Trees Fall

We live on the northwest side of Portland, Oregon, about elevation 500 feet, with the ridge line of the Tualatin Mountain Range rising to over 1000 feet to our north. Skyline Drive runs along the crest, with Forest Park to the northeast. Straddling Skyline Drive and to its southeast, homes lie on large wooded lots, and a few open fields slope down toward the populated areas of Cedar Mill, Bethany, and West Union.

This relatively short mountain range does not protect us from periodic wind storms funneled westward through the Columbia River Gorge. Further south, much of Beaverton is less vulnerable to these winds, and elevations are only around 200 feet.

But January of 2024 brought unusually high winds to the area, accompanied by rain, snow, and ice, lasting several days. Wind gusts reached 55 miles per hour. Such wind is nothing compared to hurricanes, but Oregon doesn’t get those. Anomalous weather causes damage.

Trees went down all over the urban area. Big trees. Many of these cut through houses like hot knives through butter. One of our friends was visiting neighbors across the street when a hundred-foot-tall Douglas Fir came crashing into her home, across her bed, and smashing down the kitchen sink. It came from the back of the house, and here is a view from the front:

The 2.5-foot diameter section where the men are standing pokes out the kitchen window where the sink had been. That spot is about 85 feet from the tree’s base. Let’s go around for a look. The following video shows the upended roots with a tree diameter of over 4 feet at the base. The tree was cut off in the middle of the backyard. Plywood covers the back of the house where it had sliced in.

The cross-section is 4 feet where the tree was cut (about 25 feet from the house. It was about 105 years old.

A cedar deck behind the house got stabbed by a branch as the tree fell into the house.

Although the high wind event takes the brunt of the blame for such fallen trees, in this case, the tree had been in a small grove of suburban trees. A few years earlier, several other trees were taken out to make room for houses. This may have deprived the remaining trees of some protective support.

A second house in another area west of Portland fared far worse. That house sat in a grove of Douglas Firs, which had been safely standing for decades. The grove did not have enough group support and went down en masse.

The front of the same house shows that some of the trees rested on the roof.

How did the trees fare in Forest Park, left wild and free? Even under normal conditions, many Forest Park trees die and rot in a standing position, providing homes for owls and woodpeckers.

The forest contains evidence of the full cycle of growth, death, and regrowth—the stumps left behind by fallen trees sometimes “nurse” new seedlings to life.

All year round in Forest Park, trees shed branches that sometimes stab the ground impressively. Even small branches seem to have no trouble going into the ground five inches, as seen below. Presumably, it was vertical when it fell and leaned over later.

Watch me pull it out. (This happens all over the forest. Be observant and you’ll notice them.)

Some trees tried to help others stay upright.

The 2024 ice storm event caused significant tree falls. Park maintenance personnel were quick to cut trees off of the trail. The footbridge damage below will have to wait.

Two trees fell across the Wildwood Trail, cut to allow hiker passage.

Fresh cut Douglas Firs allow for easy counting of rings.

Is all this due to climate change? Maybe! Something is changing. Maybe Western Oregon is going to look like the grassy bare hills of California west of I-5 south of the Bay Area.