(birds tweeting)
- [Narrator] Getting back to Opal Creek after the fire
isn't easy for me and photographer Todd Sonflieth.
The forest surrounding it is closed to the public
and its trails are riddled with downed trees
and washouts like this one.
The only reason we're allowed in
is because we're going with some folks
from the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center.
- This will be the first time
that we've hiked in with a special use permit
from the Forest Service.
And we have a somewhat special relationship
because we're property owners and inholders
of that property inside forest service land.
And so that gives us access that others don't have.
- [Narrator] Like us, Dwayne wants to see what's left
of his group's educational center at Jawbone Flats,
and how the enchanting forest surrounding it has changed.
The Opal Creek Wilderness covers more than 20,000 acres
of the Willamette National Forest east of Salem.
It's home to one of the largest old growth forests
Oregon has left.
- [Marty] So we're, we're in a pretty old part
of the forest here.
- [Narrator] And it's lured field guide
back again and again.
This is what the area looked like in 1998,
after it was first set aside as wilderness.
We went back again in 2007.
- [Woman] Get him before he goes away! There you go.
- [Narrator] As Opal Creek was building a reputation
as one of the best places in the Northwest
to learn firsthand about ancient forests.
- [Woman] What kind of newt?
- [Kid] Rough-skinned!
- [Woman] Rough-skinned newt, that's right!
- This is Cedar Flats.
These big ones are close to 800 to 1,000 years old.
- [Narrator] Field Guide photographers
always looked forward
to filming luminous pools like this one,
crystal clear and completely protected
in an unlogged watershed.
Then, in August of 2020,
lightning sparked the Beachie Creek wildfire
in the heart of the wilderness,
just two miles away
from the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center.
- [Responder] 911, what is your emergency?
- [Woman] We need help in Gates!
There's a fire coming up in the neighborhood.
It's huge!
Oh my God! Oh my God!
- [Narrator] The fire raced through the forest
as well as communities up and down the Santiam Canyon.
Altogether, it burned nearly 200,000 acres of land.
It destroyed hundreds of homes
in the nearby towns of Detroit, Gates and Mill City.
And it killed 5 people.
That's a lot to recover from.
As hard as it is to get to Opal Creek this time around,
we know it'll be even harder
to see what the fire did to the place
so many Oregonians know and love,
and can't visit right now.
Dwayne says there's still serious safety risks in the area,
including some fires still burning underground
almost a year later.
- The forest is still closed and for good reason
because there are still flare ups happening in the forest
and you know, still additional dangers.
- [Kauffman] This is interesting.
Here's a western red cedar that survived.
Here's a little huckleberry that's still alive.
- [Narrator] Fire ecologist Boone Kauffman
brought some much-needed optimism.
- Just envision, six months ago it was flaming here.
It was probably 1,000 degrees at this site,
and you can see how much of the forest floor was consumed.
Yet so many of the plants survive
even those harsh conditions.
A few years, I would envision this area
just will be loaded
with beautiful white plums of this bear grass.
Virtually all of the plants and animals of these forests
evolved to survive and even thrive
and quite often even depend upon fire
for their survival and for their reproduction.
This is nice!
You look here real closely,
here's a small little conifer seedling.
And look, here's another one.
You can tell that's a Douglas fir,
it has that little mouse tail.
There's the little Douglas fir seedling coming out.
So you see that as quickly as the forest is destroyed,
the seedlings come right back.
It's magnificent, isn't it?
- [Narrator] As we get closer to Jawbone Flats,
we start seeing evidence of the old mines
and the miners who used to live here.
- [Gleason] It looks really different now.
- Oh, look at that.
- [Narrator] Auggie Gleason
manages the Ancient Forest Center facilities.
He's the first to notice that the fire burned
the last remaining cabin in this abandoned mining camp.
- It was one of the most beautiful cabins
actually out here.
- So it was actually a lived-in cabin?
- This was more than just one building.
This had covered walkways.
Rails to the mine and down to that mine.
It was a whole town, too, just like Jawbone was right here.
- [Narrator] Some of the surrounding forest
is still alive and green.
But arriving at Jawbone Flats is heartbreaking.
The fire leveled all of the original 1930s
mining camp buildings.
It's hard to tell the difference
between the rusty old mining equipment
and things the fire only recently destroyed.
- [Kauffman] So was that an old wrecked vehicle?
- No, that was my Suburban.
This is our Pelton wheel,
this is basically where our hydropower came in.
- [Narrator] Field Guide filmed this exact spot in 2007
on a tour with facilities director Adam Mims.
- We have about 3/4 of a mile of pipe
that brings this water downhill.
It's all gravity fed.
- [Narrator] Back then, it was the perfect place
to scoop out a refreshing cup of water
from nearby Flume Creek.
But there's no water flowing through it now.
And it's unclear whether that water source
will still be usable after the fire.
When we visited in 2007, the commissary building was new.
Now, its shattered solar panels are among the rubble.
This was a renovated cabin we toured.
- We have a new stove, on-demand hot water heater.
- [Narrator] Now, that's all gone.
And the only remaining cabin is this one.
The good news is it was untouched by the fire,
so our crew has sleeping quarters for the night.
- This cabin is not one of the originals.
It's great to have a cabin left.
We may decide to expand it to build a new lodge
or some other purpose.
It certainly will stick around.
- [Narrator] Only from the air
that you can get the full sense of how large
and destructive this fire was.
The right side of this ridge is the Opal Creek drainage.
You can see that Jawbone Flats is actually a bit of an oasis
in a landscape that was scorched.
We join Dwayne as he hikes
to one of his favorite spots on Opal Creek.
- I think hope was the thing that we had
once the sadness faded away.
The beauty of the water is the same
and it's running just as clear and blue,
the surroundings are torched but the waterway
is still there and there's still trees around it.
- [Narrator] Along the trail you can see the remains
of the old mining camp office.
- Cabin one which was the original office
for the mining company sat a little bit up on stilts
and looked over a waterfall on Battle Ax Creek.
It had this beautiful deck,
it was my favorite
because you had that just amazing setting in the forest.
There was of course the sadness of the loss,
the buildings were touchstones for memories for people
and you know, I remember sitting there with a friend
and talking about going to Opal Pool.
- [Narrator] We had to brace ourselves
for what the famously photogenic Opal Pool
would look like now.
- Yeah, the bridge was over here.
- [Narrator] It is a chilling sight.
The forest surrounding this pool was obliterated.
And the iconic bridge we'd walked across
on an earlier visit is gone.
- This is one of the main destinations for people
that came came here to stay with us and also for hikers.
- [Man] Three, two, one.
- Oh that's cold.
- This was the hardest thing to look at
when I first came here
was just the intense devastation of the fire.
It's still hard to see.
- Boy, this is a very incredible sight.
- [Narrator] Boone says the fire
killed almost all of these trees,
many of which were between 100 and 200 years old.
- This would be clearly a stand replacing high severity,
highest severity fires you'll ever see
because of the what must have been
about the most extreme weather
that could have ever occurred during a fire
in the western Cascades.
To have not only killed such a high proportion of the trees,
but to have blown them over.
- [Narrator] But even here, where the fire wiped out
so much beautiful scenery, Boone finds hope.
- If you look at the last few trees
that are still standing are still green,
they survived the fire.
And then if you look at the understory though,
you can see the understory is starting to sprout,
it's coming back to life.
You have snow brush, you have the salal here.
What you see is you can just see the dozens
of conifer seedlings.
These are Western hemlock seedlings
and have all come in the first year.
So while it looks devastating to many people,
these species have evolved over millennia.
And now we have the future forest right before our eyes.
- [Gleason] This is Cabin nine.
- [Narrator] For Auggie, this visit is especially personal.
- [Gleason] This is my (indistinct).
This was made out of a propane tank.
- [Narrator] As a staff member, this was his home.
- It's intense.
Here's my rifle.
- [Narrator] He took these photos as the fire burned closer
and closer to Jawbone Flats.
He regrets not taking more with him when he evacuated.
- We were supposed to leave and I said,
"Okay, let's get out of here.
Let's just leave."
I felt like I was coming back.
It's like an optimist to a fault, you know,
I'm very hopeful.
I just saw this place being here no matter what.
And so I left all my tools.
I left everything.
It seemed like the whole state was on fire
and it was very, very difficult
because we had nowhere to go.
We didn't know what to do.
That's what this brings up for me.
Because I took care of these buildings as well.
This is George's cabin.
- [Narrator] A painful loss for Auggie
and many others was the death of George Atiyeh.
- He was in cabin eight right next to me
and we could always kind of see each other.
- You can see that they are hitting it pretty hard.
It doesn't look like there's very much left
whether we keep this going.
- [Narrator] George led the fight to protect this forest
from logging during the timber wars of the '80s and '90s.
And he died in the Beachie Creek Fire
at his home in the nearby Elkhorn community.
- Oh, he loved it here.
He loved the people, he loved this spot in particular.
He grew up here.
- [Narrator] Because of a burned bridge
the Ancient Forest Center still doesn't have road access
nearly a year after the fire.
So, it's going to take extra time to rebuild.
Over the past century,
the Opal Creek forest has been a mining camp,
an education center and a wilderness playground
for 20,000 visitors a year.
Auggie says after all that, maybe the forest needs a break.
- There's a lot of people who come through here every year.
Yes, this is a magical place
and it said, I'm done.
You gotta get out of here. I need time.
I'm happy that it's taking time.
(indistinct)
It needs to heal
and it's a different kind of way to look at it
and some people might not understand it
because they feel that they have lost something,
but it's temporary.
Everything is temporary.