Board Goes on Field Trip to Pedee
The Forests Forever, Inc. Board of Directors’ October meeting was a field trip to the organization’s Pedee Woodlands forest property in southern Polk County. Pedee Woodlands is a 320-acre forest tract on the eastern slope of the Coast Range foothills. The property was owned by Bob and Sharon Phillips prior to becoming part of the FFI family of forest tracts—including the flagship Hopkins Demonstration Forest in Beavercreek and the Schink Demonstration Forest in Molalla.
While at Pedee, the Board had the opportunity to see four of the six timber harvest units on the property since 2015 when FFI became owners. Timber harvest revenue from Pedee is an important part of the income supporting the Forests Forever, Inc. non-profit. In addition, the Board met with Charles Lefevre, the truffle contractor FFI began working with last year at Pedee. Charles brought his two dogs, Dante and Lucca, who demonstrated their ability to locate truffles. Besides commercially harvesting truffles last year, Lefevre also worked with FFI to offer an educational program fund-raiser to teach participants truffling techniques. Nealy 20 attended the event. Plans are being made to offer this program, again, in 2026.
Finally, the Board’s main work project was cleaning up the gravesite area for the Phillips family at Pedee. The ashes for Bob and his brother, Duane, are buried at Pedee Woodlands. FFI’s Executive Director, Ken Everett, coordinated this project, saying, “We wanted to honor Bob and Duane with new grave headstones. The original markers were wooden and falling apart. We were able to clean up the site and install two very nice markers for the graves.” At a future visit, the Board plans to install a split rail fence around the area, too.
