These are images of the Cranberry Mountain legacy forest complex on private land. There are around 2000 acres of legacy forests on Cranberry Mountain in Lewis county Washington. These forests survived the initial wave of clear-cut logging of this area in the 80s and 90s due to a fire that destroyed much of the ecosystem in the 1890s. These forests which grow at the summit of cranberry mountain are now 130 years old and have never seen industrial logging. Weyerhaeuser, which owns millions of acres in Washington State has been steadily logging this complex of old growth legacy forests despite their commitment not to log old growth. By 2030 all of these forests will be gone.
BTG Pactual a Brazilian investment group also owns a substantial amount of these 130-year-old legacy forests just east of Cranberry Mountain in the Deschutes River watershed which flows into Capital Lake. It is unclear whether or not BTG Pactual will actually log these areas. However, they have already sold some of them to another smaller logging company which has clear-cut around 200 acres of these legacy forests. Cougar Mountain Grove was part of this Legacy Forest complex sold by BTG Pactual.
