North Coast Land Conservancy starts second phase of Boneyard Ridge restoration project

Dec. 9—SEASIDE — The North Coast Land Conservancy has started restoring a 40-acre parcel of former timberland.

The land is one section of 340 acres the nonprofit purchased in 2016, known as Boneyard Ridge Habitat Reserve.

Acquisition of the parcel was significant because it closed the gap between the land conservancy's Circle Creek Habitat Reserve and the Elmer Feldenheimer State Natural Area adjacent to Ecola State Park, creating a contiguous network of 3,500 acres of conserved land on Tillamook Head.

It was also unlike other properties the land conservancy had purchased, since it required the nonprofit to venture into forest restoration.

Restoration of the 40-acre section, which is being completed this winter, is the second phase of the project, which aims to set the former tree plantation on a trajectory to become a well-developed coastal rainforest.

Melissa Reich, the nonprofit's stewardship director, said it also protects and connects important salmon and wildlife habitat.

"It was a really important project to increase connectivity and increase the conservation impact on Tillamook Head," she said.

The first phase of restoration began in 2019, when the land conservancy thinned a separate 70-acre portion of the 340-acre property. The previous owner clearcut the trees and densely replanted with homogeneous trees conducive for logging, Reich said.

And the spacing did not leave enough light or space for the trees to grow in a healthy way.

Reich said new trees were replanted with more space with the goal of increasing diversity in age and species. Habitat piles were also constructed to imitate large fallen trees to serve as interim habitat for wildlife.

In November, the nonprofit started the second phase, which includes selective thinning where trees are densely packed. The work is expected to continue through winter, after which Reich said the land conservancy will go back to plant cedar trees.

She said the 40-acre parcel takes about 45 minutes to hike to from the main road. Since the road leading to it was decommissioned about a decade ago, a trail had to be cleared to get to the site.

After the work is done, Reich said the trail may open to the public.

She said people would be able to access the trail from Circle Creek Habitat Reserve off of U.S. Highway 101 in Seaside and hike in to see what a forest restoration site looks like.

Colin Meston, the land conservancy's forester, said he hopes to give the acreage the characteristics of an old-growth forest through mimicking its essential features.

"Those are usually defined by large trees, lots of down woody material on the ground," he said.

Meston said that in old-growth forests there also tends to be a variety of ages and species of trees.

Right now the trees on the 40-acre parcel are homogenous and tightly spaced since they were planted to be logged, he said.

"We've found some priority areas that are kind of the thickest and the densest areas just to thin out to allow for some better growth of remaining trees and ... provide a little bit more of that sort of structural diversity," he said.