Education
Oregon Websites and Watersheds Mission Statement
Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project, Inc.(ORWW) is an educational, nonprofit 501 c(3) corporation founded in Philomath, Oregon. The www.ORWW.org. website was launched in January 1997 and has been continuously online ever since. This organization and its educational projects and online content have been entirely funded by private businesses, landowners, individuals, associations, foundations, and volunteers with an interest in the long-term use and scientific management of Oregon's natural and cultural resources.
Mission statement: Oregon Websites and Watersheds Project, Inc. shows students how to use Internet communications and scientific methodology to help manage Oregon's natural and cultural resources. Students are encouraged to use computer technology, historical documentation, scientific reasoning, community outreach, environmental enhancement projects, and effective long-term monitoring strategies to help make decisions which affect Oregon's quality of life.
Education
Overview
The Elliott State Forest was created in 1930 specifically for the purpose of improving the quality of education for all Oregon grade school and high school students in perpetuity. It is truly Oregon's "Children's Forest."
In this spirit, and given the Forest's previously successful management history, Oregon Websites & Watersheds Project has proposed that "the Elliott" become a common "outdoor classroom" for all Oregon students and residents: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/
This effort, to date, has resulted in two ORWW educational websites; a comprehensive online history of the Elliott; a permanent and growing "Elliott State Forest" archive at Oregon State University; and an ongoing research relationship with Southwestern Oregon Community College's spring-term F251 Forest Recreation class: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/Recreation/
Another direct result of the original "Elliott State Educational Forest" proposal is this website and this webpage. Our current effort is to work with teachers and administrators around the state to develop a series of accredited K-12 educational modules, with the Elliott State Forest being the common focus.
Such modules can readily be created for a wide range of existing courses in such topics as Archaeology, Biology, Economics, English, Forestry, Geography, Geology, History, Mathematics. Politics, and Recreation, among others. These modules are being designed to accommodate distance learning, classroom, and possible on-site instructional environments shared by all Oregon K-12 students, parents, and educators.
The George Gould and Hattie McClay family at their Elkhorn Ranch home in 1886, located in what is now the heart of the Elliott State Forest.
Wayne Giesy, Jerry Phillips, and David Gould discuss the future of the Elliott from historical, political, scientific, and educational perpsectives at Jerry Phillips Reserve, July 8, 2017. Photo by Bob Zybach.
Elliott State Forest human history
The human history of the Elliott State Forest extends thousands of years, with the Umpqua River, Loon Lake, Tenmile Lakes, West Fork Millicoma and their connecting ridgdelines and water surfaces providing numerous destinations and travel routes.
The written history of the Elliott begins in 1850 with the establishment of a homestead, orchard, mill, and shipbuilding yard near the mouth of Mill Creek. The most comprehensive history from that time until 1996 was written by Jerry Phillips, who successfully managed the Forest until his retirement in 1989: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/History/Phillips/Phillips_1998-201.pdf
This history has been complemented by the photographs, land surveys, maps, diaries, and correspondence of the Gould and McClay families, who homesteaded the heart of the future Elliott State Forest from 1884 until 1915: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/History/Gould/
Beginning in 2017, the memories of Phillips, David Gould, Lionel Youst, and other knowledgeable individuals have been captured in a series of comprehensive oral history interviews and indexed transcriptions conducted by ORWW. These are available online and also stored at the OSU Elliott Forest Archive: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/History/Oral/Oral_History_TOC-2019.pdf
In recent years the history of the Elliott has been tied to environmental protests and legal decisions related to spotted owls, marbled murrelets, coho, and "old-growth" trees. Almost all active management and all income has been halted due to these actions and the State Land Board is currently trying to "decouple" the Forest from the Common School Fund and transfer management responsibility to OSU College of Forestry.
Spring Term 2018 Southwestern Oregon Community College F 251 Forest Recreation students on a field trip to the Elliott State Forest with Instructor Tasha Livingstone and "Field Guides" Jerry Phillips, David Gould, and Dr. Bob Zybach. West Fork Millicoma River "Elkhorn Ranch" Field Trip, April 23, 2019. Photo by Wade Gould.
NOTE: The views provided on the Keep The Children’s Forest website do not represent views of Southwestern Oregon Community College, nor should they be construed to imply that the college supports or opposes any specific public policy, legislation, or political candidate.
Student created recreational plans
Beginning with spring term 2018, ORWW has worked with Forestry Instructor Tasha Livingstone's Southwestern Oregon Community College's F251 Forest Recreation class to develop a draft recreation plan with Elliott State Forest as a focus: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/Recreation/2018_Plan/
This was the first recreation plan ever developed for the Elliott during its 88-year existence. The 2019 F251 class further refined the draft plan created by their classmates the previous year: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/Recreation/2019_Plan/
Dr. Bob Zybach, ORWW Program Manager, worked directly with Livingstone, her students, and a number of volunteer local experts to help develop the draft plan. Here is an article he wrote for Oregon Fish & Wildlife Journal regarding this project: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/References/Academic/OR_Fish_&_Wildlife/Zybach_20190621.pdf
The 2020 coronavirus pandemic abruptly changed plans for the spring F251 Forest Recreation class. It quickly became necessary to revise planned field trips and workshops to "distance learning" lectures and videotaped "virtual" field trips: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/Recreation/2020_Roads/
As with the earlier draft plans, the 2020 F251 student road and trail reports are being developed into a permanent ORWW educational website for the use of 2021 students and others with an interest in the Elliott State Forest.
Jerry Phillips at the site of the former Elkside Lumber Co. sawmill in Lakeside, Oregon, May 18, 2020. This was the first videotaped stop on the fourth "virtual" field trip for the SWOCC spring term F251 Forest Recreation class. Video-clip by McKenzie Peters, NW Maps Co.
Virtual field trips to the Elliott State Forest
This "virtual" field trip to the Elliott State Forest features Jerry Phillips just after his 93rd birthday. It is one of a series of five videotaped field trips prepared by ORWW and NW Maps Co. for the SWOCC 2020 F251 spring term Forest Recreation class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w50onM-62LY
These videotaped field trips with Phillips, David Gould, and other volunteer local experts were based on the six field trips taken by the 2018 F251 students, and subsequent five field trips taken by the 2019 F251 students: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/Recreation/Field_Trips/
The entire series of five 2020 videotaped "virtual" field trips and three "distance learning" SWOCC F251 workshop/lectures are contained on ORWWmedia, the educational ORWW YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1JyKCHg2GmHjLtQzXXDks4Rb-LE9HoJ-
Because of the continuing pandemic, three additional "distance learning" lectures are being prepared for the 2021 F251 classes. These will be coordinated with the five existing "virtual" field trips and designed as online modules that can be used for future classes at SWOCC and for other colleges, high schools, and interested students throughout Oregon.
Oregon Websites and Watersheds created this website at www.CougarPass.Org. It's full of fun facts and possible designs for renovating the last remaining lookout on the Elliott State Forest.
The Cougar Pass Lookout in the Elliott State Forest as seen on February 21, 2020. Handrails and floor boards are rotten, so it would be dangerous to climb today. This picture was taken with a drone. It shows an open hatch hole on the roof that lets rain directly into the cabin. The hatch cover is on the ground beside the tower, and no one has bothered to replace it.
Cougar Pass Lookout Education Center
One of nature's many secrets -- and one we will never find out -- is what the Elliott forest would look like if its system of four fire lookouts hadn't kept such good watch over the forest. We know the forest was periodically swept by catastrophic fires (see the Fires page for more details) prior to the 1910s when the fire lookout system was established, and from Jerry Phillips, we know the Cougar Pass lookout saw and reported on three huge fires, all north of the Umpqua River: the Smith River Fire in 1938, Weatherly Creek in 1951, and the Oxbow in 1966. So it's a good guess that without these four lookouts, the Elliott forest would look quite different today.
Other secrets come from how the Department of State Lands has quietly let Elliott forest lookouts rot and be vandalized; then it decided they were dangerous and had them removed or set on fire -- a truly ironic fate for a fire lookout. Only one lookout remains on the Elliott, the dilapidated shell of the Cougar Pass lookout shown nearby. The other three lookouts exist only in a handful of historical photos, memories of senior citizens, and some written descriptions.
In February 2020, we asked the Department of State Lands to look at our CougarPass.Org website and begin working with us to see how we might restore and convert the Cougar Pass Lookout into the Cougar Pass Lookout Education Center. We received this reply from Ryan Singleton, the DSL Forester in charge of the Elliott State Forest:
"It looks like quite a few folks have dedicated significant time thinking about and planning a Cougar Pass Lookout restoration project. Because of the potential transfer of the Elliott to Oregon State University, the Department of State Lands is unable to dedicate time and resources to a potential project at this point in time."
Later we found out another group of volunteers lead by Howard Verschoor had repeatedly tried to renovate the Cougar Pass lookout from 1999 to 2003. They received the same sort of brush-off. In the meantime, the last remaining lookout tower on the Elliott State Forest continues to rot and decay while volunteers are prohibited from helping to save it.
This sign and a wire fence surround the base of the Cougar Pass lookout.