Oak Salvage Project

Community Participants:

92

Tree Samples Collected:

249

Oldest Tree:

365

Learn More

Tree Rings Counted:17,168

Oak Salvage Project

Willamette University Professors Karen Arabas, Joe Bowersox & David Craig hope to salvage data from some of the hundreds of old Oregon oaks that have been damaged in the February 2021 ice storm. These trees are iconic in the Willamette Valley and contain valuable information in their tree rings about past climate and other environmental conditions.

Watch the Presentation to the Lord and Schryver Conservancy More Details

• How to Contribute to the Oak Salvage Project | Willamette

  Step 1

  Save us a cookie: The very best sample would be a cookie from the tree, which is a 1”-3” thick round (or cross-section) of the trunk taken as close to the base as possible that includes the center and the bark. There’s no rush to help so long as you have time to save a piece of your oak or oaks as you clean up. Along with your cookie, we would appreciate the following information documented on a piece of paper in a plastic baggie thumbtacked to the cookies:

  • Your name and contact information (phone, email)
  • Where the tree was located (street address, cross streets, GPS coordinates).
  • Location of the cookie on the oak trunk (2’ above the base)
  • The diameter of the tree measured at 4.5 feet above the base of the tree (if possible)
  • Any history of the tree, in particular, we would like to know if there might be root rot, if the oak was irrigated, etc. (Note we are also interested in the story of your oak -- and are collecting that information on line - see below)

  Drop off: Leave cookies any time in front of the Olin Science Building at 180 Winter Street SE and pile them along the grass of the north entry wall.

  Pick up: Send an email to oregon-oaks-group@willamette.edu and we will be happy to come to collect cookies from you. You may also call our lab at 503-370-6604. Please leave us a message including the best way for us to get in touch with you.

  Step 2:

  Share the story of your oak tree. We are also interested in learning about the history of your oak tree, what it has meant to you, and how the storm damage has affected you. We’d like to gather these stories and post them along with photos of your oak trees on this web page. If you are interested in participating, please contact us at the email for phone number above.

• Additional Resources

  Conserving Oregon White Oak in Urban & Suburban Landscapes

  This ‘Conserving Oregon White Oak in Urban and Suburban Landscapes’ document is a compendium of instructional materials developed in 2016-17 by Mark Griswold Wilson and Ted Labbe for a workshop series Landscaping with Oregon white oak for residents of urbanizing Willamette Valley.

  Video: Oregon’s Oaks, A Neighborhood Legacy in Gaiety Hill

  City of Salem

  Community Forestry Strategic Plan

• Updates

  July 1, 2022	Thanks to the hard work of over 50 Willamette students we’ve made great progress in the Oak Salvage Lab this year. We have collected over 249 samples from 92 community members, counted 17,168 tree rings and found the oldest tree in our collection lived nearby in Bush’s Pasture Park. We are currently working on measuring ring widths, creating tree ring chronologies, and updating our interactive map with information about the samples we’ve collected. Our research is part of an exhibit, celebrating Oregon white oak, Bush’s Pasture Park’s Oregon White Oak Legacy at the Salem Art Association’s Bush Barn Art Center in Salem from July 1st - August 27th.
  April 5, 2022	Five undergraduate Willamette students are working in the Oak Salvage Lab during the spring semester. Leila Fischer, April Holland, Grace Shiffrin, Blake Carlile, and Sarah Menke have been working on various parts of sample processing including sanding, scanning, measuring, and categorizing the hundreds of cross sections we’ve collected. If you are interested in hearing more from the students and learning about the project, please join us for our Student Scholarship Recognition Day on April 13, 2022 at 2pm. We will be holding a quick lecture in Collins Hall (Room 218) and having an open lab session where members of the public can view the samples, equipment, and ask questions in a more informal setting until 4pm.
  October 4, 2021	Now that the fall semester has begun, there are several classes in the Environmental Science/Biology departments that are actively supporting this project. Dendrochronology: Prof. Karen Arabas, Environmental Science Students are using cookies from Bush Park oaks to learn basic dendrochronology skills such as cross-dating and chronology building. The class will focus on using growth patterns identified in the tree rings to explore how external factors such as climate and local factors such as irrigation and urban development are reflected in tree growth. Oak Salvage Oral Histories: Prof. Karen Arabas, Environmental Science While the dendrochronology class takes a more analytical perspective on the project, the Oral Histories class is examining the cultural significance of Oregon White Oaks to the people of the Willamette Valley. Students in the class are designing and implementing an Oral History project that will collect and archive the many stories our community members have to tell about oak trees, including their significance and importance. Forest Management & Policy: Prof. Joe Bowersox, Environmental Science Students are using Oak Salvage project samples from Bush Park and other Willamette Valley sites to study ecosystem services and forest health. They will examine other factors such as carbon sequestration and climate that affected these trees and may have caused them to be more vulnerable during the ice storm. In contrast to the dendrochronology class, the students will be using information from individuals to make conclusions about larger-scale forest health.
  September 20, 2021	We spent the summer collecting, labeling, logging, drying, reducing, and mounting the samples (cookies) so many of you have donated to the project, and we now have 211 officially in the database. We estimate that there are still another 40-50 cookies out there that we need to pick up - thanks for your patience if you are one of the folks waiting for us! We are still accepting samples from the Willamette Valley, so if you are interested please check out the ‘Contribute to this Project’ link on our website; we would be happy to have your oak cookie as part of this project! Here are some photos of our process. drying in the lab (see photo!) we are testing several different ways to prepare them for analysis. This involves sanding and/or planning the cookie surface so that it can be photographed.
  May 28, 2021: Cookie Processing	We continue to collect, label, log, and dry all the samples (cookies) so many of you have contacted us about, and we now have 128 officially in the database. We estimate that there are still another 40-50 cookies out there that we need to pick up - thanks for your patience if you are one of the folks waiting for us! As the cookies are drying in the lab (see photo!) we are testing several different ways to prepare them for analysis. This involves sanding and/or planning the cookie surface so that it can be photographed. We plan to use high-resolution digital images of the cookies in a web-based system to count and measure rings.
  April 2nd, 2021: The Oak Salvage Project is underway!	Professors Karen Arabas, Dave Craig, and Joe Bowersox are working with 6-8 students from Environmental Science and Biology to get the project off the ground. Since the ice storm in February, we have collected over 100 samples of Oregon White Oak from the Salem area and Willamette Valley. Currently, we are in the process of identifying, labeling and logging all of our samples. The samples need time to dry and will be prepared for analysis over the summer and students will begin analysis in the fall. Please check back for updates on our progress. We are still accepting samples from the Willamette Valley, so if you are interested please check out the Contribute to this Project page on our website; we would be happy to have your oak cookie as part of this project!

• Do I Have a White Oak?

  The Oregon white oak, or Garry oak (Quercus garryana), is native to the Salem area can grow up to 100ft and live for up to 500 years. Many of the Oregon oaks around Salem are large with rounded canopy shapes and long, far-reaching lower branches covered in mosses and lichens. Oregon White Oak is easily identified by its leaves with rounded lobes. In the wintertime, trees are bare. It produces a typical acorn, and the bark is light gray with thick furrows and ridges. 

  Oregon White Oak Quercus Garryana

  More Info

  • OSU Common Trees of the Pacific Northwest
  • USDA Plant Guide: Oregon White Oak
  • Native Plants PNW: Oregon White Oak