The ancestral homelands of the Cow Creek Umpqua people span a large region of southwestern Oregon, centered on the Umpqua watershed, nesting between the Pacific Coast Range and the Cascade Mountains. Prior to settler colonialism, cultural burning practices maintained Oregon white oak woodlands and prairies throughout much of southwestern Oregon. Following a long absence of fire, Douglas-fir has densely invaded and overtopped white oak and replaced open woodlands with closed-canopy forests.

The Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe are one of nine federally recognized Tribal governments in the State of Oregon. They steward over 34,000 acres of land. In recent years, the Cow Creek Umpqua has been purchasing additional lands and has engaged in oak woodland restoration. Part of this work has been on newly acquired timberlands that were previously under industrial ownership. Treatments have prioritized the removal of Douglas-fir and retention of Oregon white oak. The Cow Creek Umpqua has reintroduced cultural burning into the area and hopes to expand the application of prescribed fire in partnership with the United States Forest Service. They are planning a set of landscape burns to reduce fuels and restore beneficial fire to the oak woodlands.

Contributors: Tim Vredenburg and Susan Prichard