As part of two outdoors site visits, the Forest Stewardship Program lent everyone in the class a good set of basic forester tools to later use on our own land. Already packed into pockets of a fluorescent orange safety vest, the following tools were loaned out:
The Forest Stewardship Site Plan is a map of our property that includes both current and future projected forest/usage characteristics. It's one of the more important parts of a Forest Stewardship Plan since it tells a story and includes lots of information at a quick glance. I used Adobe...
Our land has the beginning characteristics of later old growth forest, though technically it may not occur on the site for another 500-1000 years. Forest succession is where a forest goes from post-disturbance bare ground to plants fighting to get higher than everything around...
I started a 10 session course called the Forest Stewardship Coached Planning Program, offered in King County through the Washington State University Extension. We meet every Tuesday evening for up to 3 hours, and there is also a Saturday field trip to local private forested properties for the...
The forester pointed out the following native plant species on our property today: Douglas fir Grand fir Hemlock Pacific yew Madrone Alder Salal Rhododendron Oregon grape Sword fern Bracken fern Trailing blackberry Evergreen huckleberry Ocean spray Wild rose / Baldhip rose Salmonberry Honeysuckle
We learned some interesting history about the area from our friendly easterly neighbors. It's likely that nothing has ever been built on our property except for perhaps part of a small dilapidated logging cabin from around the 1920s that was on the northwest corner of their property and partially...