Prior to European settlement, native peoples managed forestland primarily through the use of seasonal burning to increase browse for deer and elk.
Lewis and Clark travel with their party to the mouth of the Columbia River.
The first sawmill is built in the Pacific Northwest.
The first shipment of Oregon timber is sent to China.
Congress ratifies the Oregon State Constitution, and the state is admitted to the Union.
The Homestead Act allows 160 acres to those who would live on and work the land.
There are 173 sawmills in Oregon, 138 of which use water power.
The transcontinental railroad is completed, opening distribution of forest products to the east.
The Bull Run Reserve is set aside as Oregon’s first forest reserve
The Organic Act recognizes broad federal power and allows for fire protection and limited timber sales. The Forest Reserve Act expands the national forest system.
Gifford Pinchot becomes chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Division of Forestry.
The USDA Forest Service is created to conserve forest resources and stabilize markets. The first plywood plant is built in St. Johns.
The Oregon Legislation establishes the Oregon Department of Forestry.
National forests contribute about 5 percent of Oregon's lumber production.
Oregon has 608 lumber mills, five paper mills, 64 planing mills, and 47 furniture factories.
In three separate events, the Tillamook Burn destroys 355,000 acres of Oregon’s finest timber, or 13.1 billion board feet.
The chainsaw is invented.
Oregon surpasses Washington as the leading timber producer in the country.
Oregon adopts the Douglas-fir as the official state tree.
Oregon law requires reforestation after timber harvest.
Oregon has 1,573 lumber mills turning out more than 7 billion board feet annually.
The Columbus Day windstorm causes extensive damage to forests in Oregon. Salvage harvest opens Japanese markets.
The National Environmental Policy Act is enacted.
The Oregon Legislature enacts The Oregon Forest Practices Act, becoming the first state to create a comprehensive set of laws governing the practice of forestry.
Statewide land use planning is approved. Congress passes the Endangered Species Act.
The National Forest Management Act passes, thus providing for harvest practices that preserve biological diversity and meet multiple-use objectives. The act restricts clearcutting, but does not prohibit it.
Fires burn 245,000 acres of Oregon timber worth an estimated $97.3 million.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the northern spotted owl as a threatened species in Washington, Oregon and northern California.
The Oregon Legislature creates the Oregon Forest Resources Institute to improve public understanding of Oregon’s forest resources and to encourage environmentally sound forest management.
Major fires burn hundreds of thousands of acres of forestland, much of it in Oregon’s national forests.
Today Oregon’s forests are managed through a cooperative and coordinated effort on the part of federal and state agencies, and private landowners. Nearly every acre of Oregon’s forestland has a Forest Management Plan.