Quick Facts
	Did You Know That.... Some of the most beautiful forests in Oregon are managed forests. Wildfire, disease, and insects can wipe out large portions of forest land. Good management can prevent or help control these problems. Many people use managed forests for recreational purposes. Hunters, campers, bikers, horseback riders, hikers, etc. all enjoy the benefits of managed forests. 65,000 Oregonians work in the forest products industry. There are many damaging agents in a forest. They include: people, wind, flooding, drought, frost, snow, fire, animals, lightning, insects, diseases,and, land slides. Forests restore and recover naturally and with good forestry practices. Starker Forests grows many different types of trees including: Douglas-fir, maple, ponderosa pine, hemlock, grand fir, alder, chinquapin, madrone, yew, spruce, and cedar. In 1900, less than 10% of the landscape was large timber. The average person uses at least a tree a year in paper, toilet paper, toothpaste, grocery bags, packaging, cartons, parmesan cheese, etc. The average Douglas-fir tree weighs between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds at harvesting time. The average Douglas-fir tree is about 150 feet tall at harvesting time. It takes about 11 trees to build the average home. Most of the houses in the United States are made from wood. Oregon's state tree is the Douglas-fir. There are a few ways to tell the age of a tree, counting its whorls (layers of branches), boring a sample and counting the dark stripes from the middle, or by counting its rings after it has been cut down. Rings are formed in a tree by its growth during the year. Summer wood is dark, and Spring wood is light. It changes color by the rate of growth and how close together the cells are. The space between the layers of branches shows the growth for one year. Trees produce oxygen when they grow which helps us breathe. Douglas-fir trees have fir cones, not pine cones.