Forest of Recognized Importance (FORI) is a term first introduced in the American Forest Foundation’s 2015-2020 Standards of Sustainability. In order to be certified by the American Tree Farm System, you must establish if your property is part of a FORI.

FORIs are forests of exceptional ecological, social, cultural, or biological values. To be designated a FORI, a forest needs
to have a combination of unique values instead of just one. These forests are evaluated at the landscape level. They are not
regulated at either the Federal or State level, and they are not identified by the State of Oregon.

• The difference between a FORI and a Special Site is that the Special Site is important locally, while a FORI is important
  regionally or nationally.
• FORIs may include:
  • Rare, sensitive, or representative forest ecosystems such as unique forest ecosystems, riparian areas,
    or wetlands.
  • Critical habitats for multiple threatened or endangered plant and animal species, as identified by
    Federal or State of Oregon entities.
  • Recognized large‐scale cultural or archaeological sites.
  • Rivers and other water bodies that are drinking water sources for large metropolitan entities.
  • Areas of unique geologic features such as geysers, waterfalls, lava beds, caves, or craters.

Another way to think about this is to consider whether your property fits within a broader landscape assessment or initiative. For example, is your property within a Conservation Opportunity Area? Is there a larger initiative in your area that may focus on, for example, watershed health, invasive species control, reducing wildfire risks or insect and disease control? The Oregon Conservation Strategy is a good starting point to determine how your property interfaces with broader landscape-scale management initiatives. You may also consider reaching out to a local watershed council or soil and water conservation district.

Make note of any initiatives or strategies that may intersect your property. If your property falls within a known strategy and may contribute to a FORI, outline the management considerations necessary to help conserve and enhance the attributes identified by the initiative(s).

Developing a property history for your woodland management plan

Pat Wheeler, Brad Withrow-Robinson, Amy Grotta and Lauren Grand

March 2017

Finding the past

One of the special things about woodland ownership is the connection to place it creates for people. That connection is evident in the pride of ownership, passion and the energy that people put into their property. Less obvious but often very strong is the connection to time and history associated with that place, however long a person’s own relationship to the land has been. Many people really enjoy exploring and recording their property’s history.

We recommend you first develop the basic story, with the recent history of the property, as you know it (for your Woodland Discovery Plan, or Forest Management Plan). Then maybe you go on to collect information and memories from other family members and neighbors.

If you are then interested in digging deeper, and extending your search further back in time, then this document can help. It provides a list of resources, many of them available free online that may be useful to people exploring the history of their woodland properties.

What do you hope to learn? Besides the recent history, (some of which may be) available in the memories of living people, a lot of information is available in public and historical records. A variety of resources can help you learn about native people, pioneers, early settlers, donation land claims and more. We introduce some here, but others will be unique local documents you may have to discover yourself.

Building Your History

Visiting your local historical museum is a good place to start. Many have oral histories, photographs, maps and other resources to provide context as well as details across a wide span of time. You can also try out many online resources to learn about specific things such as pioneers who settled on or near your property.

What is known about pre-European use of the land?

There was a long history of Native American people in Oregon before European settlement. You might be able to find some information about that, or infer the use of the land prior to European settlement from some of these sources. However, most of the available documents and resources will address the time following settlement.

Ideas for learning about Native American land use:

• Visit the local city or county’s museum or historical society in person or online.
• Pre-settlement (~1850) land cover was often very different from what we have today. Maps of pre-settlement vegetation types have been developed from General Land Office survey records and other data.

An overview of presettlement vegetation in the Willamette Valley is available here: http://www.fsl.orst.edu/pnwerc/wrb/Atlas_web_compressed/4.Biotic_Systems/4b.pres etveg_web.pdf

Other maps are available online through Oregon Explorer. Use the Map Viewer tool and select the Historic Oregon Land Use and Land Cover layer (under the Vegetation tab)

http://tools.oregonexplorer.info/oe_map_viewer_2_0/viewer.html?Viewer=OE

Was Your Property Settled by an Oregon Pioneer?

The US government established the Territory of Oregon in 1848. To encourage settlement of the area by US citizens, the government passed the Donation Land Claim Act in 1850. This act granted free land to pioneers who lived on the land and cultivated it for four years. Settlers arriving before 1850 were granted 320 acres if single or 640 acres if married. Settlers arriving after 1850 were granted 160 acres if single or 320 acres if married. Thirty thousand white immigrants traveled west and 7000 individuals made claims to 2.5 million acres of land under the Donation Land Claim Act. Many of these claims were in the Willamette Valley. The act expired after 1855, but the government continued to sell land to early settlers for $125/acre.

The trip west on the Oregon Trail was about 2,000 miles long and took about six months. Usually 50-100 wagons traveled together as a group. Wagons were heavily loaded with supplies and most of the pioneers actually walked the 2,000 miles. Related families traveling together sometimes amounted to 25-50 family members. The age range was from grandparents (> 70 years) to newborns. The trip was arduous and nearly one in ten died on the trail. The most common causes of death were “camp fever” (cholera) and accidents. Travel usually started in the spring and pioneers reached Oregon in the fall. Families would find a temporary place for over-wintering and the search for a homestead site the following spring.

Two avenues to research these early homesteaders are through maps (if you know the location, and are trying to identify the settler or owner); and people searches (to learn more about an individual/family once you know their name). The rest of this document provides a list of Internet tools that can help you with this research.

A. Mapping websites

Bureau of Land Management Land Records – Oregon Donation Land Claims

You can use this site to find information on the settlers who filed Donation Land Claims. It is searchable by location and name. It is helpful to know your Township, Range and Section. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx

• Choose Land Patents
  • Enter State, County, Township, Range, Section, or settler’s name. Then click Search Patents at the bottom of the page. You will get more details about the claims, e.g. number of acres and surrounding property owners.

View 1850’s survey maps at: http://www.blm.gov/or/landrecords

• Choose View Land Records without Survey Notes
  • Enter: Township, Range
  • Choose a Cadastral Survey

Two types of maps are available – landscape & owners. Hand-drawn Landscape Maps show interesting features and the location of some homesteads. Property boundary maps show the outlines of specific donation land claims with the owner’s name.

Historic Map Works

This site contains ownership maps from various points in time through the 19th and 20th centuries.

On http://www.historicmapworks.com, search state and county name. Scroll through map pages to find Township and Range of interest and click on that map.

Scroll to bottom menu and click on enlarge button. Use mouse to move around map to the area of interest.

Use “Insert Screenshot” function or snipping tool in WORD to import the map section of interest into a WORD document.

County Map Websites

Many counties have extensive map resources online. An example is given below for Benton County, but other counties have sites that function similarly.

“BentonMaps”: https://maps.bentoncountyor.gov/

Zoom in on area of interest.

Look at “Layers” Choices on top right of screen (picture of three layered squares).

Check box for Donation Land Claim (DLC). Map will display owner name and outline of property for DLCs.

B.  Sites to research early Oregon families

Early Oregonians Search

Information about Oregon pioneers is available on the Secretary of State’s Public Records system, Early Oregonians webpage: https://secure.sos.state.or.us/prs/personProfileSearch.do?earlyOregonian

This site is searchable and if you know the pioneer’s name, you can enter that and find out dates of birth, arrival in Oregon and death. Often information on parents and spouses is included as well county of residence as indicated in census records.

Find-A-Grave

http://www.findagrave.com/

Using the search tool enter as much of the following that you know, such as: first and last name, date of birth and death, and state and county where buried. Sometimes biographies and photos are posted.

Census Records – Family Search

Do an internet search for “XXXX Census” for a specific year e.g. “1850 Census”. Choose results from familysearch.org (it’s free). Can provide name index and images of population schedules listing inhabitants of the United States in the year of the census. Searchable data and browse are available for all states and territories included in that census year.

Enter first and last name, date of birth if known, and state and county of residence if known, and then click on Search at bottom of page.

Click on a name of interest to get a record for the household. Images of the actual census record pages may also be available.

The Oregon Territory and its Pioneers

Stephenie Flora maintains this webpage with multiple resources.

Go to http://www.oregonpioneers.com/ and follow the link “Settling of Oregon and its pioneers” and scroll down the page to find lists of emigrants for specific years. Select the year of interest and scroll through the list for persons of interests. Sometimes short biographies are included. Female spouses are listed under their maiden names.

General Internet Searches

You can try doing an internet search using one of these strategies:

• Try “Pioneers of (Your) County Oregon”. Online resources about early pioneers vary a lot from county to county. Benton County Oregon Pioneers offers extensive resources.

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=benton

Choose a letter that begins the last name of the person of interest.

Scroll though the list and click on the person of interest. Information will be displayed.

• Try searching landowner’s name (with birth and death dates if possible).
  • Or try searching for history of a geographical area, e.g. “History of Benton County Oregon” results in an online book by Fagan that has some biographies of early settlers.

Ancestry.com

Available at some libraries for public use, or get a personal subscription for $19.95/month for home use.

Click on “Search” and enter as much information as known.

“Family Trees” are most useful, but use with caution. Some trees contain erroneous information. One way to check is to pay attention to dates. E.g. someone cannot be born if both parents are already dead. “Historical Records” are reliable. “Stories” and “Photos” are very interesting but not always available.

Pat Wheeler is a forestland owner in Polk County and a Master Woodland Manager volunteer. Brad Withrow-Robinson and Amy Grotta are former OSU Extension Faculty, and Lauren Grand is an Associate Professor (practice) in the OSU Forestry and Natural Resources Extension program.

From Selecting and Buying Quality Tree Seedlings by Amy Grotta, Glenn Ahrens, and Max Bennett

Trees are genetically adapted to the environment in their area of origin. Thus, it is important to plant seedlings grown from seed collected from a location where the environmental conditions closely match those in your area. When ordering trees, geographic seed collection zones and elevation of origin are useful criteria to help match environmental conditions of the seed source with those of your planting area. Seed zones have been established throughout the Pacific Northwest region; they identify areas where growing conditions are similar (Figures 1a–d). Seed zones are often defined by geographic features such as mountain ranges, river drainages, and major valleys. Elevation of origin is an important aspect of your seed source. Elevation is normally noted by 500-foot elevation bands within the seed zone.

The original seed zone map developed in the 1960s (Figure 1a) is still valid and widely used in the nursery industry. The newer, somewhat larger seed zones developed in the 1990s (Figures 1b-d) are species-specific and based on more recent genetic research. Research and experience show that the wider seed movement allowed by the new seed zones does not pose a reforestation risk from planting maladapted seedlings. Pacific Northwest tree species have different amounts of genetic variation among populations. For example, Douglas-fir has considerable genetic variation among populations in different locations and has 16 zones in western Oregon under the new system. On the other end of the spectrum, western redcedar has little genetic variation among populations and has only four zones in western Oregon.

When ordering seedlings, specify the seed zone and elevation band for the area of your planting. Nurseries in the Pacific Northwest generally identify the seed zone of origin for planting stock using a code numbering system (Figures 1a-d). It is essential to understand the seed zone system and code numbers when ordering seedlings. The seed zone and elevation should appear on the label of every batch of seedlings. Do not accept unidentified seedlings. The location of the seed source of origin, not the location of the nursery where the seedlings are grown, is the information that is important for ensuring that your trees are locally adapted.

Staying within appropriate seed zones is especially important in areas where conditions change rapidly over a short distance, such as in the Cascade Mountains or in southwest Oregon. The climate in the Pacific Northwest generally becomes warmer and drier moving inland from the coast. Consider this when planting trees east or west of their origin. Never plant trees from one side of the Cascades to the other. Trees from lower elevations or from more southerly latitudes usually start growing earlier in the season compared to trees from higher elevations or more northern latitudes. This may increase their susceptibility to frost damage or fungal disease if they are planted at higher elevations or farther north. Trees from warmer, drier climate zones are likely more resistant to heat and drought.

When seedlings are in short supply, you may face a tradeoff between planting from a source outside your seed zone versus delaying your planting until the right seedlings are available. You should not move seed from more than one seed zone or one elevation band away from your planting area. Also, seed zones are usually narrower from west to east versus from north to south. Moving seed from west to east across seed zone boundaries risks poor adaptation to heat and drought; conversely, moving seed from east to west across boundaries risks poor adaptation to mild and moist conditions. In general, movement north or south is less risky. Often, the most prudent choice is to delay planting until you have the right seedlings. Remember, to maintain forest health over the long term you have to plant seedlings that are genetically adapted to your site. Failure to do so creates stands of poor growth that are chronically hit with insect and disease problems.

What is it?

The Oregon Biodiversity map viewer provides data on species occurrences and/or modeled distributions for Oregon’s important forest species and habitats. The data is aggregated and available for download at the 6th field watershed scale. The data can be accessed through the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Oregon Biodiversity Map Viewer.

Why?

To provide convenient public access to information about Oregon’s important forest species and vegetative habitats based on spatial geographic information systems (GIS) data compiled by The Nature Conservancy – for Oregon’s Statewide Forest Assessment and Resource Strategy. The data serves as an authoritative database on the distribution of threatened, endangered, sensitive, rare and other important species as well as forest vegetative habitats of high conservation value.

Access to the Data

Launch the Oregon Biodiversity Map Viewer for direct access to the data.

Use of the Data

The data is designed to give forest landowners the opportunity to achieve forest certification and state and federal natural resource agency requirements for considering important forest species and habitats in their forest management plans consistent with their goals, objectives and regulatory obligations.

Being assembled by 6^th field watersheds, the data is at a geographic scale (10,000 – 30,000 acres) that is proximately meaningful to small forest ownerships. The Relative Abundance attribute for each species or habitat present in a watershed provides a measure of the watershed’s relative importance to the overall distribution of the species or habitat in Oregon. Important forest species that are threatened or endangered, rare, sensitive or otherwise unique with respect to conservation priority are identified based on well accepted classifications. The data is designed to get private forest landowners to think about what could be on their property – either the possibility that an important forest species or habitat is present and they should look for it; or the possibility they could manage habitat in the hopes that the species can be supported.

The idea is, by knowing what is in the 6^th field forest watershed(s) that contains their land – landowners can investigate further the habitat needs/requirements of the species and see if there is a fit with their property consistent with their management goals and objectives.

Limitations

Presence of an important forest species or habitat in the 6^th field watershed(s) containing a forest property does not mean the important forest species or habitat is actually located on the property.  Further, the data is only available for those watersheds that contain at least 40% forest cover. Data is provided only for informational purposes.

Where to Get Help

For information about the Oregon Latitude and Longitude Locator, LocatOR – contact GISonline@Oregon.Gov.

To Learn More about Important Forest Species in Your Watershed:

• Identifying Priority Plants & Animals and Their Habitats – A Guidebook for Forest Landowners – A publication of the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.
• Csuti, Blair; A. Jon Kimerling, Thomas A. O’Neil, Margaret M. Shaughnessy, Eleanor P. Gaines, Manuela M. P. Huso.  Atlas of Oregon Wildlife – Distribution, Habitat, and Natural History.  Corvallis, Oregon:  Oregon State University Press.  492 pp.
• Woodland Fish & Wildlife Publications Page  – Publications on managing your woodlands for specific wildlife species.