How One Oregon Family Is Restoring Forest
When the Bootleg Fire swept through southern Oregon in the summer of 2021, the Dawson family watched as flames consumed nearly half of the 640-acre tree farm their grandparents had planted in the 1960s. Decades of careful management, thinning, and replanting were reduced to charred snags and ash in a matter of days. For a family whose identity and livelihood are tied to the land, the loss was devastating.
But the Dawsons did not walk away. Within months of the fire, they began working with Sustainable Northwest and the Oregon Department of Forestry to develop a post-fire recovery plan. The first step was salvage harvesting the dead timber before bark beetles could colonize the standing snags and spread to surviving stands. The revenue from the salvage sale helped fund the next phase: replanting with a mix of native species selected for drought tolerance and fire resilience, including ponderosa pine, western larch, and Oregon white oak.
The family also took the opportunity to rethink how they manage their land. Instead of the dense, even-aged plantations that had dominated the property, they are planting in clusters with wider spacing and retaining patches of natural regeneration where seedlings are already taking hold. The goal is a forest that more closely resembles the fire-adapted landscapes that once covered the region, with open stands of large trees that can survive low-intensity fire.
“We learned the hard way that a thick plantation is a tinderbox,” says Mark Dawson. “Our grandparents planted those trees because that was the best science at the time. Now we know better, and we owe it to the next generation to build something more resilient.”
Sustainable Northwest has helped the Dawsons access cost-share programs through the Natural Resources Conservation Service and connect with other family forest owners who are navigating the same challenges. Their story is one of many across the region where private landowners are leading the way in post-fire recovery, often with limited resources and little public attention.