Combination of warmer weather, lack of water and insect infestations killing thousands of trees

By Damian Mann for Ashland.news

Vast stands of Douglas fir above Ashland are dying at an alarming rate.

After a prolonged dry spell, large reddish swaths on lush hillsides appeared this spring, painting a startling picture of the accelerating death of Oregon’s official state tree, a sight easily viewed from the streets of Ashland.

In some areas, 50 percent or more of the trees on a hillside are dead or dying and now pose a significant fire risk.

“I have lost 90% of my Douglas fir,” said John Maurer, who owns 20 acres just a short distance uphill from Southern Oregon University, near upper Roca Creek. “I’ve never seen that rate of demise.”

He and other neighbors have worked with a local forester to remove trees that succumbed to the ongoing drought, the warmer winters, the hotter summers and a beetle infestation.

Climate change predictions indicate the hotter, drier conditions could continue, compromising forests into the future.

From his property, Maurer said an even bigger immediate problem is the dead firs on the hillsides on city-owned land adjacent to his property.

Pointing to an area far larger than Lithia Park, Maurer said the dead trees pose a significant fire danger to not only Maurer and his neighbors but to the town of Ashland itself.

Maurer and other neighbors have another concern. They’ve confronted homeless people in the hillsides who light campfires during the summer months.

If a fire erupts in the clumps of dead firs it could easily threaten the Ashland watershed just over the mountain from Maurer’s property.

The Ashland Creek watershed is the source of the city’s drinking water and flows into Reeder Reservoir.

Maurer has a road system around his property that makes it easier to remove the downed trees over the past month, but removing dead trees on other steep hillsides would be a costly and difficult endeavor.

The grim task of getting rid of his firs to minimize fire danger was not an easy decision for Maurer, who has lived on his property since 1986.

“I feel like I know every tree on my property,” he said. “They’re like my babies.”

So many trees have been removed that Maurer has a clear view toward Medford, something he didn’t have before and something he’s still getting used to.

Worried about fire danger, Maurer installed a $15,000 pond that can be used by fire-fighting helicopters.

Over the years, Maurer has seen fires erupt on the hillsides near him, but were kept at bay by fire-fighting crews.

While the reddish trees are a clear signal of fir tree death, the process of a tree dying takes a lot longer.

“When they turn visibly red, that’s a full six months after they’ve died,” Maurer said.

Firs that he’s taken out have been compromised by beetles or showed other signs that they were dying, including tree sap flowing down the trunk where beetles have bored inside.

Doug firs require about 40 inches of rain a year to thrive, but Ashland has been getting far less than its normal of just under 20 inches of rain annually for almost a decade. This year, another drought declaration was issued for Jackson County.

Across the state, Doug firs are dying in record numbers, sometimes referred to as “Firmageddon,” a portmanteau that initially referred to the die-off of white firs.

A U.S. Forest Service survey in 2022 found fir die-offs occurring on more than 1.23 million acres in Oregon and Washington.

“It’s been a little bit of a stealth problem in our area the past couple of years, but this year it’s been more visible,” said Max Bennett, who retired last week from the forestry division of Oregon State University Extension Service.

Bennett, considered an expert on local forests, said Doug firs will continue to die at accelerating rates as the drought continues.

He cited a 2021 survey that he developed with other officials of four different field sites in the Applegate, Gold Hill, Canyonville and around the Ashland watershed that showed some 20% of the trees in those areas were dying.

He said fir die-offs like Ashland is seeing will likely be visible throughout the region this year.

Bennett cited another study that estimated between 1975 and 2019 nearly a half-million trees were killed by the flatheaded fir borer, and more trees died from 2015 to 2019 than in the previous four decades.

Joe Powell, an Ashland forester who has worked at Maurer’s property over the past month, has been removing dead trees from a number of private properties just above town.

Powell said the flatheaded beetles have multiplied in the dense foliage above Ashland, taking advantage of the weakened conditions of firs struggling to survive in the increasingly hotter climate.

By removing dead and dying firs on Maurer’s property and opening up the hillside, it should help remaining firs survive. Maurer has a few firs around his house that appeared to be healthy, likely benefiting from watering of other plants.

Powell said the die-off this year has been particularly pronounced, though not unexpected given the drought conditions.

“At the rate we’re going, I’d estimate 95% of the Doug firs in Southern Oregon will be gone in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

His estimate is for the trees growing at an elevation of less than 4,000 feet, where rainfall is typically lower and temperatures are higher.

A 2021 heat dome over Southern Oregon that shattered records likely was one of the last straws for the Douglas firs, with the trees slowly dying over the past few years. One of the tell-tale signs of a tree that is about to die is an abundance of Douglas fir cones produced at the end of the life cycle.

Rather than dwell on a gloomier future, Powell said that historically the hills above Ashland were home to more oak, madrone and Ponderosa pine trees, with only a few Douglas firs in draws and near water sources.

On Maurer’s property, small madrones, a more drought tolerant species, are already growing quickly.

Powell generally takes the long view of the problem, saying some ecosystems such as Southern Oregon historically had frequent fires while other wetter areas, including in Canada, had significant wildfires every 400 years.

In the past, wildfires were a part of the life cycle of the local forests until modern fire suppression limited their impact. Native Americans also used fire to help burn off undergrowth and prevent more catastrophic wildfires, he said.

Most of the property owners he’s worked with seem to understand the need to remove a large number of trees, even trees that still have some green on them.

“Nothing makes me feel worse than leaving a property and having trees that die six months later,” he said.

Powell said clearing out the deadwood will ultimately lead to healthier forests. He tries to salvage as much as possible to pay for his work through the sale of fallen timber.

Other property owners sometimes pay several thousand dollars to have a single tree removed but don’t want to log other dead or dying trees on their land, he said.

Some trees he cuts down are filled with bore holes, making them less marketable to the timber industry. Other trees are cut into lengths that can be turned into lumber.

Even after spending almost a month cutting down trees on Maurer’s property, Powell is surrounded by other dead or dying trees on neighboring properties.

He said he has a personal interest in trying to ensure a healthier forest above Ashland since he lives with his family in town. (Powell can be reached at 541-621-0511.)

Brian Bolstad, battalion chief with Fire District No. 5, said, “All those standing dead trees are a problem.”

He said property owners should also pay attention to removing ladder fuels, which include grass, shrubs and other vegetation under trees to prevent crown fires.

But dealing with the problem, particularly on the thousands of acres above Ashland, with many houses in the woods and many more abutting forests, is a big one.

“It’s like a web of concerns,” Bolstad said. “Our woodland urban interface is massive.”

He said property owners need to be more proactive.

“People need to manage their land,” he said. “With climate change, I don’t see any end of this.”

Reach writer Damian Mann at [email protected].