Outreach

The Lookout Fire, as with the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire before it, triggers a rush of emotions and a deep sense of loss – maybe even a sense of guilt when we drop into thoughts of science opportunities when so much seems gone and never to “recover” in our lifetime.  What will we find when we get to experience our favorite places in their newly burned state?  How will the ecosystem respond over the coming few years?  The on-going Following Fire: A Resilient Forest | An Uncertain Future project in the Holiday Farm Fire area of McKenzie

Daniel McGarvey, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, contacted us early on in the fire to share his memories and connection to the Andrews Forest and Lookout Creek. “I traveled to Lookout Creek in 2018 to sample fish and stream invertebrates with a crew made up entirely of underrepresented minorities.

Kari O’Connell, previously the HJA Forest Director and now the Associate Director at the OSU Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning, shares her reflection:

"One of my fondest memories of the Andrews Forest is the afternoon I hiked on the Watershed 2 trail with Howard Bruner and Robert Michael Pyle, during Robert’s residency (the first writers residency of the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program). In Robert Michael Pyle’s own words,

Roswell Ridge, which burned today, August 25, is a central hub within our wireless network and our webcam network. For years, we have maintained webcams to provide real-time information on conditions at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Viewers can get a sense for current weather, road conditions, or the progression of the seasons. For example, our floodcam points at Lookout Creek and viewers can watch the water in the stream, and the wood in the stream, rise in the winter rains.

Studying forest dynamics takes decades, even centuries. The western Cascade Mountains of Oregon, including the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, harbor centuries-old stands of old-growth forests, which are known for their high biomass, complex structure, and multi-layered forest canopies. In 1971, scientists established multiple permanent sample plots across the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest and elsewhere in the region, largely to study old-growth forest ecosystems. Scientists continue to visit the plots every year.

For the past few days, the Lookout Fire has been burning around one of our remote weather stations, Upper Lookout (UPLMET), and is nearing a second, Central (CENMET). Fortunately, as of the time of this post (August 21), the UPLMET station continues to send useful weather data over our network of radio relays. The first weather stations at HJA were installed to aid research on logging methods starting in 1952. Three more stations were added over time. Today we maintain seven weather stations spread out to capture the environment across the entire research forest.