Outreach

Prepare Your Forest for a Warmer Future With Rhus diversiloba

Prepare Your Forest for a Warmer Future With Rhus diversiloba

As the climate changes, it isn’t enough to think about the species that make up the tree canopy. [Editor’s note: This post first appeared on *wink* April 1, 2019.] We must consider the understory as well — currently composed of a variety of species in western Washington, from devil’s club and skunk cabbage on the […]

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way to Combat Blackberries!

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way to Combat Blackberries!

Pair Family Forest, situated in the Snoqualmie Valley just west of Duvall, had a serious invasives problem when the family purchased the land in 2005. About a third of the property was choked with tangled pockets of Himalayan blackberry thicket. The brambles had muscled out the native shrubbery and posed a serious problem for Wayne, who had visions of transforming his forest into a mixed-age, biologically-rich ecosystem.

Resources for Funding Forest Stewardship

Resources for Funding Forest Stewardship

Many public agencies offer funding to help forest owners pay for stewardship activities and realize their woodland goals. Whether you envision a habitat-rich stand bursting with forage shrubs and large snags; a business plan for timber harvest on your land; or an aesthetic retreat replete with meandering trails, there’s funding available to help you get there.

Great Peninsula Conservancy

Great Peninsula Conservancy

Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) just completed the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certification process for Grovers Creek Preserve! Acquired by the Conservancy in 2015, the 197-acre preserve near Poulsbo boasts 60 acres of rare older growth forest including stands of western hemlock, Sitka spruce, western redcedar, and Douglas-fir. There are even 11.5 acres of late successional […]

Central Cascades Forest

Central Cascades Forest

The 46,000 acres of forestland spanning Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum known as the Central Cascades Forest (CCF) is now Forest Stewardship Council®-certified, through NNRG’s group certificate. It’s the Northwest’s largest jump in certified forestland since the City of Seattle’s Cedar River watershed earned FSC certification in 2011. The CCF is managed by The Nature Conservancy […]

Oregon Native Bee Atlas

Oregon Native Bee Atlas

Bees need our help. Just five years ago Oregon saw a major bee die off, and pollinator populations continue to decline around the world. “We have more species of bees in the Pacific Northwest than all the states in east of the Mississippi,” says Andony Melathopoulos, a pollinator ecotoxicologist with OSU.  “We really want to protect […]

How to Manufacture Biochar from Woody Biomass

How to Manufacture Biochar from Woody Biomass

Converting excess woody biomass to a valuable soil amendment Saturday, June 30, 2018 | San Juan Island Biochar, a soil amendment made from woody biomass like branches and small-diameter trees, presents an opportunity for landowners to convert forest thinnings to a high-value product. Removing excess biomass from dense, crowded San Juan forests is an important […]

Not Your Father’s Lumberjacks

Not Your Father’s Lumberjacks

Remember the Super-Axe-Hacker from The Lorax? The machine that could whack off four truffula trees with one smacker? Advances in logging technology have made this fantasy contraption a reality, with equipment like feller-bunchers, forwarders, skidders, and processors changing how we harvest. These machines can make ecological forestry better, efficiently and safely removing some trees while leaving others […]

Jackrabbit Farm: Building a Food Forest System

Jackrabbit Farm: Building a Food Forest System

by Kelly Smith, NNRG volunteer On a cool and misty morning last September, Kirk Hanson and I visited Jackrabbit Farm in Southwest Washington.  Kirk, Northwest Natural Resource Group’s Director of Forestry, needed to make observations and gather data for a new forest management plan for the farm, which had recently been funded through the USDA’s […]

Blakely Island Timber

Blakely Island Timber

Up in the San Juans Islands, our Forest Stewardship Council®-certified member Blakely Island Timber cares for more than 2,200 acres on namesake Blakely Island. Harvesting timber is a tool to achieve their goal of stewarding the forest with a healthy, productive long into the future. Douglas-fir grows much more slowly in the San Juans than […]

Empowering New Forest Owners in the Northwest

Empowering New Forest Owners in the Northwest

Many new forest owners are not aware that heavily altered forests need active management to improve ecosystem functions and reduce vulnerability to pests, diseases, and wildfire. New owners indicate purchasing forestland for privacy, aesthetics, wildlife, and as an investment. Ecologically-based forest management involves practices that align with new forest owners’ objectives, such as uneven-aged, multi-species […]

Forest Tour: Thinning Overstocked Stands for Health and Productivity

Forest Tour: Thinning Overstocked Stands for Health and Productivity

NOTE: This workshop was originally scheduled for February 24th but has been rescheduled for March 10th due to icy road conditions. If you already registered for the 2/24/18 workshop, please let us know if you can make it on March 10th by sending Cailin an email at cailin@nnrg.org. See how your neighbors are thinning excess wood to […]

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