The Mystery Grove
Quiet Echo existed for hundreds of centuries as a mixed species forest following the slow rhythms of life and death, violence and peace, growth and regrowth. As a fire or landslide or disease killed and leveled the old growth fir and spruce, fast growing alder maple and myrtlewood jumped up to take the sunlight from the smaller brush species. Mixed in were slower growing cedar, fir and spruce which over a hundred years or so would out grow and crowd out the hardwood species. Within two hundred years the conifers would cover the forest with a canopy that eliminated light from competing trees. The forest had matured and waited for the next fire or landslide or disease.
Settlers first began cutting the forest at Quiet Echo in the 1870’s as a way of clearing creek bottoms for cattle grazing and to supply lumber for local construction. The property was used as marginal dairy farming land until the mid 1880’s when it was some of it was sold to an orchardist/vegetable farmer who grew a variety of crops for the local market. During this time the majority of the forest was logged for the first time. As logging technology advanced, other portions of the property were logged until in the late 1980’s when the majority of the second growth fir and cedar was logged again. Alder, spruce, maple, oak, myrtlewood and other “worthless” species were left standing. At no time was there any significant reforestation until the mid 1990’s, despite law to the contrary. The property had been subjected to short term harvesting and long term neglect for six generations.
Prior to the arrival of the blight, however, the settling of the American west meant that chestnuts were often planted in homesteads and farms from Wisconsin to California. Most often the trees did not survive in the drier and hotter climates found by the immigrants. Just as the Great American Desert and the Rocky Mountains were an insurmountable barrier to most eastern plants, American Chestnuts (and eventually the blight itself) found nearly all of the American West an unsuitable growing environment. Here and there, a garden tree might be successfully tended if the conditions were right, but easy success was rare.
 Who Planted the Mystery Grove?
No one can be absolutely sure who planted the original Quiet Echo American Chestnut Grove, but in 1886, a German immigrant named Anton Wirth purchased part of what has become Quiet Echo Farms. He spent the next 25 years on the property as a noted orchardist and apple breeder/producer. Due to the age of the trees, it is safe to say they were planted during his stewardship of the property. Most of the property was logged prior to his ownership, and he likely found bare hillside in need of planting. The original six trees were planted near what is thought to be the location of his homestead.
Nature and luck accomplished the rest. The trees liked the mild, wet climate and grew rapidly, producing nuts very quickly, seedlings jumping out of the ground (as the old timber folks say) in all directions. The process continues to this day. Unfortunately, Anton Wirth drowned before his time, and no kin have yet been found. The property changed hands many times, and went through various loggings the last of which were in the 1950’s and the 1980’s. In the local timber culture, nobody paid too much attention to the chestnut trees, seeing them as “’worthless hardwood species”, and so they were skipped over in the logging process.
The Mystery Grove Today
In the 1990’s a buyer purchased the property with full knowledge that the State of Oregon was demanding a major reforestation, and valid but underfunded attempts were made to plant trees. Roughly a third of the acrege was replanted during this period, always just enough to stay ahead of significant fines. Short term economics again ruled the day. When the buyer left the area, the property became available, and the Fisher family purchased it.
Today we have a healthy and reproductive grove of over 100 major American Chestnut trees and over a thousand smaller ones. Fall is always a riot of feasting by bear and elk, deer and coon, squirrel and human. The nuts are intoxicating. The forest stands tall and straight and mighty, drawing breath and awe from all who see it. It is a truly wild forest, forgotten for nearly 100 years in a remote canyon of coastal Oregon, a Quiet Echo of the glory that was the American Chestnut.
Forestry Practices and Woodland Management
At Quiet Echo, we practice positive impact forestry. Anything we undertake to do in our forest is done from the concept that:
A) The less done on the forest floor and in the forest the better. When we are in doubt about an action we watch, wait and learn. Forests are slow moving and humans are fast moving, a volatile mix. We try to keep machinery, people and livestock out of the forest.
B) An action should impact the forest, the soil, the wildlife, other plants positively, as much as possible. No tree or branch is cut without taking into account the surrounding environment and the potential positive impact of the action. This applies to road maintainance, stream restoration, planting, and brush control.
C) Forestry management is a changing science, faced with a changing social, political and economic future. Evolving practices of today may be found wanting in the future, just as past practices have been found wanting today. As in medicine, we believe in “First, do no harm.”
D) Forestry is best practiced long term. A year or two is usually no more than the blink of an eye in the forest, where twenty years is short term and one hundred to three hundred years is long term.
E) Forestry is ultimately an investment. There is nothing inherently wrong with benefiting from forest resources so long as the forest environment continues in a healthy and productive state.
At Quiet Echo, we harvest wood for lumber, furniture, woodturning and carving. We cut our own turning blanks and carving blocks. We also cut some figured lumber for custom furniture makers.
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