The Land's Own Legacy

And the humans fighting for it.

Something pretty remarkable has been going on in my part of the world. Here and there, in scraps and fragments, Washington State’s ancient, lowland forests have been slowly reemerging into their one-time glory. Citizens, meanwhile, have noticed, and a movement is emerging to protect these places from the economic and political interests that want to log them.

It’s a particularly intense moment for the campaign, as primary ballots are due tomorrow to select who will square off in the upcoming race for Washington’s Commissioner for Public Lands, which oversees the state’s Department of Natural Resources, which under industry pressure is steadily auctioning off the forests. Only one candidate on the ballot has sided with the citizens who want to save these forests, and he is up against seven others. His name is Dave Upthegrove, and people are literally climbing to the tops of trees to get the word out for him.

Though this present fight involves a particular US state, Washington, I imagine any forested region of the world is facing, or will face, similar crossroads. As forests reemerge from early waves of logging, they begin to resemble again their primary condition: layered overstory and understory, complexity and lushness, homes, food and respite for wildlife, and a magic that only old places seem to possess. Standing within such a forest, it’s as if the complexity of so many interweaving relationships overwhelms the mind’s logic-making predilections; it collapses to pure experience, something felt more than thought.

Whatever you want to call that feeling, it’s powerful, and has prompted a highly motivated citizens movement, which I’ll return on Wednesday to say more about. And to tell you who won!

In the meantime, if you happen to be one of the 7% of my subscribers who live in Washington State, all 105 of you, and you haven’t mailed in your ballot, please do!

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