Bruce Gordon
Bruce moved to Oregon in 1970. By happenstance friends found a notice on a bulletin board in Trail for a house in Tiller. The friends rented the house and the Oregon adventure began. The following spring Bruce and several friends moved to the Ash Valley property just below the South Umpqua Falls. There he became involved with his first environmental action. There were 6 clearcuts proposed for the hills adjacent to the Ash Valley property. A lawsuit was enacted. Although the suit did not hold up,
the precedent for suing the Federal Government was established. Four years later Bruce took on tree planting with a Reforestation Cooperative. The plan was to make enough money for holiday gifts for his family and that would be the end of his tree planting career. The day after this goal was reached a fellow tree planter came into his house and told him he had to come to work. The crew was one person short of what the Forest Service required for the contract. After a short argument the fellow tree planter said “Tree Planting is in your Blood”. Bruce hated what he said but off to work he went. It was 100% true that tree planting was in his blood. He planted trees each season for the next 25 years.
Employment:
Homegrown Reforestation (1975-1983) Member, Laborer, President, and Bidding Coordinator.
Golden Reforestation (1984) Laborer
US Forest Service Tiller Ranger District Fire seasonal employee Fire Management (1984-1987) Silviculture (1988-1994)
Farmer’s Marketers with wife Joanne (1991-2004)
Commonwealth Garden Shoppe owner with wife Joanne (2001-2016) The retail garden center focused on growing things organically and was sold in 2016 which enabled Bruce to retire.
Retirement leaves Bruce plenty of time to start plants and grow them in his greenhouse and vegetable garden.
Also, retirement gives Bruce and his wife Joanne the time to help adopt the local park, Carl C. Wayside. He is the main custodian of the park which mostly consists of mowing the grass and cleaning the outhouse. Currently a labyrinth has been built, a gazebo from another park is proposed to be disassembled and rebuilt at the Wayside. A pavilion is also proposed for the park with some of the timbers having been milled from danger trees on the property.