Operations Manager
Chandler Family Ranch, LLC

My daughter, Elizabeth, and I moved up to the family ranch in December, 1997. At the time it was a retreat from Los Angeles rather than a long-term plan. But I'm still here, nearly 10 years later! In fact, I've now lived on the ranch longer than I have lived in any other house or city in my entire life!

About The Ranch

"The Ranch," as it has been called all my life, is located in southwestern Oregon. If you look at a map of Oregon, you'll see in the southwest corner there is an area where there is nothing - no towns, no roads that show up on a state-level map - that's where the ranch is. It's actually about 65 miles north of the California border and about 10 miles inland from the coast. (Of course, you can't get directly to either of those places.)

Most of the land was homesteaded by my great-grandfather, his children and their families in the early 1900's. My great-grandfather consolidated some of the parcels when his children moved away and when he died in the 1940's, my grandfather purchased back shares from his siblings. Over the years after that he purchased a few more parcels bringing the total to about 1320 acres. My father was an only child, so the land ultimately passed to my brother, two sisters and me. It's now co-owned by my sister, her daughter, her two grand-daughters by her deceased daughter, my daughter and me. Now it's six women ranging from age 20 to age 72!

My great-grandfather rasied hay and sheep and had a blacksmith shop. He was also a Dunkard Minister, but that's another story. My grandfather raised sheep and cattle. By the mid-1960's the primary use of the land was for timber.

My main job, as the Ranch Manager, is to make sure the place is safe, secure, roads and such are maintained and, primarily, to see that the necessary logging occurs so we can pay the taxes and take care of things.

Forest Management

Since taking over management of the ranch, I have learned an incredible amount about forest management. There is a wide range of assistance - technical, financial, and even production - available to private landowners. With the help of a Jennifer, a wonderful forester working for the Oregon Department of Forestry, I completed a full stewardship plan for our property last year. It covers about 20 different factors that affect how the land is managed (geology, water sources, archealogical issues, recreational use, wildlife, threatened or endangered species, roads, and more). We defined 19 different management areas, each with specific goals. Some areas are for logging, but other areas are set aside for recreation or, one of my favorites, elk habitat.

We do clear-cut the land that is logged for timber - meaning that everything is cut down. Then the following winter (or sometimes two winters later) we go back an plant trees. The Oregon state law requires that all land logged be replanted and managed so there are at least 200 trees that are "free to grow" (meaning they won't be killed off by brush or other fast growing plants shading them out). We usually plant 350 trees per acre. This last winter we planted about 30,000 trees!

Wildlife Management

We have been working on wildlife management along with everything else. We're on Dement Creek, just about at the end of the salmon run. Almost 2 miles of creek runs through our property. Several years ago we completed a large project to put big wood back into the creek, for salmon habitat.

Fish and Wildlife specialists have recently discovered that the earlier practices of cleaning out the creeks and rivers was pretty, but not good for the fish. If the mommies don't have sandy creekbottom they won't lay eggs and if the babies don't have deeper pools and places to get out of the sun or fast-flowing water, then they have a much harder time of it. So, in conjunction with the Coquille Watershed, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and a number of other private agencies providing funds, we put lots of logs and boulders in the creekbed. It's not as pretty, but there were lots more salmon spawning this last spring, and there are plenty of places for the babies to be safe and grow before they make the trek back to the ocean.

We also have about 60 acres of "oak savannah" on our property. This type of environment is fairly rare in our area, and is of concern all over the state where open grassy oak areas have been either planted in timber or fallen into development (particularly around cities). The habitat is important for elk and deer as they typically use the grasslands for bedding down, having babies and protecting the young. The oaks are also an important food source for elk, deer and many small animals.

In a truly natural situation, oak savannahs are preserved by fire. The fire burns the grasses and incroaching evergreens, but doesn't get hot enough to harm the oaks. That keeps the grasses controlled and the evergreens from being able to grow big enough to overshadow and force out the oaks. However, forest fires of any kind (natural or not) are highly frowned upon these days. Even the risk of a controlled broadcast burn is too high for most people. As a result, evergreens are forcing out the oaks in many savannahs, including ours. We now have a project in the planning stages to restore our oak savannah by clearing out the evergreens and then planting more oaks and grasses where needed.

Taking care of the ranch is an ongoing process - both of learning what should be done and actually doing the work. I do enjoy it and hope that one of the younger family members will be up to the task of taking it over when the time comes.

The picture in top left is me, on our older horse, Heavenly Tears (known affectionately as Heavy). The dog is our boxer-mastiff mix, Max. It's taken from a lookout/landing up above my house.