Timber company Weyerhaeuser is donating 38 acres in the rural Lane County community of Disston to the Row River Rural Fire Protection District to allow it to build a substation in the area.
The property includes a three-acre portion that will be the grounds for the station, and a former mill road that could have other uses.
“It’s going to be a permanent home for the Disston fire station, and the donation helps strengthen the valley and will safeguard critical water resources and support long-term community resilience,” said Kathleen Istudor, the executive director of Row River Fire Response, a non-profit that supports and helped found the district.
She said the area is ecologically important to several communities in the area.
"It supports the local community, of course, sustains wildlife habitat, and is a principal tributary to the Coast Fork Willamette River and provides the drinking water supply for the city of Cottage Grove."
Weyerhaeuser’s donation follows a 2023 grant of $25,000 that was to help with infrastructure for a fire facility.
Disston is about 15 miles southeast of Cottage Grove near the end of Row River Road.
Row River Rural Fire Protection District was founded in 2024, though Row River Fire Response began its work to establish the district in 2022.
Weyerhaeuser’s website refers to the company as “the largest private owner of timberlands in North America.” It manages more than 10 million acres in the U.S. and more than 14 million acres in Canada.
