Chris Rush, botanist and member of South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership

Chris describes the work of the South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership in the area of Tiller Oregon, such as Oak habitat and fish habitat restoration. Chris describes some of the reasons there were only 30 Coho salmon returning up the South Umpqua this year. Only 30 South Umpqua Coho left! One problem is the industrial private land logging in the watershed, with too many roads and too small riparian buffers. Chris describes the problems with aerial herbicide spraying on industry land, with examples of over-spraying. Chris gives a list of alternative ways to treat invasive and noxious weeds. Chris was the first woman ever to work work in the field in the Tiller Ranger District of the Umpqua National Forest. Chris was even the tree-planting director and inspector for an all-woman's Hoedad contract in 1980 that I worked on in Tiller, when I first met Chris. Finally, Chris reports that the health of the Tallest Sugar Pine Tree in the world is good, and how the Forest Service saved it from an act of vandalism in 1998, and how it is protected from forest fires today. For more information on the work of the South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership, see SURC.org.