Fort Clatsop Administrative History

Resource Studies

In 1987, the Pacific Northwest Regional Office, Cultural Resource Division, developed a forest landscape plan for the memorial. The plan identified small landscaping features to improve the interpretive features of the vegetation program. Removal of grass in front of the replica, selective removal or limbing to open up the view of the fort and wayside exhibits, and less defined trail edges were some of the recommendations. This plan mainly addressed the interpretive value of the native vegetation in the historic scene.

In 1989, Superintendent Frank Walker contracted with Dr. James Agee of the College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, Cooperative Park Studies Unit, to complete a forest landscape study. This study was designed to assess the developing forest on the memorial property and design maintenance guidelines for maintaining the health and landscape appeal of the forest. It also was intended to answer three fundamental questions: what was the goal in re-creating the 1805 forest, what features would that represent, and how would it be managed when it was reached?20] This plan took the memorial further away from replanting efforts and towards the goal of maintaining a healthy coastal forest environment.

Agee's study was designed to give management ideas for the future maintenance of the memorial forest. The plan acknowledged that the forest of 1805-1806 was an evolving forest and that no one set instance in time could be re-created and represented as such. Agee identified historic native species of the Fort Clatsop area, describing it as a part of the Sitka spruce zone. Agee considered the natural and human agents which would have shaped the pre-settlement forests of the area. Wind, fire, and human uses would have continually shaped the forests of the Fort Clatsop area. To help guide the memorial, Agee listed proper thinning recommendations to stimulate a healthy growth and undergrowth, for protection against pests, and protection against wind disturbance.