In a year full of unprecedented events, one thing remained constant: NNRG’s commitment to sharing the benefits of ecological forestry!
2021 Winter/Spring Native Plant Sales
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.
NNRG Adds Spencer Vieira to the Forestry Team
In a year marked by unusual challenges, NNRG found a lucky break in Spencer Vieira, who joined our forestry team in November as Forestry Technician.
To Thin, or Not to Thin
There is a 28 year-old Douglas-fir plantation on my family’s Bucoda tract that was established following clearcutting by the previous owner. The trees have grown into a deep, dark, primordial atmosphere, characteristic of densely canopied conifer stands, that belies the otherwise innocent nature of such a young and artificially simple forest.
NNRG Staff Book Picks!
For compelling holiday reading, start here. We asked NNRG staff to send over their top book recommendations in the forestry/ecology genre. The list includes fiction and non-fiction, classics and new hits. NNRG Director of Programs Rowan recommends: Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill Gill uses stories about […]
Agroforestry Plantation of Culturally Significant Plants
A reoccurring revelation breaks on me anew nearly every time I spend an appreciable amount of time in the forest; one that renders me mute and pondering in stunned silence: the forest provides everything we need to sustain our lives. Food, medicine, shelter, clothing, tools, and right livelihood
HANSON FAMILY FOREST Fungi Pholio
A running list of fungi I’ve documented in my family’s forests.
Revisiting the Skokomish Tribe’s FSC-Certified Harvest
Skokomish Park at Lake Cushman is a scenic, 500-acre forest and campground on Lake Cushman in the Olympic Peninsula. Every year hundreds of campers visit the park to swim and fish on over 8 miles of freshwater shoreline and to hike and bike over 9 miles of trails. You wouldn’t know it from visiting, but […]
Meet Teo Rautu, NNRG’s Newest Forester
When forest owners reach out to NNRG for help writing a Forest Management Plan, they’re taking an important step in improving the long-term health of their forest. NNRG’s latest addition to our Forestry Team, Teo Rautu, is just the person to help forest owners take that step. We first met Teo in 2019 when she […]
Kirk’s Favorite Forages
When you learn everything that’s edible in the forest, it’s really hard to starve to death. Michael Pilarski Foraging for wild edibles on my family’s land has always been one of the highlights of having our own woodlands. Throughout every season there is something we can pluck and pop in our mouths, which I’ve always […]
NNRG Expands San Juans ‘Rainshadow’ Education to Jefferson County
Nothing typifies the beautiful San Juan Islands more than the peeling, tri-color branches of a madrone snaking through a canopy.
A Truffle in the Hand is Worth Eight Underground
Two Oregon family forest owners know the secrets of Pacific Northwest truffles better than most; Marilyn Richen and Tammy Jackson truffle at their family woodlands—450 acres of woodlands in Columbia County—together with their dogs Blue and Gucci.
Recipes From the Forest – Fall Edition
Delicious dishes can be made from the bounties found within our forests. Below are recipes for a few of them.
Getting to the Root (Rot) of the Forest
Phil Aponte has always loved forests. When he was an interpretive ranger for Mount Rainier National Park, Phil had the chance to walk the woods with renowned forest ecologist Dr. Jerry Franklin. Jerry took a group of park rangers into a stand of old-growth forest and had the rangers lie down to observe their surroundings. […]
Summer Forest Stewardship Tips
Summer is the perfect time for major forest management activities like thinning trees, controlling weeds and invasives, and maintaining roads.
Workshop: Improving Forest Health and Fire Resistance in a Changing Climate – San Juan Island
At this hands-on workshop at Stillwater Ranch on San Juan Island, local and regional experts will introduce forest owners to simple, do-it-yourself strategies for thinning their forests, mitigating slash and creating value-added products.
Raising 5,200 Children by Shovel and Machete
This January the Hansons embarked on a large reforestation project on their forest near Olympia, Washington. Comprising 18 acres and 5,200 seedlings, it’s been their most ambitious planting job to date — one that has had Hanson parents, kids, and grandkids weathering much of the current pandemic from deep in the forest.
A Field Guide to Harvest Equipment
The forests of the Pacific Northwest are teeming with movement and noise—not all of it animal in origin! Stroll through an NNRG member forest undergoing an ecological harvest or thinning and you might catch a glimpse of one of these logging machines (don’t forget to wear appropriate safety-gear!).
Seeing the Forest for the Tech
Advances in tech seem to happen so rapidly it can be hard to keep up. Super-efficient heavy machinery, digital applications, remote sensing & mapping tools, and drone technology have changed the way we manage forests.
Beavers, Bobcats, and Bears, Oh My!
If a bear ambles through a forest while no one’s watching, was it really there? Thanks to wildlife cams — and our understanding of the metaphysical possibility of unperceived existence — we know that bear was really there!