>> BRIAN HOEH FIELD RANGER SIUSLAW NATIONAL FOREST; This is a place filled with natural
beauty and cultural meaning, where the forest meets the sea.
Where old growth rainforests teem with life and ocean waves thunder against rocky shores.
Welcome to Cape Perpetua and welcome to the Siuslaw, your National Forest.
For at least six thousand years, the Alsea Indians lived along the coast at
Cape Perpetua, sustained by abundant mussels, crabs, clams, berries, plants and wild game.
Evidence of their lives can be found in the huge pits of discarded mussel shells called middens.
These important sites are protected to preserve cultural heritage in a partnership
between the Siuslaw National Forest and area tribes.
When early settlers arrived at the coast range in the nineteenth century, they
converted valley bottoms to farmland, and harvested trees to build their homes and lives.
During WWI, timber from Sitka Spruce forest became strategic material for new military
aircraft, and was harvested intensely around the cape.
Today's forest management emphasizes conservation of remnant old-growth forest
and ecological restoration, while providing economic benefits to surrounding communities.
Past management practices, focused on generating wood products, were unsustainable and reduced
forest resources, impaired watershed function, and endangered wildlife.
Today, agencies, organizations and community members work together to restore unique ecosystems.
One current project focuses on restoring watersheds to provide improved spawning and rearing habitat
for native salmon populations.
>> PAUL BURNS FISHERIES BIOLOGIST SIUSLAW NATIONAL FOREST; The restoration project isn't
just a coho project. It is a watershed project where we're restoring natural communities
that'll be really resilient to impacts in the future.
Real fortunate to have a great group of partners that have been real supportive
and work cooperatively on the project. All the way from initial design through implementation
and monitoring afterwards.
>> JIM GRANO COMMUNITY PARTNER; There are many places in this watershed now where we
can see trees that we planted fifteen years ago and they're thirty feet high. And I talked
to our partners and parents that were on there and they say the same thing I do, every time
we drive up and down the river we look over and see how the trees are doing. I believe
the students can do that to. There's a legacy here as well as important work being done.
>> HOEH; Exploration abounds for visitors hiking through forests dense with Western
hemlock and Sitka spruce towering over a lush understory chock-full of moss, lichen, fungi,
and flowering shrubs.
A ten minute walk transports Cape explorers from these serene old-growth forests
to coastal tide pools full of anemones, sea stars, mussels and urchins.
>> CARL BAUER DEPUTY DISTRICT RANGER SIUSLAW NATIONAL FOREST; The visitor center at Cape
Perpetua is one of four in the Pacific Northwest and we're honored to have that here.
That gives people another opportunity to view an area that the Forest Service is usually not
tasked to manage and that we have ocean front property here.
>> HOEH; Cape Perpetua is a landscape filled with beauty, inspiration, natural, and heritage
resources. Through partner and community stewardship, the Forest Service will continue its charge
to ensure this land remains healthy and productive for generations to come.