A Northwest Treasure for Millennia For 8,000 years or more, the indigenous peoples of this region have honored the Western Red Cedar as the “Mother Tree”. Across the range of this venerable tree, from southeast Alaska and northern California to inland areas of lower British Columbia and northern Idaho, Native peoples have used, and continue … Read more
Virginia Naef reviews The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature by Peter Wohlleben, 2019 “Sometimes I feel we do not respect nature the way people used to do. There was a time when trees and nature in general played a much more important role in our lives.” -Wohlleben German ecologist … Read more
Part 1: Protecting Mature Trees on Private Forestlands in Whatcom County: Why It’s So Crucial “Instead of being primarily concerned with the effects of habitat on the plants, the influences are the effects of the plants on the habitat.” -Joseph Kittredge, 1948 Across the United States, smaller forests, in the hands of private citizens, have … Read more
Isolated woodlots in Whatcom County are less noticed than our larger forests and parks. How are these lands unique and what can be done to preserve them? Although 60% of Whatcom County is forested, the majority of forests are found in the eastern foothills and mountains at high elevations. But in the populated lowlands of … Read more
