8 min
Overview
If you’re in the Astoria area, this short walk is a good introduction to forestry practices and the pros and cons of various management techniques. Large interpretive signs explain these at various stations along a path through plantations of Douglas-fir and western hemlock. In addition, you can extend the outing to walk up the Wellness Trail, which takes you through skunk-cabbage wetlands and up a hillside of more natural woodland. From the information kiosk at the trailhead, walk up to your right in a mixed forest with Douglas-fir dominating. Note the interpretive sign for the Demonstration Forest. Reach a lawn and another sign at the Clatsop State Forest headquarters. To your right is the C.J. Reed Arboretum, a small collection of identified trees, both native and exotic. To continue on the Demonstration Forest Loop, keep left to skirt the edge of the woods and reach a cable gate. Past the gate, go right on a road and head into forest with examples of thinned and unthinned plantations. A couple of elk skulls ornament the bases of trees. Pass through Douglas-fir/western hemlock plantings with a pruned stand on the right and an unpruned stand on the left. At a junction, keep right and walk by an overgrown hemlock plantation on the left. The trail enters a small stand of older forest and reaches a gravel road. Go left 20 yards on the road, and then go right at the junction with the graveled “Wellness” Trail. Walk by a picnic table, and then cross a skunk-cabbage gully. Drop a little, passing by a large hemlock. Cross a wetland on a footbridge, and hike gently upward with a powerline corridor to the right. At a junction with a rock-paved track, go right and hike up under the powerlines. Make a traverse in a natural woodland of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and elderberry. Rise through a salmonberry thicket and reach a logging road. You have two options here: you can go right around the logging road, which loops down to the Wellness Trailhead; or you can return the way you came, taking the rock-paved track
Trail Stats
0.0 km
42 m
0 m
0 m
—
Photos
300px-AstoriaDemoForestMap
300px-AstoriaDemoForestMap
160px-Nurse_stump_and_hemlock%2C_Wellness_Trail%2C_Astoria_Demonstration_Forest
160px-Nurse_stump_and_hemlock%2C_Wellness_Trail%2C_Astoria_Demonstration_Forest
250px-Elk_skull%2C_Astoria_Demonstration_Forest
250px-Elk_skull%2C_Astoria_Demonstration_Forest
400px-Small_creek_crossing%2C_Wellness_Trail%2C_Astoria_Demonstration_Forest
400px-Small_creek_crossing%2C_Wellness_Trail%2C_Astoria_Demonstration_Forest