Sarah Deumling
Forest Manager, Zena Forest Products
Willamette Valley, OR
August 23rd - August 25th, 2025
Rolling into the Willamette Valley, sun blaring uninhibited through a cloudless sky, we were welcomed to our campsite in Zena’s forest by two towering chestnut trees, clusters of cow parsnips, and Sarah Deumling wandering towards us with the dust from her four-wheeler at her heels.
Although short in stature and soft in her speech, Sarah’s impact on our group and our understanding of western forest management was anything but small. Over the course of two days, Sarah would chronicle her journey to Zena intermittently, nestled between bouts of giggles and chitchat. Having purchased the land in 2008, the Deumlings sought to protect the forest from unsustainable logging practices and potential commercial development. Following the passing of her husband, Sarah stepped up, taking charge of stewarding the land and managing the timber company.
Sarah emphasized how inexperienced and out of her element she felt in the face of such a daunting amount of responsibility, having adored the forest prior not as the focus of her job but as a wandering place where her beloved trilliums grew in abundance. Though she detailed her relationship with Zena’s forest since taking over as forest manager with immense humility, it was clear to us all how incredibly creative, careful, and conscious Sarah’s attention to the forest was and continues to be. Sarah has sought to lean into every facet of the forest’s deeply rooted biodiversity; for instance, she was one of the first in western Oregon to utilize the “nuisance” Oregon White Oak in timber markets, manufacturing the dense and sturdy wood into high quality floorboards. In ways such as these, Sarah and her son, Ben Deumling, seek to live in the cross section of ecology and economy, searching for innovative ways to care for the forest sustainably whilst still growing their business. For Sarah, although there continues to be tension between the two, she believes both can coexist, and demonstrates this beautifully in her stewardship of Zena’s forest. Even as forest manager, Sarah ensures me that she “still knows where the wildflowers grow.”
by Marina Roberts