Late summer, 2023 and we’re off on a quick harvesting adventure in Westport, WA. On an overcast afternoon we wandered shore and dune on a naturalist wander. Twin Harbors State Park has a wonderful set of walking paths called Shifting Sands Naturalist Trails, which allow foot access to and from the beach. It was a lovely place to explore, offering shaded forest of shore pine and cascara, as well as delightful ripe evergreen huckleberry bushes. We browsed like bears and feasted on the fall abundance with gusto.
These dune edged pine dominate forests are a crucial buffer between ocean and towns developed nearby. Still, people continue to push closer to the water, making poor choice in building spots for vacation homes. This kind of irresponsible building along major flood prone areas will end up uninsurable and a natural disaster away from total destruction. We encountered a very recent housing development feet from a public beach, with no protection from the storm surf that is bound to come through these coastal areas more often with climate change. The short stubby pines and wrecked brush of coastal forests echo the powerful oceanic tempests.
Vegetative buffers work to disperse waves and bank deluges of freshwater rain into sand filtered aquifers. These giant hedges also produce numerous foods, medicines, and materials. Humans have not, and cannot reproduce this effective protection or abundant productivity through artificial means- even at great expense. Over time, these buffers will flood and succumb to changing tides, but the remnants of this bioregion will spread, and enhance inland spaces- if given space and opportunity. The way sea-level is rising, coastal flooding will only worsen over the next 30 years.
EEC is above this threat, but not immune to some water table shifts, especially if “The Big One” hits. At Westport, we’re in a most vulnerable place for tsunamis, and folks, there’s little high ground to run for if there’s a subduction zone slip off our coast. I cannot say we picked berries with any real concern, but any time our exploits take us west of Interstate 5 (including Seattle), we know we’re taking our lives into our own hands- so to speak. Geologic time spans millions of years, so the blip of my lifespan may see no great shift at all.
The dunes along central Washington’s western shore, well beyond the Olympic Mountains and Peninsula interior, feel like a Flemish painting, bucolic bright tones with silver skies. Shoreline grass and wildflowers mingle in a mesh of flashing color, like energetic brushstrokes of a master. Shifting shore breezes also set off the dunes with rolling sedge and rush. Along the tidelands, sky and water blend in a blurring swirl of white caps curling under in flocked foam. A flock of pelicans weaves in a line of grace and power through the surf. This experience was dream like, as with the deep evergreen woods of moss and mushrooms, the shore and dune forest transports us to a magical, timeless place.
EEC Forest Stewardship 