Before the Fire

Forests and streams are inextricably linked in our western Oregon landscapes, so the significant changes to the forest resulting from the fire will inevitably affect the streams.  As research from Mack Creek in the Andrews Forest has demonstrated, wood input from the forest fundamentally shapes the geomorphology and habitat of streams. In McRae Creek, OSU professor Dana Warren and his team have been exploring how the riparian forest canopy impacts light on streams which, in turn, affects ecological processes in those streams. They initially looked at how historic timber management affected light availability in streams and the impact of that light availability on nutrient limitation and aquatic primary production.  They also created an experimental canopy gap over the stream in one of the tributaries to McRae Creek and quantified how fish, invertebrates, temperature, primary production and nutrients changed with the creation of a light patch.  The impacts of the Lookout Fire will far exceed the impacts of the experimental small gap and will re-open canopies in areas of past clear-cuts that had regenerated to dense stands of alder and fir.  In the coming years we will learn about the resilience of streams to the loss of riparian forests and how ecosystem processes and aquatic biota respond to loss of forest canopy cover and changes in stream hydrology following fire. See our online album: images of the gap study in 2017.

First posted September 20, 2023

The Lookout Fire and initial forest responses may be the current prime example of climate change impacts in the Andrews Forest, as anticipated more than 30 years ago. In a 1992 paper, Andrews Forest researchers predicted that, “the most rapid and extensive biotic changes in forests from climate change will be caused by altered disturbance regimes. Disturbances create the conditions for change in ecosystems, effectively doing the work of eliminating the established forest with its inertia, or tolerance of altered climate conditions. … Increased frequency of fire is certain under the climate change scenario, and greater intensities are probable” This paper goes on to say, “the most environmentally sensitive stage for western tree species is at the time of seedling establishment.”  The predictions of the 1992 paper seem to be playing out here and now: climate warming may be enhancing wildfire regionally, and it also may influence forest succession after wildfire.  Ongoing work by Andrews Forest researchers on vegetation response to fire is poised to interpret forest response to simultaneous increased fire and warming.

First posted September 18, 2023

OSU Professors Dana Warren, Catalina Segura, and PhD student Madelyn Maffia are investigating the response of trout and salamanders to drought conditions in a tributary of McRae Creek. The researchers are using an experimental approach to mimic drought by (1) diverting stream flow to create a low-flow reach and (2) passively heating water through a coil system to increase water temperature. The experiment was disrupted by the Lookout Fire that is burning across McRae Creek and its tributaries. The loss is upsetting because of the time and effort that went into setting up the experiment, and because the findings would have had imminent relevance of understanding of how trout and salamanders respond to the drought during the hot and dry conditions often seen with wildfires. 

Photos and more about the study are on our online photo albums for the 2021,  2022, and 2023 drought experiment field seasons.

First posted September 13, 2023

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. This was part of my NSF CAREER project, which allowed me to take small teams of minority students all over the east and west coast.” The data collected in Lookout Creek were part of a larger study on how body size of fish and salamanders relate to their trophic position in the food web.

First posted September 8, 2023

With a digital camera and oil paints, artist Leah Wilson set out to document the change of light and color in Lookout Creek, Watershed 1, and Watershed 3 at the Andrews Forest. “My paintings isolate changes that are missed by human perception, even when staring directly at the landscape with eyes wide open.” In October 2014, Leah placed a rock painted white in a deep pool in Lookout Creek and photographed it every one minute, for three sessions. The white rock reflected the colors of the stream, the ambient light, and the surrounding environment. Back in her studio, Leah made digital translations of the colors and rendered them into oil paint, “a process that takes the image from a technological interpretation back to a perceptual human experience.” Leah painted the colors in a grid, where the top panels consist of the colors of the white rock affected by the water and ambient colors of the forest and sky, while the bottom panels are the colors collected from images of the creek bed at specific gridded points on the photograph. The colors in both panels are arranged by correlating time and rounds in squares of 16 distinct colors taken from each captured moment. You can see more of Leah’s work, called Ambient, at  https://www.leahwilson.com/project/ambient. The original Ambient paintings are on display at the headquarters of the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, normally. The paintings were carefully wrapped and put into storage in Corvallis when our headquarters were evacuated in August. 

First posted September 6, 2023

Jaime Ortega, an OSU graduate student who grew up in Panama, shares that one of his greatest memories at the Andrews Forest, specifically in the Upper Lookout Creek catchment, was admiring the fascinating changes in the forest throughout the four seasons and how rivers respond to storm events.

“As a foreigner coming from tropical latitudes, I have never had the opportunity to see how a landscape and rivers change throughout the seasons. During my water sampling campaign (May 2022- May 2023) as part of my research project, I was delighted by the colorful leaves of autumn, the fresh snow and quietness during the winter, and the high flow events as a result of snowmelt or intense rain. Each season has its own story and rivers are mirrors to understand how processes occur across the landscape. Through the use of water stable isotopes and stream chemistry, we hope to unveil the importance that geology and snow contribution from high elevations have in the streamflow contribution of some headwater streams (Cold, Longer, Nostoc Creeks) in the Upper Lookout Creek catchment.”  You can find photos of Jaimie in the Lookout Creek Water Sampling 2022 album.

First published September 2, 2023

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,

'It rained most of the time, and we grew awfully wet and muddy, but stayed warm enough with exertion; and though we were slipping and sliding, balancing and hopping like a bunch of red tree voles, (or two, plus a small walrus), no one got hurt. My hardest hike in years, but truth to tell, I much enjoyed it. Frequently, we passed trees tagged long ago so their life trajectories and ultimate mortality could be measured; transect plots; and other signs of curious hands on this uncut basin. The responses of this forest, both to management and stochastic events (or, vicissitudes) will have been monitored over a long period, along with numerous other places involved in the LTER project.'

The hike took us way longer than expected as we had to climb under and over enormous, downed trees and admire and appreciate plants and birds along the way. Robert Michael Pyle and his residency launched the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program, which brings together writers, humanists, and scientists to create a living, growing record of how we understand the forest and the relation of people to the forest, as that understanding and that forest both change over time."

Here are some links to some of Robert Michael Pyle’s writings:  The Long Haul  and Reflections: Field Notes  (see II. Journal Entry for a description of this grand Watershed 2 adventure).

First posted August 31, 2023

An ecotone is an area of transition between ecological communities. Todd Lookingbill, a professor of geography at the University of Richmond, has been studying the ecotone between western hemlock and true fir forests in Oregon’s Cascade mountains for more than 20 years. Since first mapping all trees in five large plots distributed from Lookout to Carpenter ridges within the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in 2002, Todd and his student research teams have been returning regularly to remap tree seedlings and monitor vegetation dynamics. In 2013, they added ground-level temperature sensors and time lapse cameras to the plots to monitor snowpack. Todd’s research goal is to understand how environmental conditions such as temperature, snowpack duration and soil moisture relate to forest dynamics in these ecotones, which may be the most sensitive areas of the landscape to environmental change. The information feeds into a model that provides insight into potential forest response to environmental change such as global climate change scenarios. While the tree seedling composition in the old-growth plots that Todd is monitoring has so far remained relatively consistent over the past 20 years, fire imposes rapid changes in forest structure and environmental conditions, and may accelerate vegetation response to a changing climate. Four of the ecotone plots are within the burn perimeter and it is likely that all five will experience the Lookout Fire disturbance.

First posted August 29, 2023

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. The Lower Lookout riparian camera shows the changing of the seasons, as trees bud and leaf out in the spring, and drop leaves in the fall and winter. The headquarters camera shows activities at our research facility. This year, just after the Lookout Fire ignited, our site staff raced to the communications tower at the top of Roswell Ridge and trained three webcams on to Lookout Ridge, to track the fire and give an overlapping panoramic view of the south bounding ridgeline from Lookout Mountain to above the Headquarters site. The web cams have tracked the progression of the fire and smoke across the forest. As of today, August 25, the fire reached the forest west and south of the tower base (perhaps also north, but we are camera blind on that side). Should the tower succumb to the heat and fire, we will lose telemetry from almost all our weather and stream stations as well as the primary internet connection for the headquarters site. Check out our webcams online, especially the new timelapse videos of the Lookout Fire, linked at the top of the webcams page. Today's 8/25 Lookout Ridge Central timelapse video captures the fire coming up and over Roswell Ridge: fireworks of bright flames approaching in the dark of night, a yellow sunrise over green trees, an intensely smoky period with wind and airborne detritus, orange flames licking at the camera, and, lastly, defoliated trees standing in thick smoke. Another cam to keep an eye on: the Road 130 cam is on the ridge just above headquarters and faces Roswell Lookout ridges; it is generally too smoky too see far but this camera has given glimpses of the fire front as it crossed over Roswell Ridge, and will have a front-row view should the fire progress to the lower portions of the Lookout Creek basin.

First posted August 25, 2023

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. Measurements include, precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind direction and wind speed, solar radiation, and snow. In addition to capturing variation and changes in climate over the years, the weather data are used as reference for many of the other studies that happen on the forest. For example, how does climate relate to vegetation types and changes in vegetation cover over time? Or how does weather measured, such as precipitation, snow, and soil moisture, relate to stream flow, or disturbances such as flood, landslides, and, yes, fire? Like all of the data we collect, the weather data are made public on our website and in a national data repository. In addition, this month, our field technicians, Greg Cohn and Adam Kennedy, put together a new Lookout Fire Wx web page, in direct response to the needs of fire crews working on the Lookout Fire. These weather measurements are providing fire crews helpful information to strategize and stay safe while trying to contain the Lookout Fire. We want to extend our thanks to fire crews who cleared nearby vegetation and set up sprinklers around the weather stations to protect them from the fire.

First posted August 21, 2023

Today, August 18, 2023, the fire is burning over Cold Creek. Here’s something interesting about Cold Creek: Cold Creek has more water in the summer than would be estimated for the size of its watershed. In fact, water from Cold Creek flows into Lookout Creek and makes up about 80% of the flow of Lookout Creek during the dry summer months. Where is that cold water coming from, and how does it keep flowing during the dry season? To find out, researcher Catalina Segura and her team used water isotope ratios and found that the water from Cold Creek comes from plumbing deep in the mountains. It’s likely that the water from Cold Creek comes from snowpack high in the Cascades range, outside of the ridgeline that defines the boundary of Cold Creek and possibly the boundary of the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. 

First posted August 18, 2023

Did you know that the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, and Lookout Mountain, has high elevation meadows? Those meadows are full of flowers in the summer. Researchers have been studying how pollinators — like bees, flies, moths and butterflies — are connected to flowering plants and how networks of plants and pollinators respond to environmental change.  So far, research in 12 meadows, over 11 years, has identified >670 flower-visitor species and >150 species of flowering plants. Pollinator diversity stays somewhat constant despite variation in climate, numbers of pollinators, and diversity of flowers that they visit.  The Plant Pollinator Study started in 2011. Four of the twelve long-term plant-pollinator study meadows are on Lookout Mountain, within the area of the Lookout Fire. 

This photo was taken from the Roswell Point meadow on August 2, 2023.  It is looking across the upper Lookout Creek at the N side of Lookout Mountain and Lookout Ridge, where the fire is currently burning.  It may be one of the last photos taken of the north side of Lookout Mountain before the fire ignited on August 5. Smoke from the Bedrock fire is visible in the distance. Photo from Julia Jones, Oregon State University.

First posted August 16, 2023