Backyard Reflections

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I live here, and show gratitude for the privilege to wander these hillsides, mountains, and river valleys; home of sdukʷalbixʷ The Snoqualmie.

There are glimpses of what has, and could be again, in a fauna restored to old growth temperate rainforest with massive water systems in rivers, wetlands, tidal bays, delta outflows, and ocean tides. This land is legendary, once roaming with countless elk, where now only echos of mega-fauna, wandering in fractured herds along the valley lowlands in unsustainable patchwork “habitat”. Developments continue to push the last creeks and wetlands into parkland space for RVs and horses. Wilderness flickers in final forages along edges, with few avenues into quiet repose. Two stroke engine noise pollution running daily all around, dogs, hikers, electric bikes, and recreational vehicles push further into what was once peaceful wilderness.

Our encroachment continues, as King County, where EEC Forest Stewardship resides, is the most affluent and economically successful county in Washington State. The northeastern part of said county, where Duvall was founded, is the furthest out you can get and still be in King County. People pay a lot of taxes on these properties, making it harder and harder to afford a life here. More and more houses are built, just as more and more homes are put up for sale. There is a retreat of older locals out of the county, as more young tech workers move in- closer to Seattle and jobs. Salmon, elk, deer, cougars, bobcats, and all the countless forest plants and other animals are removed to make way for more people with grander lifestyle. In the more rural counties, people pushed out of the expensive areas are still expecting the convinces of city life, and so, strip malls and fast food trails after them, broadening the footprint of country beyond designed capacity.

What do we do? Well, the underlying issue around much of the current development is maintaining what’s already there- or not. Usually not, and it’s costing us as tax payers, which developers always fail to talk about when presenting new build. What happens when the new build gets old, and no scheduled upkeep causes rapid urban decay? There are countless empty buildings standing in many cities now, in a post COVID world. No one wants to pay the cost of rent in cities now, and no one can afford housing, yet empty buildings remain, and everyone looses. But in rural areas like Duvall, the gluttony of development is strong- tearing down old farms to make way for expansive apartment complexes, now called town houses, to make it sound fancy. There are hundreds of new build 3 story homes going for 800,000 or more, and offer rural charm with city access- though traffic is an elephant in our proverbial zoo that is a two lane state highway.

The traffic on a typical weekday evening is backed across the valley and up to a mile beyond, making the quaint 45 min drive from Seattle a 3 hour ordeal in the last ten years of growth. Where do the new family sedans and midlife crisis vroom vrooms go? Line up and wait- but Light Rail is coming- 30 min away when there is no traffic, but there is- from Redmond to Duvall, light rail won’t change that, but it will let us get to Seattle from Redmond on reliable public transit. Our other Valley Shuttle, runs from the backyard, to anywhere else you might need to go within Snoqualmie Valley. It’s delightful to know your public transit options to help make an impact on emissions and traffic. If more people could rely on such options, we’d have a much better flow in commuting and commerce. Do I? Light Rail once to the airport- but usually, I put in less than 30 miles of driving a week total, but if I ever need to do daily commuting to a job in town, I’d have public transit. Once the Light Rail gets to North Redmond Transit Station, I’ll be able to take public transportation, at reasonable hours, all the way from Duvall to Seattle with ease, which might solve the traffic headaches.

The backyard plan at the old farmstead is that pair of mules and a wagon. I’d like to find a possible rout from my house to town, but the turn out my driveway heads onto a 35mph double blind well paved road with frequent drivers doing over 50. The mule team and wagon wouldn’t have a chance if a logging truck came flying around the corner. Just as I was planning to move West from Vermont, I began dreaming about riding in a wagon cross country. It was then I looked up possible success stories and only found this. Needless to say, I dropped the whole idea at the time, but am now back to the dream, a little scaled down to my own backyard. It’s a future possibility, but not right now.

These days the truck is a loyal worker, hauling mulch, shavings, firewood, camping supplies, livestock, fruit trees, and more. After ten years of hard work, we’re still a great team, with a fresh set of back country tires, “Reptile” as she’s affectionately named, will be spending more time in the wilds through the seasons at The Snoqualmie Tree Farm, where I hunt, fish, harvest firewood, hike, and snowshoe. Though my most recent late May visit to the higher elevations in that private 90,000,00 acres surprised me with several feet of snow still on the ground in some places. I was not dressed for the weather, but still enjoyed a splendid hike up to some alpine lakes on a foggy day.

The Central Cascades are right out the back door, and within a few hours drive, you can be at over 4,000 feet of elevation and on a trail taking you into back country magic. You can drive another three hours in the opposite direction and find yourself facing The Pacific Ocean, and endless beaches and tide pools on dramatic scale. What an epic coastal landscape, and though EEC is tucked away in the hill country of The Puget Lowlands, it’s a jumping off point to wilderness and adventure just a few steps out the door and down the trail. One of the most often used treks in my own life is The Tolt Pipeline. This fantastically uneventful avenue is safe for dogs and easy to navigate, offering some intense up and down climbs with well drained gravel course to allow smooth foot travel or a breeze in the saddle. I still have to brave about a quarter mile of Big Rock to get to my local access, but once off the blacktop and onto the gravel trail, it’s smooth sailing all the way into The Tree Farm and beyond. I even accesses some good hunting spots by bicycle- and might again off Kelly Rd.

The Tolt Pipeline offers a variety of side trails, but the 8 mile stroll (one way) from my house to the foot of The Cascades is beyond where most people tread. Where the trail terminates, the pipeline continues, all the way to the reservoir up in the lower start of the mountains- as shown on the topographic map below.

This trail is still public right of way, though the access is not easy to find, and the gate is locked, so you’re still on foot, bicycle, or saddle. There is access into public land on the north side of the trail, but the south side remains tree farm, and as you continue east, you’ll end up being off the right of way and in the tree farm, so have proper permits to enter if you want to get to the elevations on this rout. I love it because it’s out the back door without the need of a vehicle, but to get into the tree farm with my truck, I have to drive south about 45 min to get in through the gates we get keys to when we buy a rec pass from JP Morgan. Corporations are people too, and they can own vast swaths of natural resources in a landscape near you. At least I can by my way in, and have for the past ten years. May the access remain available for years to come, as I get much of the wild food I enjoy from this access, and the wood that heats my house in the winter- another crucial part of my personal survival.

Even the water I drink from my well is part of this larger landscape, so water, shelter, food, and mental/physical well being rely on the surrounding backyard, and that goes for most everyone. Sadly, a lot of folks are suffering from ecological amnesia, and it’s costing us our basic needs. If you can’t drink from your tap, there’s a problem. If you can’t access locally grown affordable food, there’s a going concern, and if you can’t find peaceful mental relaxation in a green space within a few minutes of your dwelling, there’s a blow to mental wellness. If there is no access to wild places, clean water, and food- quality of life suffers, and eventually, the human condition breaks down. When society begins development around finite resources and basic needs, when the wilds are given space to breath, when people find caring to be more productive than manipulation for personal gain, when the people can look one another in the face and say hello, ask for help, and trust one another; when that world arrives, I’ll have my two mules and a wagon in the backyard.

Green Energy (Part 3)

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Slow=conserve

Fast=burn

These two simple factors will measure anything you’re in wonder about regarding ecological consumption and what actions are pure wash of greening. Take the bus, bicycle, footpath, when you leave home- or how far do you drive? How often? Flying is in it’s own category-obscene consumption. What about transport of all your acquisitions? They have taken- multiple boats, planes, trains, and trucks to get to your front door (convenience). This is step one of the great flawed techno-solution scramble we’re all missing in our daily intake. Understand that much of this problem is orchestrated on purpose to perpetuate need. If it’s all right around us, we don’t have to reach far. Local vs. global, but we went global with extraction and pulled all the supply chains together into a huge, heavy net; choking the planet with billions of shipping containers. Convenience is killing us.

Why are we not thinking about how to reduce driving? It would mean redesigning whole city layouts, developing rural public transit, and actually cultivating thoughtful action in our communities to plan group travel and ride share. Instead, we’re spending billions on driver-less cars. What a waste of energy to perpetuate individual use- which makes us all buy more. That’s the key challenge to any change for the better in our transit- greed. Corporations don’t make money on public transit, but what if we prioritized transportation for our economy as a whole? What if developments had to plan foot access to major food, medical, and greater transportation needs? All this can be done, and paid for- if we shifted priority away from selfish to flourish, and held corporate development and personal greed (in all ourselves) responsible. Get ready to embrace some real vision shift.

Could mining take the last of these finite resources and use them to develop great public transport to shift our cities away from self driving cars? What if a bus came every half hour to a stop less that 10 min walk from your house- would you take it? What if gas cost 10x the price of a bus ticket- you would then, and gladly- but you’re right- there’s not a bus every half hour- at least not here in Duvall- yet! But we do have a local bus rout you can reserve a seat on, and the shuttle will come by your house to pick you up with a reservation. Seattle Light Rail is coming to the next town over from us, which will make it possible to get a direct ride to the city, and major international airport too. Just for the record- flying is tons (literally CO2 tons) more footprint than driving, and would be the largest annual saving of carbon emissions after not having children, which is #1. But back in Duvall, I know bus routs will grow here in our small town as more housing developments grow, and Light Rail expands, so we’ll have access in the next few years. Right now, it would take me 3 hours and 4 buses to get to Seattle from home. That’s not viable for a job in the city, but I work from home. If more of us did that, we’d also help decongest roads.

Smart urban development will also assist us in building a better world to live in together. But we have to support the change we want to see. This is where local planning meetings in your town are crucial to partake in. Here in Duvall, we have a 60 year plan of development mapped and activated. It’s frightening, but in hand with larger county planning, which has asked smaller towns to spread out and make room, while in Seattle, high-rise apartment complexes grow. It does forever change the feel of Seattle, but allows for the population growth without urban sprawl in an already constrained urban footprint- surrounded by water on two sides. While Seattle grows up, Duvall grows out- to a point, but rural unincorporated lands like EEC Forest Stewardship will remain undeveloped- if properly set up to prevent building in future. A land owner can do that here in Washington, by selling their development rights to the county, which then uses them to develop in highly urban density locations. Click HERE to learn more.

Stop building new infrastructure until we can afford to maintain what we already have. I watch oil extraction open new wells without cleaning up the old ones they abandon- that should be illegal. New roads are paved as old ones rot away and cost billions to repair. The new roads only add to a city’s cost woes in the long run, but bad development like this is perpetuated by poor planning and short term greed. When we can mend and make do- we should! The real “green” revolution is led by up and coming generations who don’t have cars, live with their parents- because housing is unaffordable and multi-family homes are a real green deal. If we can address housing, transportation, and basic necessities for pedestrians, we could save so much in resources, we might be able to address some other outstanding consumption addictions, like highly processed foods, and people having no time to cook for themselves. I’ll save natural gas stoves for another talk another time, but think about what you plug in and do not think that plug is a green out for your consumer troubles. That electric grid is still coal, oil, and diesel run- and all the rare earth minerals which go into our technologies is killing us and our planet.

So when you can- share a ride, ask for better access on foot, plan your shopping in a localized way, ask for smart urban development, and ask what you can cut from your consumption addiction. Take the train, bus, or carpool when you can. Don’t get more plug-in things to fill your wall sockets. Don’t buy into green wash. Call it out when someone is trying to sell you such crock. Move towards a lifestyle which uses less driving, more home grown, and local economy whenever possible. Remember your life before Amazon? Get off the addictive buying screen and get out in the world on foot to discover what you really need- then discover your food desert neighborhood, or a mile down and back up a nice ridge to acquire trucked in groceries, and some local farm products when available. There would be a heck of a lot of walking- but also a hauling challenge, hence the car- I know, but what if wagons returned electric (locally cycling off our river’s current) public transport up and down the main hill? Maybe bicycles? Back to all this walking, realize modern foot wear sucks and start designing a wearable shoe not made from industrial extraction materials- hmm… Food for thought. Thanks as always for reading this and reflecting.

Gill Update

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Big Dog is working and playing- with a little help from PawOpedic out of Issiquah, WA. Above, out Kangal moves with his sheep back to the barn- on leash here because we’re between fenced pastures in the wildlife corridor along our creek. Livestock can move through, but not be left to wander into the forest grazing. They catch a quick bite of grass along the road as we transhumance. What a world it would be indeed if there were no gates or fencing- we could walk like this for miles- but no need with enough well managed space within our bounds for now. Gill does not mind, as long as he gets to patrol, which, once back inside the fence, he can. The guardian of our farm is physically fit, though requiring a brace and over-site in his rounds. The routine now involves more leash time to make sure his weaker leg has enough warmup time before Mr. large and in charge prances off to check the fence lines.

While the ewes and lambs rest in lush pasture, Gill keeps up the pace to make sure all the perimeter markings are up to date with scent communication. Fresh lines keep visiting predators aware that this territory is well maintained by a resident farm friend, who will happily give a bark reminder that the animals within are not available for consumption at this time. Our only predation last year happened when I was away, and a helpful farm sitter was taking Gill in the barn during the day, and away from his post with the geese. There is sometimes a great misconception that LGDs (Livestock Guardian Dogs) are like pet dogs. They are not. LGDs have extremely thick winter coats to keep them very comfortable outside in most temperatures. Gill’s Kangal roots are from the Anatolian Mountains of Central Turkey. If I brought him inside my winter heated home (68F), he would be miserably hot and uncomfortable. Also, he would be away from his favorite, and most helpful job- night watchman.

Kangals love night watch- that’s why you’ll see them sleeping a lot during the day, they guard best in the dark, when predators are much more active. This does not mean they are unaware during the day- Gill alerts at anything out of the ordinary- not the deer who come through by the creek a few times a day, but at the bear lumbering through, who produces a distinct sound, smell, and energy that Gill’s 5,000 year development as a guardian animal protecting flocks against wolf and bear. He is not phased by construction work going on next door, or people walking past in daylight having a conversation. But he would bark if people walk by at night. These dogs know intent, and nothing gets past them. Once in a while I have to check myself with, what I perceive as a normal action- walking into Gills area with a shovel to clean- which he sees as me coming at him with a weapon. It only happened once, and his reaction was to tuck his head and tail and turn away from me, slinking off behind his chalet. I froze in that moment, horrified at my own naivete.

Gill came to Leafhopper as a rescue 3 years after being born in Turkey, and found on the streets of Istanbul. He was well socialized and good on leash, with the obedience expected of his breed- aloof, but well aware, and patient. He warmed to the sheep immediately, and took on the job as flock guardian willingly. His appreciation of daily rhythms- including guarding, making the rounds, scent marking, and smelling the news, Gill settles into a bone chew, nap, or lazy lean against his chalet. He’s tethered there a bit, but it’s nearest the barn and at his favorite watch spot in that pasture. The Chalet offers full shelter and luxury comfort both inside and out, and Gill has put in a few custom holes to lay in to keep his core warm or cool, depending on the time of year. His other big asset for outdoor life is his wardrobe, which is more well stocked than any manufacturer could supply.

Right now, Gill is shedding his second coat. His first came out in March, before it was even above freezing- and he was so relived when I brushed him out. The second coat takes more time, and drops a lot more hair. I’ll keep brushing through the next few weeks, and thankfully, the weather has stayed below 80, so he’s not uncomfortable. Mind you it’s May, and because of climate change, we’ve had more and more April/May 80s days, but this year, cooler temps prevail. I brush Gill out in places I like his scent to be strong- like the gates of pastures, and around the barn. I’ll even take gathered hair to the chicken coop, and spread it around. That’s a scent guard. A lot of his shed will end up in bird nests too, and what stays on the ground will add calcium to the soil as it breaks down.

Gill is also very devoted to his flock. Taking him away from his job and his pack stresses the guy a bit, and since his whole world is security, he will take on said task with gusto where ever he’s established, so the truck is his when he’s riding in it to the vet- his only trip off site. Now, he was well socialized as a puppy to take in and accept change and newness with guided support, but Gill is at his most relaxed and happy near the barn with his flock. That job and stable surroundings, with good training; creates the dog’s best life and role on the farm. He’s a working breed through and through, and has the great temperament with people that Kangal’s are celebrated for. This dog remains a crucial part of our operations, as a respected co-worker and friend. With his loyal support and kind nature, both the animals he protects, and the wildlife he warns off, remain safe. Thank you Gilly-Bean!

Insects are Amazing!

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Leafhopper Farm is all about insect helpers, and know how important they are to the environment. But only recently, has it begun to become apparent how much more is going on in an insect’s mind, that’s right folks, insects have brains, and they think- a lot, and learn, and can be trained. Check it out!

2024 Year of The Maple

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In February, 2024 our elder Big Leaf Maple began a final bow to the ground. The upper branches of this giant wove into other surrounding trees as it fell, slowing its final decent, for now. Hoping the root ball was still connected, I have chosen to leave the tree as is to allow spring bloom, summer leaf out, and fall drop before trimming some of the branches blocking the access. No part of the bridge was harmed, though a beefy branch did fall onto the bridge and needed to be removed. Much of teh debris that came down fell on the banks of the stream, building a natural mesh of organic matter to help hold the steep wall of clay and gravel. So much of the original stream bed of our creek was eroded away after two rounds of clear cutting, and without more restoration down stream, flooding and erosion will continue to damage the landscape.

Allowing trees to fall and stay where they land builds fast forest floor and water retention, encouraging resiliency in the face of drought. Along with all the wonderful restoration rolls a fallen tree offers, our maple also gifted us with edible flowers. As the cascading blossoms unfold, we took and afternoon to harvest a bag or two for the table at home. Since the branches of this tree are now in reach, we had an easy time picking this spring feast from our grove.

For my first taste of maple blossoms, I added some nettle, butter, and salt, then mixed into a greater fried rice dish with egg and pecans. Just a sprinkle of summer sausage and the full range of flavors came through in this delicious dinner. To eat from our trees, fed such nutrition from the land, this is the dream. Finding feast where they land enables a deeper connection to our ever changing woodland, reminding us that even falling trees are full of treasure to enjoy.

Why Livestock?

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Leafhopper Farm LLC was created to use domestic animal systems of grazing and foraging to regenerate soil health and fertility. A recent movie that gives great information on why livestock are so crucial to regenerative farming practices is laid out beautifully in “Sacred Cow“. This film explains how domestic stock, when raised in harmony with their surroundings, rather than industrially in crowded pens with overflowing manure pollution. There are also topics in human misdirected diet scemes, degradation of land through industrial practices, and crucially, how we can mend the land, refocus our livestock systems in favor of animal well being, while also acknowledging the cycle of death and rebirth in our world. I’ve cropped a scene where James Rebanks, author of “Pastoral Song“, lays out the argument for rewilding hand in hand with regeneration to support people within the ecological landscape. His farm is an analogue for Leafhopper, and you’ll see some similarities. The sheep are deeply ancestral for many of us, and play a vital role in wet, cool, hilly regions of our world- the marginal land in traditional agricultural thinking.

For EEC Forest Stewardship, the animals of Leafhopper have also been bringing back nature’s neighbors- such as moles, frogs, red wing blackbirds, great blue heron, salmon, and much more. By removing chemical treatments, harsh overgrazing, and monoculture, we’re inviting the wild spaces to return within our modest acreage, which in turn, helps to weave the surrounding wild parts into a stronger framework for nature to thrive. Slowly, the land has responded with more vegetation and resiliency to drought, floods, and future fires. We’ll keep folding the animals in to improve overall productivity, diversity, and adaptation.

A new batch of chicks develop in the incubator, our geese are starting to nest, and we’re still waiting for two more first year ewes to lamb (8 lambs and counting). Dandelion and nettle harvest are on- I got my favorite hand stains this last weekend picking the delightful flowers.

Our young chocolate lily and camas bulbs are also up and running for a second year- and we sent last year’s seed harvests back to Oxbow Farm for germination of more native plants. It’s certainly the time of rebirth here at EEC. With all the new life and energy bursting forth, we give thanks for all the creative force thriving and jiving all around.

As the season continues to unfold, we look forward to new fruit blossoms, more lambs, baby chicks, and the weeds too. Blackberry is set in it’s hedges for the year, and we’ll look for the berries in August. With Spring comes tempests, and we’ve already had our first real hail. Yup, not the little grapple from recent climate change past, but full on pea sized hail now, and probably not for the last time. Enjoy this brief but spectacular footage of this first for us here at EEC Forest Stewardship.

2024 Vision

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Hello, welcome to a New Year. There’s a fresh batch of lambs here at Leafhopper Farm, and the forest all around is alive with bursting buds and early alder pollen- yes, it’s late February, Spring for us here in Western Washington. Our Oso Berry is unfolding white petals of elegant cascading blossoms. Blackberry leaf buds are spring forth, signaling my clippers and maddock to get in their last removals before bird nesting commences. Hard working dogs alert at hawks in daytime and coyotes at night. Hens are laying- a dozen eggs, still at $7 here, but the grain price is up, so egg-flation might hit soon. Free range gleaning, Scratch and Peck feeding, hard working birds. Two clutches hatched this winter, with a third planned for March. Our land will host a second Women and Girls’ Hunter Education Class in April. Much to look forward to.

But enough about Worm City, we’re moving these blog updates to Monthly’s while I take 10 years of these call and responses with land living and sew a few chapters for a fine harvest of stories- both lessons and givebacks, into a book. There are tears, but more laughter in the paragraphs of fantastic exploration and good reflection within. Soils and toils have begun to weave growth and light, both outwardly in stem and leaf, hoof and bleat, but also inwardly, as I continue this work and vision that is EEC Forest Stewardship and Leafhopper Farm. Gratitude to all who shape and support this thriving life!

Mentors

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It’s such an important part of sharing experience and wisdom, the simple act of connection, an invitation to join, follow, and watch. Though I harvested my deer earlier in the season this fall, I could not pass up an opportunity to head out into my beloved woods with the person who connected me with my passion for hunting here in Washington. Wes grew up in these forests around Snoqualmie, and has spent a decade sharing these special places with me in an attempt to pass on his knowledge and love of the outdoors. My grandfather also connected me at a young age, and I am so grateful for the people in my life who saw my love of wilderness and helped me embrace it.

I spent my own childhood catching anything that moved with my bare hands- except snakes! The days of barefoot creek wanders and horned toads scurrying thorough hot red sandstone cliffs lining oak scrub woods in Oklahoma set a tone of nature connection. My grandfather picked up on this soulful draw, and taught me the song of the red bird (cardinal), how to catch a crappie, and why asparagus needed to be cut young. When I moved to Washington, I was not expecting to become a hunter. The notion of killing a large animal had remained daunting. I’d harvested a few road kill deer in my life, but perusing big game in the epic forests of The Pacific Northwest seemed a step beyond my capabilities, until I met Wes during a long bow making workshop. Wes and his wife Sharon, also an accomplished hunter, gave a talk on bow hunting and how to get certified though hunter education for legal harvesting with proper tags. It was an informative and motivating talk, after which, I approached Wes and Sharon to ask what to do next. They said to get certified and then contact them. So I did, and it changed my life.

Since getting certified and starting on the road to harvesting wild food, there’s been a lot of learning. Wes has been there through most of it, coaching my shooting, honing my sights, and building up my confidence through encouragement and just the right amount of push. The opportunity to observe and shadow a man so gifted and connected to nature has deeply influenced my own place and self-identity. I don’t walk into the wilds with just anyone- especially with guns and the intention to kill an animal. This truly sacred act is one best done with someone you trust. For me, Wes is family, and he has taken me places I’d never have gone alone. This mentoring has deep purpose in us humans, and sharing talent, expertise, and confidence is a priceless thing, given without expectation when given freely. I don’t think Wes would have been as invested if I was not following through on my own. My first deer harvest was entirely solo. I kept going out, got certified as an instructor myself, and have taught with Wes to ensure our privilege to hunt remains strong.

This is an important part of mentoring, to ensure the continued knowledge and experience grows through future generations. We are not blood kin, but Wes is family, he and I are both non-parent adults, but see the sacred bonds that form through mentoring and know you don’t have to have kids to teach, share, and devote time to supporting young people. Mentoring is a way to give stability to kids in need of safe adult connection. It’s a worthy way for me as as confirmed non-mairrage/non-parent to still be deeply connected to the future generations, helping to cultivate joy, confidence, and personal growth- for me and my mentee. I’ve not only continued to mentor in the hunting world, but also in our local school system, to ensure the gifts I received in time and energy from other loving adults keeps growing. I think it’s one of the most profound ways to thank my mentors- passing it on. What a world we could live in with more adults being kind and connected to youth around them.

What Wes has offered me is priceless, and I know I will proudly carry on his lineage of nature connection and profound respect for the living world I am a part of forever. I also have a vision of being in my 70s some day with a shadow of my own who keeps the learning alive. In laughter, celebration, and gratitude to all who connect, share, and care. Thank you all for giving me such light in my life, and the skills to be thriving in this world.

Turkey Hunt 2023

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The birds had us this year, with cold, wet weather and gusty winds, the morning was adventuring and scouting, with good company and great land exploring. My hunting buddy also taught me a lot about state forestry practices and improved habitat initiatives- including snag preservation and leaving larger trees, already well established, to improve future groves. There were hundreds of burned acres we witnessed, but stayed out of, for a myriad of reasons, including erosion prevention and completely denuded landscape, which gave no cover, food, or shelter to wildlife; thus barren of Turkey. Environment is unraveling, yet also spinning new webs of restoration, sometimes tangled, uncomfortably rough, wearing raw emotion.

Dynamic movement up and down ridges and hills, circling tight patches of public land, and seeing the human nature of ownership, and short sighted carved up natural resources. Turkeys were brought to Washington State by ignorant colonizers. Ecological preservation had no cognitive ring to end industrial extraction genocide- it’s still only buzzword with little substance for profit father god. That’s to take in, with slow breath, then exhale in disgust and live on. Stepping back into the field, where a friend and fellow environmentally aware woman, hunter, and professional conservationist shared pursuit of invasive species offering a good meals and well earned dirt time. Possible harvesting of our favored galliformes– the heaviest member of that order. We were mesmerized by larches still grasping their needles of golden majesty. What spelndor set against dark green fir and pine, undulating in the wind, up and down hillsides, an ocean of once flowing forest now worn to patches dotting here and there.

Turkey like large open spaces, and fire naturally accommodates this, opening up new seed dispersal avenues for terrestrial birds to scratch and peck at, spreading vegetation and new plantings throughout exposed soil. Surprisingly, humans clear with even more enthusiasm- with no intention of restoring habitat for anyone but themselves. The productivity of barren land declines into desertification. Agriculture relies on inputs- heavy labor extraction, and exposes ground eroded by the elements, robbing the land fertility. Many clearings here in east central Washington are residential development. The resort sprawl off Waitts Lake caters to many an exposed cut and unchecked edge clogged with young pines and brush. A resident flock enjoys dust bathing and endless forage in the needle beds and weedy mounds between RVs and little cottages all in a row.

Our other major sighting on our one full day of hunting, reside at the municipal water treatment plant. How delightful, a sort of hot springs, if you will. These birds are fat and sassy. One tom was actually presenting to a mixed flock, which stirred up the other males and sent the hens scurrying off to forage in peace. It was out of season for courtship, but an El Nino year paired with exponential warming climate makes for confusing times. Our red alders are still clinging to green leaves in late November. Change continues, though on a much faster track than most of us realize. Still, turkey adapt well, and have established a thriving presence around the country.

Where a new species establishes, it usually pushes out another- directly or indirectly. Our native grouse populations on the east side of the state have been deeply affected by fires in the past decade. Habitat loss has and will always be the number one harm for all wildlife, but we like to skip over ourselves as responsible, thus putting more effort into profits as usual. The amount of subdivided lots for sale around The Coleville National Forest was a little shocking. Countless 5-10 acre lots with fresh clearings, barbed wire fencing, and an RV or trailer home on a freshly poured pad mark each domain. It did remind me of EEC lands back in Duvall- a lot of similarities could be drawn. But these lots are recent development in an area with high fire risk, slower recovery time, and strained resources. Turkey thrive here, but grouse and elk struggle in an ever shrinking habitat.

On our hunt, we followed a pair of mule deer through a stand of more mature forest, but quack grass chokes out native ground covers like kinnikinnik, a favorite ground bird foraging berry in late fall. Invasive plants exacerbate burn hazard in the environment. Evidence of much needed fire control could really help these lands, but too much fuel has created tinder boxes, and we continued to see vast acres of hot burn, scorched earth across many hilltops. We never saw any evidence of turkey in these overgrown, forb-less ground spaces. Though fire does play a crucial role in habitat restoration, it takes years for the land to fully recover from hot burns, and often, development uses the scorched earth as an excuse to barge in and build on “destroyed” land. Thankfully, science is showing us how important it is to let burned soils rest, or even encourage reseeding with straw mulch where applicable. The wild turkey support recovery by spreading seeds, scratching up the soil, and pooping fertility across vast acreages. Though they are invasive, these birds are also filling gaps in the ecology, where once thriving populations of grouse would have played a similar role.

The season is not over yet, and another trip to the east side this winter might allow for more hunting opportunities, but it’s a heck of a drive to turkey territory, and our home flock of Cotton Patch Geese are thriving here at EEC Forest Stewardship. Still, getting out in the larch and pine forests over The Cascades is always a great change of ecology and learning adventure. So much gratitude to the land, friends who share a passion for hunting, and the living world we are deeply connected to once we’re out in it.