Author: Outreach

It’s that classic love story: boy meets girl, boy buys forest, girl marries boy, boy plants 100,000 trees. Okay, not classic, exactly, but sweet, definitely.  When Fred Beazell bought over 500 acres of former farmland near Corvallis in the early sixties, he had dreams of living on the land with his long-time sweetweart, Dolores Anthony. The couple married a few years later, but for decades continued to live in Silicon Valley, where they both worked in tech. Still, Fred made frequent weekend trips to the land and found immense joy in digging holes and planting seedlings – over 100,000 of

This article originally appeared in the December 2021 newsletter of Treeline, the regional forest adaptation network. It is reprinted here with permission. You can find the complete newsletter here. A conversation with Jeremy Ojua, Lindsay McClary and Kayla Seaforth The Natural Resources Department at the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (CTGR) has been operating the Tribal Native Plant Materials Program since 2014. It started with a vision of producing locally sourced native plants for habitat restoration and cultural education, and was originally funded by an Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board “Plants for the People” grant, which they were awarded in partnership

JUNE FIRESIDE CHAT: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15TH @ 7:30PM At the June Fireside Chat, NNRG Director of Forestry Kirk Hanson will discuss hands-on techniques for improving wildlife habitat in your woods. Topics will include habitat piles, constructed logs, improving understory diversity and forage for mammals, nesting boxes, and more! WHAT IS A FIRESIDE CHAT? Fireside chats are monthly community events where forest owners can talk directly with NNRG staff and other forestry professionals, and connect with other forest owners in western Washington and Oregon. On the third Wednesday of every month, we invite you to join NNRG Director of Forestry Kirk

The winter wet season in the Pacific Northwest is an ideal time to plant young trees and native shrubs! Planting native trees and shrubs enhances forest biodiversity by providing habitat for wildlife and forage for pollinators. It’s also a great way connect to the land and increase your aesthetic and recreational appreciation for the forest.

Throughout the year, NNRG’s staff have had the privilege to visit some very cool places, talk to interesting small, people, and experience the beauty and bounty of the Pacific Northwest. Our work has taken us from the Willamette Valley oak savannas to the coastal forests of the San Juan Islands, and beyond. Take a look at some of the shots we collected from our work and projects along the way.  NNRG Director of Forestry Kirk Hanson conferring with a land manager at Taylor Mountain Forest. NNRG Executive Director Seth Zuckerman and Director of Programs Rowan Braybrook accept the King County

2022 is just days away, and the NNRG team is itching to get to work on some of the new projects planned for the year. But before we continue on our mission to strengthen the ecological and economic vitality of Northwest forests and communities, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on some of NNRG’s most notable achievements and activities of 2021. 1. Launched a project to test climate adaptation techniques for Northwest forests At the start of 2021, NNRG and partners launched a new demonstration project to test techniques that can help forests endure the kinds of climatic

There are so many brilliant reasons to buy local. When you trade 2-day delivery for fresh-from-the-forest, you’re supporting local landowners, sustainable forestry practices, and guaranteed high-quality products. Many local forest owners make and sell non-timber forest products that would make wonderful stocking stuffers or can feed your home hearth. This holiday season, consider supporting ecological forestry by purchasing from one of the forests below.  NNRG MEMBERS OAK BASIN TREE FARMCanopy Essential Oils Canopy Essential Oils are a handcrafted collection of natural oil extracts carefully steam distilled from the tender bough tips of Oregon native conifers on FSC®-certified Oak Basin Tree

We asked the NNRG staff and board — notorious for thinking about forests as much off-the-clock as on — for the best forestry, nature, PNW, and environment-related books they read this year. The result is a list as varied as it is long! Click on a title below to read about the book, or scroll down to read about the whole list.  Backyard Bounty: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest Linda Gilkeson “Packed with a wealth of information specific to the Pacific Northwest, this complete guide emphasizes low-maintenance methods, covers problems related to common pests

Conducting a timber and woody biomass inventory of a forest may sound complicated. But as a forest owner, it’s one of the first steps you’ll need to take before diving into the substantial decisions of how to steward your forest.

Professor Jerry Franklin, far right, lectures a University of Washington class in a ponderosa pine forest in Oregon. Photo by Debbie Johnson. If you’re interested in a career involving forest management, natural resources, or environmental science the Pacific Northwest has a wonderful range of higher education programs covering those topics. In fact, several NNRG staff have attended or are currently attending these programs. Below is a living list of higher education forestry and natural resource programs in the Pacific Northwest. See something missing? Let us know at outreach@nnrg.org. Central Washington University (Ellensburg, WA) Bachelor of Science (BS) in Environmental Science

Unless you own a forest and have had an NNRG forester out for a site visit, the details of a forester’s job might be a little murky to you. You suspect it involves wearing a cool vest, tree puns, and something called DBH tape…right?  In the interest of pulling back the curtain on the critical work our foresters do―and perhaps informing those who wish to pursue this rewarding career path―we asked our foresters Kirk Hanson, Jaal Mann, and Sam Castro to describe what they do behind the scenes at Northwest Natural Resource Group. Because it’s not all just romping through

Biochar is a form of charcoal sometimes used as a soil amendment in agriculture. But that’s really only half the story. It’s produced when organic waste material, such as forest slash, is combusted in the presence of limited oxygen. Though often described as a soil amendment, in Pacific Northwest forests it might be better thought of as a standard component of soil ― that is now missing or depleted from many forests in the Pacific Northwest. Although we may associate fires and fire-adapted landscapes with the eastern Cascades, we know from oral and written history, dendrochronology, and sediment cores that forests west

Forest stewardship can be thought of as synonymous with soil stewardship. Healthy soils sustain wildlife habitat, grow high-quality timber, improve your forest’s resilience to stressors like drought, heat, and pests, and store carbon.  So how does one become an expert in forest soils? Below we outline the fundamentals of soil stewardship and direct you to further reading on the subject.  1. Understand the soil types in your area Understanding the soil types in your forest will help you make informed forest management decisions about road building, harvesting, site preparation, planting,  thinning, and more. Knowing the physical properties of your soils—such