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Controlled burns at Champoeg State Heritage Area in 2003
It must have been a strange sight – firefighters, under the watchful eye of park rangers, using drip torches to purposely set fires in a state park. But that’s exactly what happened when Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) set fires at Champoeg State Heritage Area and Elijah Bristow State Park. Why would park rangers responsible for protecting Oregon’s natural resources burn land in their care? To find that answer we must look back at the history of the Willamette Valley.
Oak Savannas: Then and Now
Using fire as a land management tool is a surprisingly old practice. Native Americans in the Willamette Valley shaped their environment for thousands of years this way. By setting fires in the late summer and fall, the Indians maintained open land that supported the animals and plants they needed to survive. The beautiful oak savannas,upland prairies, wet prairies and riparian woodlands that appeared would not exist without man’s intervention.
The conditions that were so beneficial to the Indians were the same conditions that drew settlers to the Willamette Valley. They found plentiful game and clear land perfect for farming. It seemed ideal. But the settlers did not understand the role that Native American fires played in maintaining the open valley. When the balance of power shifted in the 1840s, land management practices changed. The fires once used to “clean” the valley and keep it open no longer burned. Instead, development—in the form of grazing, agriculture, fire suppression and logging— took over. This change in land management practices signaled the demise of Oregon’s oak savannas.
How has the habitat changed? Only about 10% of Oregon’s historic white oak (Quercus garryana) habitat remains. It is one of the most threatened ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest. The remaining oak habitats are few and far between, and they are, generally speaking, not healthy. Small, spindly trees with poor acorn production are the norm, not the exception. Non-native grasses choke out native plants, grasses and wildflowers. The meadows no longer support the grassland birds that once thrived there.
Champoeg State Heritage Area (southwest of Portland) and Elijah Bristow State Park both (near Springfield) support a mix of ecosystems: dry and wet prairies, oak savanna and woodlands. Those park ecosystems are microcosms of the Willamette Valley oak savannas.
OPRD staff is dedicated to managing the land within our care for aesthetics, forest health, biological diversity and for the protection of rare and sensitive species. The moribund oak savannas at Elijah Bristow and Champoeg are both historically significant and critical to the health and strength of hundreds of plant, animal and insect species.
A Burning Question
Staff at the two parks staff considered a number of management tools to rehabilitate the oak savannas in their care. Some tools, such as removing invasive plants manually, are routinely practiced but only partly successful. They decided that sometimes, you can’t improve on simplicity itself. Although using fire to remove invasive plants is unorthodox, it allows people to see first hand what history was like in the Willamette Valley in the 19th century. It also enables park managers to compare new plant growth resulting from fire versus from that produced by mechanical removal of invasive plants like Himalayan blackberry, English hawthorn and others.
Thus, we return to the strange sight of park rangers overseeing the burning of state park lands. Early in October, 2003, an assemblage of fire crews, staff from OPRD and the Oregon Department of Forestry burned approximately 10 acres at Elijah Bristow State Park and Champoeg State Heritage Area. These controlled burns went well, thanks to careful planning and the luck of the weather. Now, the wait begins.
The damage of the last 150 years will take time to repair, but initial results are encouraging. Within three weeks of the Champoeg burn, the area looked like a well-maintained lawn. The shrubby undergrowth is gone, and fresh new growth appeared. The habitat will, with luck and good management, become more attractive to birds and animals. The landscape will be restored to its historical and more attractive appearance, and visitors will be able to see first-hand the process by which the ecology of this valley was created.
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