Checkerboard Pattern A Logging in Oregon, USA story
Forests
The close-up Landsat images that accompany this section show an obvious checkerboard pattern in the forest. These lands are known as “O&C” lands, which stands for Oregon and California Railroad. Land granted to O&C in 1866 was every other square mile, which formed the checkerboard pattern seen in the imagery. These lands now belong to the federal government, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
In these images, the squares that remain dark green generally are lands that belong to the BLM. In some of those squares, there is clearcutting and regrowth taking place in this time frame. Adjacent squares, however, have a more noticeable change in tan or white spots, indicating more frequent clearcuts in the logging/reforestation cycle.
View an animation of this area to see the changes as they happen.
Location
July 19, 1984, Landsat 5 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 30, 1988, Landsat 5 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 31, 1994, Landsat 5 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 5, 1999, Landsat 7 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 29, 2005, Landsat 5 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 24, 2009, Landsat 5 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 3, 2013, Landsat 8 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
June 7, 2015, Landsat 8 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
June 26, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 14, 2017, Landsat 8 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 1, 2018, Landsat 8 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
July 25, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 46/30) — logging patterns, OR, USA
Logging in Oregon, USA Additional Imagery & Stories
Clearcutting
A logging strategy that’s easy to spot in the Landsat imagery is clearcutting. All the trees in an area are harvested, and then replanting begins imme...
Colorful Composites
On Earthshots we typically show “multispectral composites”—single-date images that combine three different wavelengths into one image. The example use...
Interpret the Images
A more up-close look in the Landsat images helps you to see the progression of clearcutting and regrowth. The colors in most of these images are a pat...