upon resource extraction, to actively promoting non-consumptive recreation and even forest preservation, for recognized and realized economic benefits.
Needless to say, the hundreds of miles of trails in the greater Oakridge area did not build themselves; they are the result of numerous years of hard work and dedication on behalf of a core group of local mountain bikers, many of whom are active members of the Disciples of Dirt Mountain Bike Club. During our trip to Oakridge, we set aside some time to meet with some key members of the Disciples of Dirt and joined them during one of their many, many days of volunteer trail work. To say what they’ve done for the greater Oakridge area is inspiring would be an understatement – they are a testament to the good that can come from people that are willing to build the trails they want to ride.
Sawmills to Singletrack on TillakDirector: Jason Fitzgibbon
Cinematography/Editing/Color Grading/Sound Design: Octave Zangs
Music: “Learn to Forget” by Ulysse Zangs
Produced by Tillak and Zangs Films.
In partnership with Boundary Supply, Yeti Cycles, and Smith Optics.
Shot on RED Epic Dragon.
View in 4K heretillak.com |
zangsfilms.com |
boundarysupply.com |
yeticycles.com |
smithoptics.com
"... and the trails are flowy...". With the exception of a couple sections on a number of trails you can comfortably count on one hand, FALSE. Pretty much all every trail in Oakridge is a multi-use hike/bike/horse (maintained, as people have pointed out, by numerous entities). The upper section of Dead Mountain is by far the best, most flowy purpose-built section of dirt for MTB's in all of Oakridge, and I don't believe DOD had any hand - as an organization - building that. Oh, and speaking of Dead Mtn? Yeah. It's been/is being logged.
I live about 25 miles down the road from Oakridge, and ride there 2-4 times a week. It has it's appeal, for sure. However, if you're looking for flow, look elsewhere. I've ridding a lot of places, but never on trails with endless switchbacks - up and down - which were built for hiking and horses and, largely, are about as fun and flowy as a kick in the sack. Challenging, yes. However, after the 15th consecutive steep, loose, highly-exposed, built-for-foot-traffic tight, blown-out and/or root-infested bit of "flow", it gets old.
Want true flow in the area? Head to Alsea Falls, a little south and west of Corvallis. The riding is of a different nature than in OROR, but the trails that make up the system are true gold. Team Dirt builds and maintains them. You won't leave there not smiling. Or try Whypass. DOD largely built and maintains that system and, although IMHO inferior to Alsea, it's still fun.
And yes, you're right, there are a slew of trail building organizations in the greater Oakridge/Willamette Valley area (DOD, GOATS, Team Dirt, etc) and we're not trying to single any one group out as the most lucrative trail builders, but rather wanted to call attention to at least one group that puts in a lot of time and effort bettering the region. Give us some more time and we'll do our best to cover others! They surely all deserve credit.
Thanks for chiming in man!
But you need to lose the environmentalist claptrap talk. They are not the friends of Mountain Biking. If the enviros had their way, MTBs would be banned. Silt from trail erosion is the primary excuse given, but they really are just looking for excuses to keep people out of the forests.
I had a family of Spotted Owls nesting in the second growth up the hill from my place in Alsea. My wife and I used to enjoy sitting on the deck and watching them hunt for squirrels. The claim that they can only live is old growth forests is false.
Every single one of the trails in the video are in multipurpose (logged over) land. My experience was that the lumber companies were friendly towards motorcycles and MTBs. The USFS? That was driven by politics and MTB riders don't have the deep pockets or the connections that the enviros have.
Also, suggesting that the economic impact of the MTB crowd on Oakridge is greater than minuscule is laughable. The last time I was in Alsea, the "next big thing" for the economy was going to be growing weed for Portland. "Eco Tourism" is tourism, plain and simple. I will wager that hunting and fishing is much bigger in Oakridge than MTB. I know it is for Alsea.
To touch on your comment about environmentalism; I am an environmentalist and a mountain biker of over twenty years – the two are not mutually exclusive by any means. In fact, they actually contribute to one another in many regards. It has been environmental legislation and the related conservation efforts that have given us much of the open space and trails that we ride as mountain bikers across the United States. Environmental legislation inhibits the privatization or exploitation of land and promotes the conservation of land and development of non-consumptive recreation - it all goes hand in hand.
In regard to the lumber companies being friendly toward mountain bikers – that occurs only when they log on land leased by the USFS or BLM, as both agencies are mandated to manage lands for both resource and recreation purposes (National Environmental Policy Act, 1970). Lumber companies are anything but friendly to anyone when they own the land outright. Again, land management and resource management, and how the two interface with private industry and recreation (us) is a multi-faceted, complicated subject – and it is a subject I have been working professionally in for over six years. I’d be more than happy to dive deeper into it with you should you like to take this conversation further.
As for your observation of spotted owls nesting in second-growth forest – yes, spotted owls can and will nest in habitat that is less suitable to them than old-growth forest, but it has been shown over and over again that they experience lowered fecundity and diminished reproductive success when they do. One of the main reasons for that is that they experience far greater levels of competition from other species such as the barred owl, barn owl, and even great-horned owl when they set up shop outside of the habitat for which they are best adapted – which are dense, large swaths of old-growth. If spotted owls hadn’t lost over 80% of the old-growth forest habitat within their native range to unregulated logging, I assure you, you would not have seen those birds nesting in that second-growth forest.
And yes, you are correct about the trails that we rode in the film occurring within selective harvest areas. Again, environmental legislation is the primary reason for those areas having been selectively harvested, not clear-cut. And it was the environmentalist movement that spurred the shift in USFS and BLM policy away from focusing only on resource extraction and more toward recreation and resource conservation based land management. Without that shift in policy, and without the environmental legislation we have in place today, much much more of that forest would be clear cut and void of trails.
To say that MTB’s impact on the economy in Oakridge is miniscule is anything but correct. Firstly, the vast majority of the trails there have been built by volunteers, at zero or nearly zero costs – a massive difference from the millions of dollars each year that tax payers sink into the management of the hatchery based Chinook salmon and steelhead fisheries in the Willamette watershed. Secondly, mountain biking has grown and continues to grow each and every year in Oakridge, as a result it is able to support an increasing number of businesses (bike shop, shuttle services, bike-themed restaurant, pub) that are all in turn growing. In 2014, mountain bikers spent an estimated (most conservative) $2.3 million dollars in Oakridge alone (Meltzer, 2014). That number has undoubtedly gone up. So all of this to say that I would argue that mountain biking’s contribution to Oakridge’s economy is not laughable or miniscule, by any means.
Jason, that blanket statement is not necessarily true here in Oregon. We have a privately owned timber company here in the Corvallis area thst has been very pro-recreation over the years and opens up their lands to various forms of recreation, including mountain biking and OHV use in designated areas. The relationship with the mountain bike community was very solid over the past 15+ years and has only recently been strained by some individuals (both mountain bikers and trail runners) going hog wild building trails in sensitive areas without permission. That relationship is being repaired, however, through ongoing legitimate advocacy work.
Weyerhauser, one of the biggest landowners and timber companies in the country (and particilalry in the PNW) also allows recreation on their lands. Though, a recent shift in policy has shifted towads a leased/paid permit model which, of course, isn't as "friendly" as allowing use for free as in the past, but I wouldn't necessarily characterize it as anti-recreation either.
I am sure there are other examples. But, the point being, that dismissing all timber companies as "anti-mountain bike" is a bit short sighted. They hold a lot of land, and shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to advocacy work and getting new trails built.
When it comes to access, my experience has been that the USFS is the worst. They are very good at declaring an area "over utilized" and putting entry restrictions in place. Much quicker than the big private land owners in the Alsea area.
I rode the trails that were present in the Alsea area in the early 1970's when logging was still up and running. They were plentiful and a blast. It is impossible to build trails in mature forests in western Oregon.
I have ridden a lot of miles on lands owned by Starker Forests. None of it is leased from the government. They are very friendly to bicycles, motorcycles, and other recreational users. Their web page is www.starkerforests.com/access They were pioneers in the managed forests game in Oregon.
Maybe it is because I lived in Alsea, but I never had any trouble with Weyerhaeuser. Again, their web page for access permits is www.weyerhaeuser.com/timberlands/recreational-access/northwest-region
My experience with private vs public land access restrictions contradicts your claims, and it goes back to 1970.
I am aware of the enviro claims about Spotted Owls, Marbled Murrelets, and a whole lot of other species. I lived for 40 years in Alsea. I will stand by my claim that most of the enviro narrative is completely false.
Yes, Spotties do better in large timber, but not all large timber is "Old Growth". Also, there are those of us who consider the Barred Owl and Spotted Owls to be the same species. They interbreed in the wild and produce viable offspring. Again, single species or two species is not science, it is politics. "Sparred Owls", the offspring of Spotted/Barred interbreeding clearly carry the gene pool of Spotted Owls, so if there is some genetic advantage to the Spotties, it will come back from the Sparred Owl population.
And what I see in those videos are predominately Douglas Fir. They do not grow unless you clear cut or burn off the area. They require open sunshine when they are young. Those stands of timber look to me like the hill behind my house in Alsea: Clearcut with a thinning operation. If those trees are on private lands, when they are mature they will be clear cut. The USFS will be dependent on political forces.
And from my conversations as a kid with people who grew up in the Alsea area in the late 1800's, The "vast tracts of Old Growth" forest were not all that vast. The tribal people who lived in the area managed the area for game production with fire. Open areas produce more deer than forests.
I have also counted growth rings on timber felled near my place in the 1970's, and much of it was less than 150 year old. Trees in the Cascades near Oakridge would have been older, but Douglas Fir forests only live when they are allowed to be destroyed and regrown. If that does not happen in western Oregon, either through fire or logging, you get a Cedar / Hemlock or Alder climax forest. Have you ever tried to hike through an Alder climax forest?
My father in law used to work for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. I am aware that they have big budgets. but let me quote from their web site:
"A third of ODFW’s revenue comes from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. Another third comes from the federal government – much of it tied to the sale of hunting and fishing equipment. The rest of the department funding comes from a variety of sources. Most of that funding can be used only for specific purposes spelled out in grants, contracts or statute. Although ODFW manages fish and wildlife for all Oregonians, only about nine percent of ODFW’s revenue comes from Oregon’s general tax dollars and the lottery combined."
They spent a bunch of money near my place on "environmental improvement". They dumped logs in streams creating dams which burst and wiped out a stretch of stream I had kept pristine. They even proposed putting lights in culverts so the fish would be able to see their way through. Hint: fish can detect water flow through non-visual means. That is "environmentalism".
The economic activity you describe is nice, but it is not a big player. It amounts to less than $1,000 per person in the Oakridge area. Probably a lot less than the direct budget of the ODFW hatchery in the area.
How much did the Pope and Talbot mill contribute? I was involve in designing sawmill machinery in the 1980's. One modern machine center would increase lumber yield per tree by about 5% and add $5k per shift in value to the production.
Adjust that for inflation and you will see that just that value added by improved efficency is at least double your claimed value of mountain bike recreation. I am aware that mill closures are a very complex subject, but logging restrictions were a part of the equation.
I am also well aware of the amount of money the USFS has spent in the Oakridge area trying to create economic activity. It is a whole lot more than 9% of the budget at the hatchery.
Again, I find that you don't have your facts straight.
What I am trying to say is that properly done, logging is not incompatible with healthy forests. Starker Forests is one of the best examples of this that I know. There are others as well.
The "environmentalism" mindset is based on blocking economic utilization of natural resources at any cost. How long before mountain bikes get lumped in with motorcycles and are banned from the 30% of USFS lands designated as "Inventoried Roadless Areas?
"Environmentalism" is trying to eliminate private ownership of automobiles. Maybe starting with old clunker SUV's that get maybe 10-15 MPG? I now live in North Dakota, and we got a first hand look at "environmentalism" attempting to block a pipeline which followed an existing pipeline route. Never mind that the expected spillage of oil from a new pipeline is orders of magnitude smaller than transporting oil by rail.
I know; let's end all oil extraction! That is the mindset of "environmentalism". I am not opposed to rational regulations to limit environmental damage. That is not the mindset of the "environmentalist" movement.
From everything you've stated I get the impression that you have an engrained distrust/distaste for anything and anyone that is pro-environment. Much of your arguments also come from a very pro-human, pro-consumption, pro-utilization perspective - which is entirely your right to possess, but I can tell you now that you and I will probably never see eye to eye, especially as a result of this thread, haha. And just so you know, despite our back and forth, there are no hard feelings on my end. A good debate is a good debate!
That being said, I'd just like to reiterate that the accessibility you've experienced with private landowners in Oregon is a direct result of subsidies or mitigation requirements given to them as a result of state and federal environmental review of their ongoing or proposed resource extraction activities. Without mandated mitigation conditions or tax deferrals, they would not permit public access. I regularly work with private landowners during the permitting and environmental review process of proposed development projects (I am a wildlife biologist), and I can tell you firsthand that no private landowner would permit public access to their properties without being forced or incentivized.
In regard to ODFW's budget, that is just ODFW, and your quote speaks only to 'revenue' in regard to the 9% figure - a budget derived from monies generated, not allocated. It also clearly states that funding also comes from grants and statutes - which applies to Federal and State regulations that mandate the management of listed species or for the purposes of tribal agreements. That also doesn't apply to federal agencies like USFS or NOAA regarding the management of game species. All of this to say that ODFW's statement there says little about how much money is actually spent on wildlife management. But all of that has little to do with bikes.
Spotted owls and barred owls are not the same species. Period. If you are not a geneticist specializing in spotted/barred owl research, then you have no right to claim otherwise. You are correct that they can hybridize, as can many other owls of the Strix genus. BUT, numerous genetic analyses have been conducted on the two species and time and time again, they've found no signs of previous introgression (they've never interbred before). Barred owls, which are much better adapted to the forest edges that occur when we log forests, have only recently moved westward as we've continued to decimate our forests. And no, hybrid sparred owls will not exhibit the traits that best benefit the spotted owl for two main reasons - one) often they are sterile, non-viable hybrids, and two) the lack of suitable old-growth habitat will select against owls that are best adapted to such habitat. As has been the case with many populations of cutthroat trout (that can readily hybridize with rainbows - which are NOT the same species), if hybridization continues, the spotted owl will go extinct.
And I have no idea what you are talking about in regard to putting lights in culverts for fish, no such project would ever have been approved during the state/federal permitting process. Just because some weirdo says something during public comment period somewhere, does not mean that they represent the science behind natural resource management. I would venture to say that you were not exposed to, nor do you fully understand, the entirety of that stream restoration project you are speaking of. Again, this has nothing to do with bikes or this story.
I do agree with you entirely that logging in Oregon is a far bigger economic contributor than mountain biking will probably ever be, but the point of this story was to show that there are alternatives - and especially that there are methods of generating revenue for a rural area that don't rely entirely upon resource extraction. I also gave a very conservative estimate in my previous comment, that number could have extended upwards of $4 million in Oakridge alone. Yes, that is still small, but that's just from people visiting to ride their bikes, eat some food, and drink good beer!
I also agree that logging can be done sustainably, but not at anywhere near the rate that it was being conducted, or is still conducted today.
So I guess I'll end by asking you, what is so vile about attempting to minimize resource extraction, protect species, or in this case, promote mountain biking in lieu of logging?? Do you not see value in any of those things? Do you discount science and environmental legislation because it limits your "right" to do with the earth as you please? Because it makes your life costlier? What is the problem with trying to minimize our impacts on the earth, and make it a better place?
Lol, i am correct. I don't know where you get off inflating the truth. The problem with giving a inaccurate inflated description of the responsibility is that you are propegating bullshit. The Greater Oakridge Area Riders, and Scorpions trail crews, well to do hikers bikers motorcyclist hunters and equestrians as well as many individual trail maintainers/ builders and the forest service all contribute to the maintence and proliferation of trails. to give so much credit to the Disciples of Dirt adds to false sense of Monolithic authority of one group, which already has problems with a mono-cultural egotistical drive where they attempt to seize all credit for all work, just look its right there in the name "disciples of dirt"
Great little place to stay west of Oakridge at what we called Chicken Sally's Ranch. Cool place.
Oakridge itself is an interesting town. I felt like we were being eyed up left and right like we didn't belong there, the grocery store was full of what seemed to be a bunch of methheads and seemingly they thought our presence there was somehow to blame for the economic failure of Oakridge.
Either way, great riding! I'll be back.
ridespots.com/destination/oakridge
2) There isn’t nearly as much NEW trail in Oakridge as there is restored/reclaimed/resurrected trail. What you see happening now on the Old Cascade Crest network in the Detroit ranger district, or last year for the O’Leary grand reopening in the McKenzie ranger district, or the year before that on Grasshopper Mountain way out there, or this year’s Oregon Timber trailwork days in Fremont or on Bunchgrass... there was a time when Alpine Trail was the trail getting dug back out and brought back to life, and you can bet the DoD was there for that, just like on many of these other efforts.
3) That said, the recent Lawler extension and King-Castle reroute and Cloverpatch-Alpine Tie are all excellent. Not to mention all the Happy Ride events, all the volunteer guide work for MBO.
4) Many other groups are out there and it’s great. Cascade Creampuff, Trans-Cascadia, Oregon Timber Trail, GOATS, Northwest Youth Corps, and some outstanding USFS staff and managers. Just the effort to get hundreds of miles of trail open every time the storms and rain back off is daunting. So hats off to everyone who does that.
5) I was at the build day on SST and it was a ton of fun. The DoD are a great bunch and I’m happy many of them are willing to hang around with me sometimes and show me how to build stuff.