Highlights from the Corvallis Forest Timeline

The Corvallis Forest Timeline tells the story of an old-growth forest of giant Douglas firs, nestled deep in Oregon’s Coast Range on Marys Peak. Pure mountain streams flowing from this watershed became a prized source of drinking water for the city of Corvallis in 1905.

At first, the city’s overseers fiercely protected the Corvallis Forest from rampant logging by railroad companies and other private timber interests. Congress came to Corvallis’ aid by purchasing thousands of acres of forestland for watershed protection.

Around 1952, a series of events—detailed in this timeline—would transition the city from watershed protector to watershed exploiter. By 1962, the city would be fully engaged in revenue-driven clearcutting, which would remove half of the old-growth in the 2,352 acre Corvallis Forest. The city would become dependent on timber revenue to fund its water system.

This logging heyday was briefly interrupted in 1973 when an Oregon State University grad student named Eric Forsman detected three spotted owl nests in the Corvallis Forest. Forsman’s pleas to leave the old-growth alone for the owl were publicly dismissed by the city, hatching a nationwide controversy. In 1989, it seemed nothing would stand in the way of logging by the revenue-hungry city of Corvallis, which had logged the Corvallis Forest for more than $30 million in timber revenue.

But something did happen…in 1991 the spotted owl was finally awarded legal protections, which shut down the city’s logging until 2007. When they started up again, they changed their message to say that logging improved “forest health.” Under that guise, the city continued revenue-driven logging through 2019. In 2020, the city placed a hold on logging after citizens complained about the lack of public oversight.

In 2023, with climate change & the global extinction crisis upon us, a new plan for the Corvallis Forest is in the works. Will the city continue with business-as-usual logging or will it conclude—as many environmental groups and residents are demanding—that commercial logging must be abandoned in favor of watershed protection and carbon storage?

The Corvallis Forest Timeline reveals:


• Failure of city government to recognize the value of an intact forest as natural infrastructure for drinking water.

• Community efforts to stop the environmental assault on this city-owned forest.

• How the U.S. Forest Service has influenced the forest management practices of the City of Corvallis.

• News articles, scientific research and government reports and that shed light on the threats to drinking water from current forest practices.

• How the city has kept the Corvallis Forest closed to the public, ostensibly to protect water quality, but effectively keeping the public from observing what was happening there.

• Failure of city government to genuinely consider public comment in watershed management decisions affecting forests management and drinking water.

The Corvallis Forest Timeline was authored by Betsy Herbert, Ph.D. to document the history of the Corvallis Forest and the community efforts to protect it. This timeline is constantly revised as new information becomes available. Please contact the author through this website to offer comments or suggestions.