Fire is as natural a part of Pacific Northwest forests as the rain and sun. And while the type and frequencies of wildfire differs east and west of the Cascades, landowners everywhere can prepare their homes and forests for wildfire if it arrives.
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!
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.
NNRG Wraps Up Year-long Project on Biomass & Biofuels
This month, NNRG wrapped up a project to help landowners in the San Juans improve forest health, reduce wildfire risk, and use the slash and woody biomass byproducts in creative and beneficial ways.
An Easier Way to Inventory Your Forest
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.
Snapshots from Stossel Creek Reforestation Project
NNRG is working with Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and Seattle City Light to return these 150 acres of previously logged land to healthy forest using climate-adapted practices.
Forestry Tips for Autumn
Each season presents the best time to conduct different stewardship activities. Timing your forest management for the ideal season will help you achieve success and avoid setbacks. This page provides tips to help you make the most of autumn out in your woods.
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 (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
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 […]
Our New Strategic Plan
Three years, five targets, and seventeen measures of success: we invite you to read our Strategic Plan for 2018-2020, released this spring.
Top 5 Reasons to support NNRG:
Our dedicated, knowledgeable staff. If you own a small- to medium-sized forest and want to manage your land for more than just the almighty dollar, it helps to have someone in your corner with the wisdom and experience to help achieve your ecological, economic, aesthetic, and even spiritual goals for the forest. That’s the staff of […]
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
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
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
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
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 […]
Build a Constructed Log
Building a constructed log after thinning out small suppressed trees increases the economic value of future harvest while invigorating wildlife habitat and cleaning up slash. Kirk Hanson, our Directory of Forestry, talks about why he built his. Photo: Matt Freeman-Gleason
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
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 […]