Green Side Up was a reforestation crew that planted the Pacific Northwest after the 1970s and 1980s clear cuts. Green Side Up brought cash into the Takilma Commune that otherwise existed by barter. It was a remarkable time when hippies hit the hills with hoedads and axes. Robert Hirning negotiated the contracts for Green Side Up and was front and center.
Stories of mills, mines, forests, and fields: Southern Oregon’s landscape, economy, and demographics have changed significantly since the donation land claims of the mid-1800s. Thanks to grants from the Oregon Heritage Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Southern Oregon University has been collecting the oral histories and photographs of heritage families and publishing these to the Southern Oregon Digital Archives.