Exploring the local forests surrounding EEC Forest Stewardship is an important way to get a read on forest health and see some great water features and flora and fauna in our surrounding environment. In July 2024, a friend accompanied me into the nearby wilds for some summer fun in our local creeks and streams. The picture above is form an offshoot of The Rapid River in Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. These little streams are gems of summer retreat during hot days. The falling water creates natural air-conditioning, dropping temperatures by tens of degrees, especially in the shade of the taller trees that usually line these waterways. The water is either glacial melt or spring fed from the mountains above, offering clear, clean fresh water- the life force of our ecological survival.
When reading a landscape like this in a picture, look at the size of rocks in the water. If they are much larger boulders, like the ones pictured above, you are closer to the mountain source of the water. When the creek is wide and fill of smaller cobbles, you are in the lowlands, but not yet to the wide, slow moving rivers of the bottom valley land. Weiss Creek, the stream running through EEC, is a lowland creek, with many smaller cobbles, but still hosting some larger glacial erratics and stones too big to lift. Still, the rocks pictured above are much larger, and there is a lack of cobbles, showing a younger landscape of water erosion. These boulders will break down into cobbles over thousands of years, but won’t move down to the lowlands for millions more. Glaciers did all the initial wearing down of this landscape till about 12,000 years ago. Then, as the ice retreated, till was left behind in many places, but up in these higher elevations, the rock is still young and sizable. It makes for some dramatic falls.
I could sit all day watching this water cascading down the mountain, it’s a great meditation on a hot summer afternoon. This creek was warm enough to wade in, and I spent some time carefully stepping over the slick boulders and into different pools. There is not a lot of wildlife in these young waters, as the sediment and nutrients necessary to support flora and fauna is still getting mixed in further down stream. Geology in these young streams is impressive, and you’ll find all kinds of strata within these moving waters. There is a lot of granite higher up in the mountains. Where as the lowland rivers, post glaciers, has a broad range of rocks from mountains all over the west, brought down through millions of years of erosion in time. That’s part of what makes The Cascades so interesting. I’m still learning so much about the surrounding ecology that makes up our small acreage here in Duvall.
Taking time to explore the greater area gives me a larger view of my surroundings and what makes up the landscape. Mosses, rocks, trees, and streams all have an important role to play in the long term health of our lands. It’s so wonderful to trek up into the mountains and find wilderness that is accessible, and still relatively pristine. This landscape was still clearcut at least once a hundred years ago, and was probably cut again in the 70s. Now, the land seems to be protected, as many national forests are choosing to remain wilderness, while state lands are generally logged for the local taxes- usually for schools, which is heartbreaking when you think about it. Still, commercial timber is a part of our modern convenience to support construction, paper products like toilet paper and magazines- you have to cut trees somewhere to further the consumer needs of our nation, so logging will continue.
This unnamed stream shows us that nature can recover and remain beautiful and alive, even after brutal extraction. It’s a reminder that in time, restoration is possible, and wilderness can come into its own if left to do its work. Hopefully places like this will now remain undisturbed, except by occasional visitors like us, who take a few hours to explore, observe, and enjoy the wilds of our native lands. By going out to see these places in person, we can appreciate what is being protected, and better understand what makes other more impacted places degraded, and perhaps, help restore more local habitats to better protect all the living systems that rely on our ecology to survive- that would be every living thing. When we cement over creeks and streams, putting the wild waters out of sight, they are soon forgotten, and future generations don’t know what they are missing. Take some time following waters through your own city or town, you might be surprised at how many wild waters are now buried under the roads and channeled into the sewers near your home.
EEC Forest Stewardship 