"I really liked the woods, growing up," says Jim Rogers, who was born in western New York to a farming family. "As a kid, I knew all the names of the trees, and I knew I wanted to be a forester, though I didn't know what a forester did."
Jim started making his childhood dream a reality during summers off from Syracuse University when he worked as a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana's Kootenai National Forest, and later as a firefighter and forester.
After college, Jim moved to Washington and a job with the timber giant, Weyerhaeuser Corporation. "Working for Weyerhaeuser, timbering seemed ok," Jim recalls. "But I didn't see the bigger picture of what was going on."
In 1968, Jim came to Port Orford, a small coastal town in Southwest Oregon, to manage timber and buy old-growth logs for Western States Plywood. "I bought timber sales in some really neat places, but after we were done with them they weren't so neat," Jim recalls. "It bothered me that by the time I retired there might not be anything left. I finally realized that the job of a forester wasn't what I envisioned as a kid."
A Forester Becomes an Advocate
Jim's thoughts about forestry started to shift during the development of the Forest Service's Mount Butler environmental impact statement. The timber industry sought the maximum allowable amount of logging, but Jim became concerned about the impact of that extreme position on wildlife and fisheries. He eventually recommended a moderate proposal from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, telling the board of directors of Western States Plywood, "There are two resources in Port Orford: logging and fishing. If we continue to log everything, we're going to destroy that other source of revenue." The mill agreed, and adopted the ODFW proposal as their new position.
Jim continued to work in the timber industry until one day, in the late 1970s, he had a realization that changed the course of his life. "I was out hunting in the forest," Jim recalls, "and I looked around me and thought about what would happen to the streams and the wildlife if the timber companies prevailed. From then on, I tried to stop them."
Congress Takes Up the Cause
Around the same time, the local congressman, Representative Jim Weaver, was working to convince local commercial and sport fishermen to support wilderness designation for the Grassy Knob area and stop the construction of the Grassy Knob Road, which would have caused immense harm to the Elk River fishery.
The challenge with the Grassy Knob area was that it was all old-growth forest, which is prime timber. Jim Rogers and his fellow advocates, Citizens for Grassy Knob, didn't give up, however, and neither did Rep. Weaver, who said, "I guarantee there will not be an Oregon wilderness bill that does not include Grassy Knob." Congressman Weaver's doggedness slowed progress on the bill and frustrated his colleagues in Congress. Finally, Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon told Rep. Weaver, "I'll give you Grassy Knob if we can get a wilderness bill." Rep. Weaver agreed, and in 1984 the Oregon Wilderness Act was signed into law.
Standing Up for Copper-Salmon
After the Oregon Wilderness Act became law, a comprehensive Forest Service study of the Elk River Ecosystem proved how important the North Fork of the Elk River fishery truly was, and how damaging logging could be. Despite these findings, the Forest Service proposed logging in two-thirds of the area around the headwaters of the Elk River, popularly known as Copper-Salmon.
"When the Forest Service discovered the Elk River fishery, we thought they would protect it," Jim explains. "But the Forest Service didn't see it that way, so the group stuck together." And Friends of Elk River was born.
Momentum Builds for Copper-Salmon
Wilderness is the highest form of protection that Congress can give our federal lands, but it doesn't come easy. Jim started pushing for wilderness for the Copper-Salmon area in 1994 and continues the fight today to protect this 12,000 acre area. "It's worth it," says Jim. "This is low elevation coastal old-growth forest. To have an area this size is almost unheard of, but it's the last of it. The fishery is so valuable and the threat of logging so severe, that folks are coming around to the idea of wilderness."
Recently, nature photographer Tim Palmer and his wife Ann Vileisis moved to Port Orford and suggested that Jim get in touch with Trout Unlimited, a national 150,000-member organization that works to protect trout and salmon fisheries. Today, Trout Unlimited lists the Copper-Salmon wilderness effort among its priorities and works hand in hand with Friends of Elk River and sportsmen's groups to build support for wilderness. "We really needed these people, and they came along at the right time," Jim says.
Above all, we need Jim and people like him. And so do our wild lands and wildlife. "Jim Rogers is the epitome of a grassroots volunteer," said Mike Beagle, Trout Unlimited's Oregon Field Coordinator. "While many talk about conservation, Jim is a man of action who has an intimate knowledge of the land that he has hunted, fished and hiked for over a quarter century. He applies that knowledge into a focused grassroots activism which combined with his genuine and sincere personality, has helped to protect one of Oregon's premier coastal gems."
As Jim enters his third decade of wilderness activism, he explains that "once you get into this stuff you get hooked. It's like climbing a mountain. It takes a long time, but keep walking and eventually you'll get there."
We applaud Jim Rogers, the Friends of Elk River, and sportsmen and community leaders from Port Orford for their commitment to preserving the Copper-Salmon proposed wilderness and the Elk River, one of the most significant fisheries in the Pacific Northwest.
