South Sound Green Pages: Article

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Teaching Forests: The Ecoforestry-Ecostery Movement Today

by Jean Shaffer

Special to the Green Pages

An ecoforestry ecostery is forested land used as a class room. Ecoforestry means choosing and taking trees and plants out of a forest according to the forest's active adaptation to present conditions of soil, water and climate, coupled with ancient first peoples' stewardship. Observing the forest manage itself, implementing that management and showing it to those who come to find out, is an ecostery. Ecostery is a merging of the words ecology with monastery. "Ecostery" is the ecological version of a monastery, a place where knowledge is accumulated, preserved through using it, and shared.

Ecosteries are starting to abound around the world, from North and South America, to Eurasia. If you live in Olympia you may have heard of our local 20-acre ecostery run for the experimental and educational pipeline group, the Forestland Management Committee (FLMC). Although ecosteries exist worldwide, below we highlight some on the North American Continent:

FLMC Tree Shepherd Woods Ecostery, Olympia, Washington, 20 acres. Showcased are: natural selection cutting, staying off the soil when removing logs, on-site milling of logs, drying lumber, and making finished commodities. Squeezing all possible value out of what's harvested sustains the forest, and humans, dependent on the forest. At present methods are sustaining an economic gain in the form of $7.00/hr. "take home" pay. This is a SmartWood Certified forest. The Nisqually Indian Tribe is consulted for their ancestral stewardship of the land, as it was once theirs. Sharing information occurs through forest tours, public slide presentations, newsletter and ecoforestry bed & breakfast. Consultations on others' forests bring in $10/hr. (360) 459-0946.
Camp Forest Farm, in deep southwest Oregon in Grants Pass, is run by Orville and Mary Camp. It is 300 acres, to date. Orville Camp is the founder of the natural selection ecoforestry concept. Following nature's own processes, natural selection ecoforestry means taking only trees that won't survive under natural conditions. From childhood, Orville Camp instinctively grasped this particular adaption and how the forest was able to develop itself through successional stages with it. Orville put it into practice on ravished land he began buying as an adult. He, and others, saw healing and growth happen immediately. This success with forests brought him recognition for his intuitive approach as well as a position as a teacher, lecturer and author in the movement. Orville selects, logs and mills his own trees. (503) 597-4313.
The Ecoforestry Institute of the US and Canada has its Ecostery in the 420-acre Mountain Grove Center forest in southeast Oregon. It is carrying out Native American recollections of stewardship which means caring for the forest with fire. The institute implements cool burns along with natural selection cutting of trees. Due to human suppression of fire and past clearcutting and agriculture, white oak savannas and pine savannas are endangered ecosystems in much of the Pacific Northwest. Only 2/10 of a percent of oak woodland remains of the historic range in Oregon. Thirty years remain before seedling regeneration of oak and pine will cease. So through its activities, the Ecoforestry Institute is restoring a forest type going extinct, while maintaining the gene pool and a supply of timber. They are getting SmartWood Certification. (541) 832-2785.
Merve Wilkinson's Wildwood, a 137-acre old growth ecoforestry ecostery at Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, BC, welcomes pilgrims. Merve is the oldest practitioner of ecoforestry from Euroamerican ancestry, outside of First Nation and Native American People. His forest started out as old growth, and remains so. It contained over 1 million board feet when he started cutting 50 years ago. Altogether, he harvested over 1 million board feet in 50 years. Today the forest's volume is still over 1 million board feet. His gradual-harvest techniques demonstrated that one can get just as much wood by selective cutting as clearcutting a forest, but selective cutting over time allows the forest to remain whole. He also proved to the world that Douglas fir doesn't need the sunlight intensity of a clearcut to regenerate. Merve actually has to thin out Doug firs coming up under his full canopied forest, which allows in 60% of the light. In the past, mills clamored for his high- quality saw logs. Now Merve does his own milling on site and sells directly to customers. Visitors come from all over the world and keep this ecostery monk very busy. (604) 722-2853. -} Some ecosteries still in the incubation stage are:
- Natural Balance Forestry Cooperative in Sedro Woolley, near Bellingham, is made up of fine wood workers and ecoforesters. They are looking for investors to support a land base acquisition for them. (360) 856-4947.
- John Lee of Seattle stewards a cooperatively owned 30-acre ecoforest on Whidbey Island. He has done two harvests. He plays the role of forester or tree selector and contracts out the rest: falling, yarding, brokering, milling, drying and planing. So far he has suffered a loss by using outside labor to restore his forest. His land has SmartWood Certification. (360) 323-2558.
- Eric Youngren of Orcas Island has an ecoforestry plan drawn up for his 300-acre forest. He plans to expand his efforts into a learning center. His family currently runs Chicken and Eggs Furniture company, which makes pole furniture from alder saplings otherwise charted for herbicides, when clearcuts are replanted. (360) 376-4649.
- Steve Diepenbrock & Mimi Anderson, also of Orcas Island, have an ecoforest ecostery in the works for their 35-acre property. They currently run an organic garden and produce business. (360) 376-2682. -}
  Notable US big land owners using selection forestry, but not known for tours, and therefore not considered ecosteries, include:
  - Fort Lewis, Washington, 42,000-acre forest, second growth. In 1965 the forest contained 426 million board feet. Foresters did selection cutting for 24 years taking 350 million board feet. In 1989, 24 years later, the forest contained 1 billion board feet. Just like carrots, the trees not cut grew bigger, by having the naturally- failing trees weeded out, because they could receive more light, nutrition and water.
  - Yakima Indian Reservation, Washington, 379,000-acre managed forest. A tribal council guides the Bureau of Indian Affairs on how they want the forest managed. This involves mostly selection logging to maintain a standing forest for native cultural values. We know that between 1942 and 1992, 5 billion board feet have been cut. The forest's standing board footage in 1992 was 8.5 billion board feet. The allowable annual cut is 142 million board feet, but they usually only cut 100 million. The forest has no recorded board footage when cutting was started in 1942, so we don't know if the forest volume has increased like Fort Lewis, stayed the same like Merve's, or decreased.
  - Collins Pine in Chester, California, has 65,000 acres. In 1941 the forest started out as old growth but selection choice has replaced old growth with second growth. Now what determines whether a tree is selected out is its size. When trees reach 28" in diameter at breast height they are cut. Collins has their own mill, but it needs more logs than their own forest can supply so they import outside logs. -} The network, composed of the names and groups noted, is the "Committee" part of my organization's name, The Forestland Management Committee. Call me at (360) 459-0946 to come see your local ecoforest soon and become part of the choir.
    Jean Shaffer is a long-time forestry activist.
    
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