Woody Holderman began his career with the Oregon Game Commission in 1947 as a trapper and demolition specialist for the removal of beaver dams. In 1961, be became the stream clearance foreman for the Oregon Game Commission. Assigned to projects by Commission biologists, Holderman coordinated with private landowners, dealt with community groups interested in the project, hired contractors, supervised the project, and evaluated the results. The stream clearance projects involved chainsaws, equipment to remove logs, and dynamite to remove obstructions. Project objectives were to improve fish passage in streams blocked with logs, silt, and other obstructions. After his retirement from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1978, Holderman continued his stream clearance work with private contractors.
The Woody Holderman Photographs document the Oregon Game Commission's program of wood clearance from streams and rivers in Oregon's coastal basin forests. The images depict active removal of wood debris by crews under Holderman's supervision; the streams and river before and after the clearance projects; manmade features such as fish ladders; and river flooding. The collection consists of 772 black and white prints and negatives and 171 color slides taken by Holderman during the time he was a stream clearance foreman with the Oregon Game Commission.
The collection includes photographs of the following coastal river basins: Alsea, Coos, Coquille, Nehalem, Siletz, Siuslaw, Smith, Trask. Umpqua, Wilson, and Yachats. Other Oregon rivers represented are the Deschutes, Hood, Long Tom, Marys, and South Santiam Rivers. Photographs of Tahkenitch, Siltcoos, Trillium, and Elbow Lakes are also included in the collection.
A selection of Woody Holderman Photographs pertaining to the Umpqua
River Watershed are available online in the Oregon State University Historic
Umpqua Basin Photograph Collection in the
Collection is open for research.
Woody Holderman Photographs (P 263), Oregon State University Archives, Corvallis, Oregon.
Detailed lists of all the items in the collection were prepared by
Courtland Smith and Jesse Ford with the input and consultation of Holderman.
Separate lists for
Reference materials and conference presentations assembled and prepared by Anthropology Professor Courtland Smith and Fisheries and Wildlife Professor Jesse Ford that describe the practice, rationale, and history of wood clearance projects in Oregon after World War II are available in the Archives' records for this collection.