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[man shouting] Oh, my gosh, it's beautiful!

Good morning, everybody!

- Whoo!

- Let's go it again!

Man: Nicely done!

Oh, yeah.

Fourteen and a half.

Yes!

That was awesome!

[cheering] There you go, up, up.

Narrator: Tonight on ''Oregon Field Guide''... We look at the legacy of what many Northwesterners remember as the Timber Wars.

If you enter this area, you may be subject to arrest.

Narrator: Thirty years after environmentalists and loggers battled over the protection of ancient forests like this... [saw buzzing] ...and over the timber jobs that supported towns across Oregon, what happened?

This was one of the most consequential environmental clashes of our generation.

And tonight we bring you three stories that look at where we are now... ...from three very different angles.

She's right up there-- you see her?

Narrator: We begin with a story about a bird.

There used to be a small bird that lived in the forest, quietly, and mostly unknown to the world.

But in the 1990s, the northern spotted owl found fame.

It became the very symbol of the Timber Wars, as activists fought to protect the old growth forest where it lived.

But if this battle was about protecting the trees to save the owl, did it work?

Turns out, this story got a lot more complicated in the decades since the owl last graced the headlines.

[twigs and branches snapping] Eric Forsman and Damon Lesmeister are hiking deep into the Siuslaw National Forest to check on a nest site.

They are two generations of wildlife biologists who have been leading the research of a bird that has been slowly vanishing from Oregon's old growth forests for the last 50 years...

The most controversial bird in US environmental history, the northern spotted owl.

[imitating owl calling] She's right up there-- you see her?

They just appear, oftentimes, just out of nowhere, and then it's just wow, they're here.

They look at you and their eyes are almost coal black, I mean, they're actually kind of a real dark brown when you get close, but they look, at any distance, beyond a few feet, they look black.

It takes you about one minute to really, you know, have a lot of passion for these birds.

Ed: The northern spotted owl once lived quietly and anonymously in northwest forests like this one.

In the 1970s Eric Forsman pioneered their study and learned that the spotted owl survived deep in the old growth forests, the same forests being logged to fuel the region's timber economy.

In the 1980s it became clear that the last patches of old growth forest on public lands were shrinking.

Timber interests pushed to keep cutting, but a growing environmental movement rallied to block them.

The spotted owl became the controversial symbol at the center of a political and economic conflict.

[people chanting] No more clear cut, no more clear cut!

Man on TV: To list the owl would be poor science and it certainly would mean economic disaster.

We feel it would mean betrayal by our own government.

[howling with other men, saws buzzing] Is timber not put here for man's use?

- You are a hypocrite, buddy!

- No, no...

There's going to be so many people that are outraged-- this is all-out war.

Somebody could be murdered in this whole event.

You know, people referred to it as the Spotted Owl Wars, and it was, in some ways, a war, it was, you know, very strong feelings on all sides and something that was not easily solved.

Man: They're gonna shut mills like this in Oregon and Washington down.

Ed: In 1990, the spotted owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and appeared in ''Life'' magazine, and even the cover of ''Time,'' and the issue became so embroiled that the president and vice president and cabinet came to Oregon for an unprecedented timber signing.

In 1994, the Northwest Forest Plan significantly limited logging old growth in national forests.

[tree falling] With the protection of the old growth habitat the spotted owls needed to survive, biologists like Eric hoped to see the owl's population stabilize, and even recover, but it didn't turn out that way.

Arriving to Oregon from the east coast came a new threat-- another owl, called the barred owl, invaded the spotted owl's home range.

Biologists aren't sure why they showed up, but the impact of their presence became clear.

Barred owls are larger and more aggressive than spotted owls.

They claim their nest sites, compete for food, harass, and will even kill spotted owls.

Eric: When we first started doing spotted owl research 50 years ago now, there were no Bard owls in these forests, and now they are virtually everywhere.

The crew spend a lot more time doing night calls because they can't find the birds anymore, they've gone, and so it's become much more difficult to do work on spotted owls.

Ed: This is the fifth season that Alaina Thomas has called for spotted owls.

Because the owls are active at night, and because they're territorial, biologists learned that if they hoot, the owls will hoot back.

Alaina: So this is the caller they use for surveys.

[owl hooting on recording] I wasn't here when the owls were all over at every site, so I don't know the experience of that, but I definitely had a lot more pairs in some of my sites than I do now, so I've seen kind of a decline.

[owl hooting on recording] It's pretty discouraging, I mean, it's... it gets harder and harder to do all of these sites, I kind of know that these populations are decreasing a lot, so it's kind of daunting to go out day after day and not hear anything.

Ed: Techniques that served the first generation of spotted owl researchers at night calling are harder and harder to use as the populations decline.

Damon: Here we have our Hexagon ID.

Ed: So Damon, the next generation of spotted owl scientists, has had to find other methods.

He's exploring a new field called bio-acoustics.

Damon and his graduate student Leila bring digital audio recorders into the forest.

This ID card is 497.

We're just recording, constantly, for four hour blocks, at dawn and dusk.

And this is the location time.

At any given station, we've got about 350 hours of recordings, so it would be very unlikely, in those 350 hours, for something that lives here that makes noise, to not make a noise.

Ed: The recorders collect so many hours of sound, it would take an individual a hundred years to listen to all of them in real time.

[birds chirping on recording] So the recordings come here, the supercomputer at Oregon State University, where the data can be crunched at lightning speed.

The computer analyzes the sounds and suggests what might be a spotted owl.

But Zac Ruff has to confirm which ones are actually spotted owls.

How many spotted owl confirmations did you have at this site?

Like, a dozen.

Ed: They're not just simply labelling spotted owl calls, but actually using the very latest artificial intelligence technology.

They're trying what they call the neural network to process the millions of forest noises and interpret which are actually the calls of spotted owls.

[high pitched sound on recording] Somewhat ironically, the computer mistakes the sound of logging for spotted owls.

Yeah, it's very mechanical sounding, yeah, you heard from logging equipment.

And this a perfect example of something that obviously is not a spotted owl.

The next time it encounters this, it won't get it wrong the next time.

Ed: Damon's work is creating new baseline data.

Years from now, other biologists could scan the recordings to identify other species and get a better understanding of the old growth forest biodiversity over time.

And so, really, we've come to an age where it's-- you think of it sort of next generation natural history.

[hissing] Ed: Although the potential for bio-acoustic research is encouraging, the hard reality is that the spotted owl has continued to decline, on a slow but steady course towards extinction.

By bringing the sounds of the forest into his lab, Damon has a front row seat to observe the change.

Damon: It's entirely possible that our last documented spotted owls may come through recordings.

For a forest to be fully functioning well as an ecosystem, spotted owls are a critical component of that, they're part of the forest and the forest is less without them.

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[trucks horn blaring] My name is Michael Bendixen, and I'm a photographer for ''Oregon Field Guide''.

I grew up in a small timber town called Philomath, Oregon.

You know, the smell of freshly cut wood, the 24/7 whine of sawmills-- these are things that don't leave you.

Timber is more than just about jobs, it's about the pride of working in the woods, it's about the pride of growing up in a small town.

We hope you see some of these things in this next story.

[clanking] Man: It's gonna be a little booger to get it off sometimes.

[metal clanging] I might have to say some naughty words here.

Okay, got that off.

We're getting some log cuts ready for the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo parade today, so we gotta get all the week's grime off of 'em, get 'em shined up, looking good.

For a few years there were not very many trucks in the parade, and here, lately, there's been quite a few of them, and I think it has helped bring some of the community spirit back to the town.

Philomath's been a timber town forever.

- I am Lisa Watkins.

- And I am Russell Watkins.

Together we own Russell Watkins Trucking.

Lisa: We normally do have a couple trucks in the parade, and I think it's a good reminder that there's a lot of family wage jobs here, in the timber industry, still.

[machinery clanging] Man: Are we ready for this?

It's a lot of chicken.

Eleventh, 12th, and 13th, we have our Philomath Frolic and Rodeo Celebration.

Will you go over and meet the port-a-potty guy...

It's the largest event our small community has.

Ready?

Set!

[whistle blows] [people cheering] A lot of frolic, a lot of party, a lot of activities for our community.

[explosions and cheering] Man: I think my favorite event has got to be the fish rodeo.

We take hay bales and we do, like, a square rectangle out of the hay bales, we put a tarp over that... Oh, my goodness!

[boy roaring] Woman: Go, buddy, go!

Good job!

Oh!

[crowd cheering] Woman: There you go!

Chris: They clean it right then and there.

Is that a nice one?

Wrap it in foil, put it on the grill.

We number them and keep them organized so they get their same fish back.

A little bit of lemon and they hand it back to the kids, they say, ''Here's your fish,'' it's like... ''Yeah, I caught my first fish, bare hands,'' you know?

And how many people can cay they caught a fish with their bare hands before?

All the kids in Philomath can.

[cows mooing] Philomath is a city of just under 5,000 people.

The timber side of it has always been a part of the Frolic.

[man on PA] Three, two, one, go!

[saws whirring] [crowd cheering] Man: I started this show because I just the sport, especially when you're in high school, because what better things to do than turn work into a sport?

[woman on PA] One, two, go!

[saws whirring] A lot of this stuff, we've turned it into competition.

Tony's got a big cheering section.

You know, it's all stuff they used to do back in the day, you know, they used to have to springboard up the butt end of the log just to get high enough on the tree to cut it down.

[crowd cheering] It's about a culture, of the timber industry and trying to keep it alive.

Doing things that men used to do in the woods and whatnot.

I've worked in the timber industry since 1983.

Make 'em count, hit 'em hard!

Rick: A lot of mills have gone away that used to be here, that's the biggest change.

There's almost no federal timber anymore-- there's some, but not like there used to be.

[woman on PA] One, two, go!

Woman: No matter what you think about logging, on whatever level, you can't live in Philomath and not acknowledge that that's what built this town.

Your general admission in these two sections...

The Frolic and Rodeo is a three-day event built around the [indistinct] Rodeo.

[man on PA] It's about five minutes to rodeo time.

[crowd cheering] Rick: We have typical rodeo events.

[crowd cheering] These guys are amazing athletes.

[indistinct voice on PA, crowd cheering] Man: The rodeo itself is an award-winning rodeo, and so it's a great show.

But half the people in that stand, they're not rodeo fans, right, they're Philomath fans going to a rodeo, they're not rodeo fans coming to Philomath... You got this.

Whoo!

I have a gentleman that puts on the mutton buster.

They bring in pretty hefty sheep... Woman: You excited, bub?

Yeah...

They actually put the kid on the sheep, put a helmet on him, and if he can stay on there for eight seconds... Man: You ready?

Right there.

They duplicate the idea of a rodeo.

[man on PA] ...six years old.

[crowd cheering] It's not going to be tall enough here.

- Perfect.

- Yeah, good.

[music playing on PA] - The parade lines up... - We start at the high school, we go down to Main Street... Woman: We take registration the morning of.

Man: It's a small town event that, if you want to be in it, they're in it.

I'm already registered, under the name of the Ouija Faith.

The craziness you've been seeing is all the parade entries coming in, getting-- the ones we knew were coming, getting them their numbers, the ones we didn't know were coming, getting them numbers.

[siren wailing and horns beeping] Woman: Some years I've been amazed that there's still people in Philomath to watch the parade, because we get so many people in it-- it's really kind of fun that way.

[cowbell clanging, parade music] Man: Everybody is in the parade for a reason, and the primary reason is showing off.

[indistinct voice on PA, hooves clopping] [truck horn blaring ''Shave and a Haircut''] Man: Looking good there.

Woman: There are a lot of log trucks.

Man: Thirty, 40 of them, just all lined up.

They're probably a third of the parade.

Woman: Some people get bored of looking at log trucks, I happen to think that's a huge part of what Philomath is.

[indistinct voice on PA] Man: For anybody who would question, I'd say, yeah, the logging industry is alive and well in Philomath right now, not that there aren't struggles.

We see it with the old mill sites that are now torn down and are empty and flat, but I think at the same time there's a lot of optimism for what's coming next.

[man on PA] Boy, look at this-- that's starting 'em young hauling logs.

[horns honking] Woman: Honk your horn!

[horns honking] How you doing?

They're our neighbors, the Dirksons.

[honking horn] It's people that you know in the community, it's their family members that are in the parade.

[horns honking] Oh, they're chanting your name.

It's not just another logging truck, it's ''Oh, I know them, I remember that truck from last year, oh, look at the size of the logs he got this year.''

And our old schoolteacher, Mr. Robinson.

Larry Smith and his wife, Dina.

All: Hi!

Hi, Janet!

What's so special about a logging truck going down the road?

It's our logging truck.

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In 2012, the last mill in Grant County was going to shut its doors, but then help came from a most surprising place.

After a forest fire, a succession of creatures flocks into the woods.

First come the beetles to eat the trees.

And then the woodpeckers follow, to eat the beetles.

Then, in many forests, the loggers come to cut down the trees, and the environmentalists follow to stop them.

But not in this stretch of eastern Oregon.

Get lower!

Aaron: Here, the loggers and environmentalists come into the woods together.

- Stop, stop there.

- Okay, now, go.

There's a Lewis's flying over there.

Lewis alert!

Aaron: This is the Blue Mountains Forest Partners-- they're a type of group called a forest collaborative, and they've been so successful at finding common ground, that environmentalists haven't filed a single anti-logging lawsuit in Malheur National Forest since 2003.

Woman: So, did this cancel out?

This is about as easy as logging gets.

I don't hesitate to say that this was the best sale we've had in years.

Aaron: It might not seem like a big deal to see environmentalists and loggers walking together in the woods, but in the northwest, it is.

If you enter this area, you may be subject to arrest!

Aaron: In the 1980s, environmentalists protested timber sales across the region, sparking what was called the Timber Wars.

[man screaming] Man on TV: Buried to their waist, chained at the neck, and encased in concrete, environmentalists blockaded this logging road leading to valuable old growth timber.

Aaron: By the late '90s they had managed to severely limit logging in federal forests... which crushed timber dependent towns like John Day.

I can't even name the amount of kids I grew up with that families lost jobs at the mill, lost whole logging companies and businesses started to close down.

Slowly but surely you start to wonder if you're going to be a ghost town at some point.

Aaron: Zach Williams' family goes back five generation in the area.

He watched their father close their sawmill, and he says locals blamed environmentalists for locking up the trees.

So there is logging that will not be completed.

It's important to note that we did challenge all of the area... Aaron: Susan Jane Brown is an environmental lawyer based in Portland who kept blocking logging on the Mahleur National Forest.

At that point in our lives, you know, Susan Jane Brown were extremely dirty words to say around here.

I certainly was concerned about my safety, at times.

I had been run out of town before, I'd been tailgated by pickup trucks, I've had air let out of my tires, you know, that sort of thing.

Aaron: So how did these two groups go from enemies... Man: The chickens are gonna cross the road.

Aaron: ...to tromping through the woods together?

What it took was a few locals realizing that they couldn't beat Susan Jane in the courtroom, so they invited her to Grant County to see if they could find some way to manage the forest that would meet both their goals.

Man: Let's get started!

Come on and sit down, please.

Man: Some of those early meetings were in a large room, industry and community members were on one side of it, environmental communities on the other, and we have a third party facilitator that's walking back and forth between us because we couldn't talk to one another.

It was that bad, almost, that poisonous.

Aaron: They couldn't agree on much, but they could agree on one thing-- they were going to follow the science, even if that meant questioning their core beliefs.

Mallory Davies gave us a tour of one of several studies initiated by the collaborative.

Mallory: This is the very edge of our research unit-- a large area, high intensity burn fire-- it was called the Canyon Creek Complex.

Aaron: Loggers historically rush in to harvest burned timber like this in what's called salvage logging.

To them, leaving wood to decay is like watching money rot on trees, to say nothing of providing fuel for future wildfires.

But to environmentalists and scientists, these dead trees are essential habitat for many animals, especially woodpeckers.

Mallory: This is our peep-through cam so we could peep nests that we can't reach by hand.

Aaron: So the Blue Mountains Forest Partners worked with the Forest Service to create this study.

They logged test sites at different levels, ranging from cutting no trees, to cutting most of them, and then they tracked how the woodpeckers fared.

Mallory: So on my monitor I can see that there are six white, tiny eggs on top of a little bit of wood chips.

So there's a possibility that they're still laying.

Aaron: The goal is to find a level of salvage logging that provides an economic benefit to the local community without compromising woodpecker habitat, and preliminary results suggest that selective logging has minimum negative impact on Lewis's woodpeckers and white headed woodpeckers, but that it appears to cause a slow decline in the nesting numbers of black backed woodpeckers.

We all took risks on this type of project, so I'm curious what folks think, and it's okay if you hate it.

Aaron: But nobody seemed to hate it.

Mark: When Susan Jane suggested salvage logging and, if I'm being honest, you know, I look at this burn, 110,000 acres and look at salvaging 5,000 of it and think, ''How's that really gonna harm habitat?''

And I'm not gonna say that I think any differently, necessarily, about that, but that's the point of collaboration, and if this is the kind of process we have to go through, then it worked.

Susan: I agree, and I-- I don't want this to be a one-off.

And we can do salvage, and we can take logs to the mill and people can earn a living wage, and we also don't have to kill a bunch of birds in the process.

Aaron: If the first ingredient of the Blue Mountains Forest Partners' success was following the science... Oh, my God, that's amazing.

Aaron: ...everyone agrees there was a second ingredient to their secret mix.

Oh, alcohol.

That's been partially a joke.

Susan: Sharing a beer or a bourbon or having a meal together is a really great way to break down barriers and to get rid of all of that baggage that we come to these conversations with, and it allows us to, you know, have some fun together.

Aaron: And like many trusted friends, that fun now includes being able to laugh at themselves.

Case in point.

It was Mallory and the field crew who made this pinata to celebrate the end of the study.

Man: A little higher-- go!

[crowd cheering] One more!

Aaron: Perhaps the greatest test of this partnership came in 2012, when Grant County's last sawmill announced it was closing for a lack of timber.

By then, science had convinced the environmentalists that selective logging was necessary to manage the overgrown forest, so they joined with the timber industry to support a long-term logging and restoration project to keep the mill open, create new jobs, and make the forest more resilient to wildfire and climate change.

Susan: In 2003, had you asked me if I ever would've felt this way about any of these people... no way, man, there's just no way, these people are crazy, um, but now they're my crazy.

They're my friends, I care about them, and just like any friendship, you want your friends to be happy and healthy and successful, and now that these folks are my friends, that's what I want for them.

[birds chirping] Ed: You can now find many ''Oregon Field Guide'' stories and episodes online, and to be part of the conversation about the outdoors and environment here in the northwest, join us on Facebook.

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