ORWW Elliott State Forest: Recreation

Elliott State Forest Recreation

Roger Ott, fishing on Gould's Lake, ca. 1951. This picture was taken by Don Stonehill, who hiked with Roger to fish the Lake from Glenn Creek, above Golden Falls. According to Ott, they caught dozens of "under-sized" trout he theorizes were caused by overpopulation: "I don't think there was a legal fish in [the] bunch but it was a long time ago and we ate all the evidence . . . I don't know much about these things but always figured there were more fish than food, they were definitely hungry."

During the 2018 school year the F 251 Forest Recreation class at Southwest Oregon Community College (SWOCC) participated in a series of six field trips as the basis for devloping an education-based draft recreation plan for the Elliott State Forest. Student consideration was that an "Elliott Forest Recreation Area" should include recreational opportunities on adjacant lands surrounding the Forest, specifically: the Umpqua River to the north; the Tenmile Lakes basins east of Highway 101 to the west; East Bay Road, Coos River, Allegany, and Golden and Silver Falls to the South; and the historic pre-WW I automobile route from Allegany to Scottsburg on the east. During the 2019 school year the SWOCC F 251 students further developed the previous year's draft plan, but reduced the number of field trips to five in the process by consolidating the Tenmile Lakes and Dean Mountain trips. Student recommendations from the two draft plans focused on the poor roqad conditions and lack of directional signs on the Elliott as impediments to educational and recreations uses (Zybach 2019) and the focus of the 2020 F 251 class was the historic nature and condition of the Forest's road and trail networks. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the need to create "distance learning" formats of the "virtual" field trips and workshops: www.orww.org/Elliott_Forest/Recreation/2020_Roads.

"I'd been vaguely aware of the Forest’s existence since attending Oregon State College, where it was described in college literature as an undeveloped State-owned forest of young timber lying between Coos and Umpqua Rivers, dedicated to educational purposes." (Jerry Phillips 1998: iii)

	2018 SWOCC Draft Forest Recreation Plan. Instructor Tasha Livingstone's 2018 spring term SWOCC F251 Forest Recreation class consisted of 12 students who took part in six four-hour field trips with a number of local experts, including Jerry Phillips, David Gould, Marty Giles, Mike Mader, Bob Mahaffy, Gary Vonderohe, Antonio Salgado, Cathy Reiss, Peggy Croce, Gordon Ross, and Barbara Taylor. The purpose of these trips was to help students develop a first draft recreation plan for Elliott State Forest, based on advice and information provided by knowledgable local experts.
	2019 SWOCC Draft Forest Recreation Plan. Instructor Tasha Livingstone's 2019 spring term SWOCC F251 Forest Recreation class consisted of 7 students who took part in five four-hour field trips with a number of local experts, including Jerry Phillips, David Gould, Antonio Salgado, Sam Schwarz, Melissa Dugan, Joe Stoneburg and hosted by Bob Zybach. The students also took part in three four-hour research and writing workshops, during which the 2018 Draft Plan, the 2019 field trips, related lectures, and consultations with Zybach, Phillips, and Gould formed the basis for reviewing and improving the 2018 draft by placing greater focus on Recreation Economics and Recommendations.
	2020 SWOCC "Virtual" Roads and Trails Report. Instructor Tasha Livingstone's 2020 spring term SWOCC F251 Forest Recreation students were directly affected by stringent coronavirus pandemic regulations abruptly adopted a few weeks before the start of classes. Planned field trips were eliminated and there was no way to conduct group workshops, as with previous classes. Instead, a series of ORWWmedia videotapes were quickly constructed to depict five "virtual" field trips and to present ORWW "distance learning" workshops. Students focused on the principal recommendations made by their 2018 and 2019 predecessors and developed a detailed report on the history and signficiance of the Elliott's 550 miles of rock roads and its abandoned trails.
	Educational Field Trips. PDF reference files, itineraries, maps, and photographs of six four-hour (from Coos Bay) educational field trips focused on recreational opportunities for local residents and outside visitors. The tours were designed to introduce students and visitors to the Elliott from the perspectives of local history, business, geology, biology, ecology, and politics. Primary destinations were: Elkhorn Ranch; Millicoma Fish Hatchery; Tenmile Lakes; Loon Lake; Golden and Silver Falls; and Deans Mountain.
	History. Fire, family, windstorm, and wildlife history of the Elliott, with a focus on the published works of Jerry Phillips, Aileen Rickard, Lionel Youst, and the accumulated written and photographic records of the George Gould-Hattie McClay family and descendants.
	Maps. These JPEG and PDF maps have been selected from reports, magazine and news articles, government records, and other documents contained on this website. They show the Elliott in reference to the State of Oregon; in relation to the other State Forests; legal boundaries; streams; topography; subbasins; fire history; early historical Oregon Indian Tribes; roads and trails; marbled murrelet, spotted owl, and coho habitat; and tree ages. Elliott map links include Zybach articles, Phillips book, 2018 draft recreation plan, and the 2019 draft recreation plan.
	Photographs. These JPEG photograph files have been provided by Jerry Phillips, taken from ORWW reports and articles by Dr. Zybach, donated or published by members of the Gould family, selected from the public domain, obtained during student field trips, and/or from other willing sources. The images are specific to the Elliott Forest and adjacent lands and are freely available for student use and public display. We ask that photograph sources and photographer names are properly cited for such uses.
	Wildlife. Native and exotic wildlife populations of the Elliott, including vertebrate and invertebrate aquatic and terrestrial animals historically and/or currently present in the Forest. SWOCC students in 2018 developed comprehensive listings of the Elliott's native mammal populations and of its native and exotic wild bird populations.