The last two weeks of August have signaled the start of fruit harvest. Blackberries have been particularly abundant this year, and as I’ve been cutting back the bramble cane, I’ve picked fruit from the invasive hedges of Armenian Blackberry on the fence lines around the property. There is a sweet reward from all that bramble, and I’ve been taking full advantage of this corp for many years. This year, 2025, was the best yet, with about 60lbs of fruit picked and crushed, then heated and strained into two five gallon carboys for fall fermentation. Blackberry wine is divine, and I look forward to bottling the end of summer sweetness to uncork in the cold dark winter to celebrate, letting a little of that summer warmth pour into our festive cups.
wine making is an active craft, from harvest to bottling, each step takes hours of prep and execution- not to mention the clean up. During the first fermentation of alcohol, berries need additional sugar to feed the yeast enough for chaptalization, turning the glucose into alcohol. So, the additional 10lbs of sugar in each carboy are not there to sweeten the wine, but to feed the yeast for higher alcoholic content. The first three days of fermentation, oxygen is allowed into the jugs to multiply the yeast. After that, each carboy has an airlock to allow gas out, but no oxygen in. Ethanol and carbon dioxide are released during fermentation, so there has to be an escape rout for the gasses, but you don’t want air in, so the lock is a must for wine making. I am comforted by the slow bubbling noises during winter evenings, in fact, last winter when I bottled the wine and the airlocks went silent, it took me a few days to get used to the silence.
While cooking the fruit before fermentation starts, I take time to skim off froth and sift out some of the seeds. In my first batch, I did a lot of sifting. In the second batch, I only skimmed froth, and left most of the seeds through this first step in fermentation. After 2-3 months, I’ll rack the wine, sifting out all the fruit pulp and seeds, then let the liquid ferment another 2-3 month before bottling. It’s good to get the sediment out of the wine before final fermentation, otherwise you’ll have a lot of gross lee in your wine, which can develop funky flavors in time. Still, I like having the whole fruit in the wine for the first few months of wine making. It invites more fine lees into the wine, for complex flavors like nuts, honey, or bread in the taste, the dead yeast cells are included in this fine sediment that you might like in your wine. I’m not quite that advanced in my wine making skills yet, but every year I learn a little more, which then improves my wine making. I hope to have one of my most comprehensive batches in 2026.
Home-brewing is an important craft at Leafhopper Farm. Our two main crops for wine production are dandelions and blackberries, both endemic species here, and most of North America. They are considered light fruit wines, with lower alcohol count, and best served cold with a charcuterie platter. I’m also a fan of room temperature blackberry wine with stews or crispy goose. Combining the terrior of fruit from our land with the meat from our sheep makes for an incredible pairing. I also like to lay a few bottles down each year to keep for a few years, just to compare flavors over time. Blackberry wine can fortify nicely, if kept cool. I’ll often have at least one bottle pop in the summer due to warm temperatures in the house when the outside temps get into the 90s. It makes aging wine a bit of a challenge. I’m thinking seriously about building a root cellar to protect the vintages as I get more productive. No, I don’t plan to ever start selling wine from Leafhopper Farm, but it will feature with our lamb for friends and family.
As I wipe up all the spilled juice and sugar from the kitchen floor and cabinets, I think of the taste to come and don’t mind the mess. Home brewing is not simple, and you make a lot of mess, but the outcome is superb, unless your wine goes south due to a bad fungus infestation or what I call sock flavor getting in. This is caused by unwanted bacteria that can get into the wine if your tools aren’t sterile, or oxygenation happens late in fermentation. All sorts of problems can arise in brewing, any fermentation really, so ideally, you do a lot of experimentation and learn what works and what doesn’t. I’m now 15 years into wine making, and have so much to understand. Life long learning for sure! I’m glad to get a drink out of this schooling from time to time. I will say that at this point in my wine making journey, I bottle more success than bitterness.
In recent months, it has become impossible to ignore the current rewriting of history going on in These United States, 2025. I’d like to take a moment to reflect on history as I was taught growing up in Oklahoma and Texas, then on to New York and Massachusetts. From my geographical history alone, there is a great deal of diverse thinking and cultural identity in The US. In Oklahoma, I dressed as an “Indian” at every Thanksgiving I could, though as a little girl, I was encouraged to be a good pilgrim lady, who would have historically been chattel to men, into the 20th century and beyond- check out where we left women in Afghanistan after 20 years of military occupation. Last, week, news headlines circulated Pete Hegseth‘s publicly spoken belief that women should not vote. I grew up learning how important my right to vote was in this country, and I was certainly not surprised to hear leadership in The US is still questioning a woman’s choice. Our Supreme Court recently voted to take away a woman’s right to her body, so why not her right to vote, or have any autonomy? It was so much easier when she was subservient and under the protection of a man- husband, father, or brother.
So back in Oklahoma, before age 9, there is a holiday called “land rush day“, in which our private Episcopal day school would reenact the occasion and students would dress as “cowboys” and Little House on The Prairie folks. Again, I was in buckskin with a feather in my hair running around whooping and dancing in protest. Mom would even dress up (including a black wig of long braids), renting us both very culturally insensitive outfits- but not traditional regalia taken from a tribe somewhere– that would have been even worse. I knew, even at that young age, we were protesting.
I was taught by my Mother, University of Oklahoma graduate with a BA in History, about tribal lands being taken. She sat me through Dances with Wolves and explained the abuse of Native People, including how we took their land. I didn’t feel guilty about it, I didn’t know my ancestors personally, and was so far removed from that truly violent land grab for resources, it was hard to fully imagine what took place. I felt like I could make a change now, protesting the absence of Native People from the colonial narrative, acting out a part of something where a place holder was needed. It was culturally inappropriate, meant in ally-ship, but not a fully understood truth. That’s the clunky language used today by colonial legacies like me, trying to grasp history and how we’re continuing to repeat it.
From a young age, I understood that most of the surface history we learn is a facade. It can be very helpful to keep history brief and simple for the masses, and trying to get a one track narrative for all to accept and understand is truly monumental when you start trying to narrate world history. I think that’s because of all the rich perspective, but for the sake of this writing and your precious time, I’m going to stick to an Historical narrative about Western greatness and its major flaws. What a topic for EEC Forest Stewardship. In short, I wanted to write this because of a personal quest I’ve been on to track what point in human development did we make a wrong turn and begin our climb to the bottom under the somewhat obfuscated truth around western greatness.
I’ll start with the whole white men and their love affair with ancient Rome. That’s what we model our thinking on, those classical Greek philosophies and literal foundations of Grecian white marble capitol architecture in so many public buildings. Meanwhile, Native Americans were not so quietly wiped from the map as interlopers in the way of some kind of progress lay down by conquering Caesars long ago. Rome declined because of lead poisoning. The mining operations released air pollution that deeply impacted Europe and The Mediterranean for generations. We don’t like to talk about the failures of Rome, but slavery would be another one. The United States is not the first democracy on earth. The Greeks hashed out early forms of voting in the ancient history of democracy, but the formation of The United States was a world’s first at its inception, with a constitution that named all people created equal (though at the time, only land owning white men were seen as such people). No wonder the idea of women not voting is resurfacing. Also, our current Commander in Chief wants us to think slavery was not that bad. Well, the Roman Empire would agree wholeheartedly. And don’t worry women, if you were married, and having children, you would eventually gain citizenship. Though still owned by your husband, and your father before that. Marriage has always been about property exchange.
Speaking of property, please read The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in The Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. She is helping humanity understand concepts like Gift Economy and how to be a gift to the land, rather than an owner. Our minds are so stuck in ownership of things, rights to something, and our instant gratification cannot be met in current consumer addiction culture– Western Culture. In my deep dive into the roots of this culture, extraction economy has dominated our thinking for over two-thousand years. When Europeans finished extracting what they could from their own lands, they “explored” the world for more resources, wealth building, and found that they needed a lot of manpower to do that extracting, and so, they industrialized slavery and created international trade companies to control the sources of their wealth, in other lands. The Americas and Africa were the main pillaging points of European “Western” conquest. This dominion came in two waves. The first was biological, sickness washed over First Nations Peoples in literal plagues. Millions of people died, so by the time the second wave of Colonizers arrived, many of the cities of The Americas were empty, and the small populations ravaged by disease were more easily dominated through enslavement and genocide.
I’m sure a lot of you are getting tired of reading about the negatives, but this Colonial history is crucial to understanding the foundations of The United States and what we’re founded on. Colonialism was about taking natural resources to perpetuate wealth of a few back in Europe, then, as the white population exploded, more and more resources were needed, and too many people lived in the already stripped regions of Europe, so they were then exported to North America and other Colonies to be settlers, bringing a taxable group to the area who could implement better infrastructure and produce more economic growth for the invested wealthy owners of the land. The Land Rush of Oklahoma was so popular, because giving out free land was not the usual offer, but getting America settled for political and economic gain by a few investors had always been the plan of manifest destiny. It was, and still is, an idea of dominion pushed by a class of billionaires who, at least on a map of their own design, dominate the world economically.
We don’t use the planet’s own biorhythms to judge our success or worth, we add up figures related to material things. The guy with the most stuff makes the rules, and it’s been disenfranchising humanity since the inception of ownership. Once we were owned by the land and what it gave us, now we dig up the earth and dam the rivers for ourselves. Sure, we create a stable production line for profit, but slowly, like the mines of long ago, we’re releasing poisons into the air that will kill us all in the end. Today, it’s not only heavy metals, but now toxic ash and smoke from fires rampaging through overbuilt neighborhoods, and from the exhaust of our combustion technology, which still powers everything, including the screens and developing AI we’re all told to count on for redemption. Computer AI can’t possibly create the environmental needs for humanity, it does the exact opposite, consuming more combustion energy and exuding more pollution than we know, because there is nothing regulating it. But microplastics have us no matter what, along with the melting of our planet’s ice. These time-bombs are going off, but, like that frog in warming water, we just sit back and order or stream another pleasure online.
This is the decline of our “Western Greatness”. It’s all down hill from here. Much like The Roman Empire, we will fall to “barbarian” raiders. What? Yes, barbarians in the modern sense of rude, warlike, brutal, cruel, insensitive, and particularly dimwitted people. I won’t go into the history of education in this country, but the trend has been to dismantle public education and the internet scrolling has not helped. Woe to this nation for embracing conspiracies over competence, and now there is a despot leading the charge from our White House.
Montesquieu, the French philosopher who also came up with separation of power in governing, coined the phrase despot. He’s the guy to check out if you want to take your own deep dive into the classical development of governing- from a white, land owning, European male perspective, which also greatly influenced our own founding fathers when they drew up The Constitution. The barbarians of ancient Rome were much like the perceived immigration “invasion” of today. I can see why the white right is demanding immigrant expulsion from America. Though if we take a few steps back in our own county’s founding, we’ll discover that all of our ancestors are immigrants. What do we say to The Native People who were here thousands of years before us? We sweep them out of the way like Israel is doing to what’s left of Palestine today. Oh, and we’re also still sweeping Native Americans out of the way when Colonial legacies want something. Don’t think it stopped in North American.
The United States has a long history of invading, co-opting, abusing, threatening, and warmongering to get what it perceives it needs. Just ask the fruit companies invested in Central and South America. We continue to destabilize the governments of our southern neighbors to aid in our corporate control of world resources, in much the same way our ancestors did during Europe’s colonization of the world. I’m still trying to fully comprehend this tyrannical history that set the global trade stage of the 21st century. Most colonial legacies living in the USA today cannot backtrack far enough into ancestry to see how directly their families benefited, but we’re only living here now because of early successful takeovers through mostly violent means. More have lost in this battle than won, yet there is a feeling amongst many white people today that they are some how the victims. The topic of Land Back is a perfect example. White people in America love to talk about family heritage and ownership. “My family has been farming this land for generations, I have a right to be here.” The formation of said properties still holds a deeper legacy of stolen land.
This concept is not new in America, land has been fought over, taken, owned, burned, invaded, and claimed all over the planet, that’s true, but it does not make it right, or a successful way to live as one world. When we look at people who have remained connected to the land, living with it, rather than dominating it, we see a more balances possibility for a more holistic relationship with the earth. Material wealth tricked us all into thinking we have something, but it’s as empty as the plastic shells we’re all starting into for entertainment and cultural understanding. We don’t go to a community center to learn what’s going on, we check our feed. Well, we are being fed indeed, by an old narrative of dominion in the guise of patriotic freedom. The Christian Nationalist movement is a great example of this in action here in The US. As an atheist, I take great offense to other people telling me what beliefs are legitimate and which ones aren’t. I’ll say I think religion is a great form of control over the masses, and it’s driving hatred of the other on a mass scale here in The United States, as well as unraveling our Democratic process. . I know the teaching of Jesus, I was raised as a Christian. Love thy god and love thy neighbor. Top two rules, all else hangs on these two beliefs. Yet people can’t help splitting hairs and making an enemy of a neighbor somewhere to perpetuate dominion- that’s the devil folks, if you need a boogieman.
This is the narrative dominating The America of today. It’s so threatened by the idea that some of the past choices made by the powerful might not have been the best way for humanity, as a whole, to thrive. In a world of a few rich ruling the rest through whatever power-structure- religious, private global corporations, etc.- the living world, including humanity, continues to founder under such oppression. Without a new global political strategy, our abuse of the planet will ultimately cause a mass extinction, which will include the human race. I guarantee you this will happen before any White South African Apartheid despot can settle Mars, much less The Moon. Humanity has to stay grounded in the current world our population resides in. We must reweave ourselves into restorative change for all, not just a god head or your own family. The world is one family, the human family, the human race. We are bound to our finite planet and all it possesses. What a gift of responsibility, one we white people have squander in our quest for that dominion thing. Perhaps rather than forcing ownership, we look at our personal relationship to the natural world and how we are repairing it. This could be the turn in thinking that begins the restoration of our connection to our planet and each other.
If however, we continue to cling to myths of an outdated Colonial narrative, as some kind of hero worship, we’ll continue to be at odds with our own survival. It’s scary to confront change and evolve. We humans like patterns and predictability, but that’s not how the world works, really, the only constant is change. Embrace the entropy model and figure out how you actually thrive within it. How can you shift the power dynamic? How might you change one or two small things in your life to step towards a more global way of thinking in your local activity? For me, it’s about continued learning, looking at broader narratives, like The United Nations. That’s a pretty good global temperature read based on broad multi-country data. America does not really like The UN, even know we host it in New York City. Though it comes out of the old colonial narrative, it’s also working to grasp global trends and actions that affect the most people on earth. If you’re repelled by this notion, finding it at odds with your America first notions, just remember that Rome fell eventually, and so will our own democracy if we continue to stick our heads in the sand and let dominion run our worldview.
It’s mid August here at EEC Forest Stewardship and the fruit and nuts are on. Though chestnut harvest will happen later this fall, it’s great to see so many burrs forming on the ever growing branches of these hard wood masterpieces. They are flanked by blackberry understory, which I’ve been harvesting by the bucket loads this summer. Though this bramble is usually a foe to be hacked back, it also gifts us with a fine crop each year, and our Cascade Katahdins love browsing the lush leaves of this invasive plant. I’ve been reflecting deeply on this vegetation, and find it’s trying to tell us something crucial about our environment- plant trees. When a shade of continuous overstory comes back, the blackberry goes away. It cannot live in an evergreen forest, and so, plant back the rainforest and remove the blackberry. Even with the slow return of the trees, I find myself cutting a lot of cane in late summer, after the flowers have bloomed for the pollinators and ripe berries are picked. First year cane can go any time, and I have to cut it back anyway, to reach the older growth where the berries are. Nothing cut goes to waste mind you- even if it sits on the ground where it drops and decomposes, the dead carbon material and green manure are wonderful for the soil. Remember the old permaculture adage- the problem is the solution.
Dearth comes in late summer. Dry, crisp leaves accompany the yellow brittle grasses in the pasture. Almost all the flowers have wilted into fruit or dropped off the stem. Nectar death stalks the pollinator community. Shallow rooted vegetation withers into obscurity as the dust clouds up with any disturbance on the moon dust surface of exposed soil. When the rains do return, they will carry these exposed micro materials away in their currents, robbing the soil of it’s fertility for future generations. This is where the blackberry tried to protect the landscape by reaching out tall stocks of cover with broad leaves that spread to defuse heavy rain and shade out the punishing UV rays that bake the soil into oblivion. Look under a bramble patch some time and the soil below is mulched and cool. Layering vegetation, even invasives, are better than parched soil. Where trees offer shade, and dense bramble crops up around the tree’s skirts, a lot of restoration is taking place.
There is still lush green on the trees and shrubs that scatter about the Savannah in the farm’s “back 40” pasture. It’s the furthest from the house and high activity parts of the land. Still, I can drive through 3 gates and be there, and a fine bridge over Weiss Creek gives me full access without much trouble to mother nature’s home. I do not drive back there in winter, when the ground is soft and vulnerable to erosion. Late summer is the best time to be driving back there, usually to carry water to the sheep. I’ve also pulled and bagged the few remaining Canada and bull thistle starting to seed out, and picked the shredded tarp from a fencing project out of the grass before it becomes horrid microplastics… too late. I began this pasture’s restoration planting with chestnuts because there was space for the large trees to mature, and adequate healthy soil to support nut production. There is no irrigation for these trees, so their development is slow going. The actual harvest remains minuscule, especially in hot dry years. At least the rains are returning tomorrow. An expected half inch or more will be enough to help support these young nuts to maturity. The trees are growing up beautifully, and as they spread their canopy and shade out the hot sun, their roots will retain more of the moisture from the soil, and hopefully, better nut crops will come in time.
Blackberry may not be the best companion planting for a nut orchard. I’m certainly not encouraging it long term, but the relationship has been mutual enough for now, with some heavy handed help. I do pull the cane off the trees every few years to prevent them from overtaking the canopy. It’s rewarding to harvest the berries before taking down the lattice of spiked netting. My sheep clamor around the new salad bar eagerly. They love blackberries too, and get the low hanging fruit early in the season. While trimming, I take a closer look at my young nut trees and make sure they are all growing up healthy. This year I will be pruning the chestnuts for the first time. They are all well established now, with 5 out of eight of the original plantings surviving and thriving- that’s about what you can expect from grafted varieties in Western Washington. I have also planted a couple of seed germinated American Chestnuts, but they have not taken off, and I fear the blight will have them in the end. Most commercial nut trees have to be grafted, and the same goes for fruit trees. Berry cane does not have the same challenge. You can bury a cut stock in fall and expect a new plant to grow the following spring. If only our prized nut and fruit trees could to the same.
It’s hard to fully picture the long term environmental change that will happen with the establishment of a nut grove canopy in this field. Eventually, all the brown grassy parts of the picture above will be shaded by mature nut trees like the colossal chestnut above. It will tower high above, dropping a layer of leaf litter each fall that will slowly change the chemical composition of the soil below. I’m planning to seed clover this fall to add more nitrogen fixing around the base of the trees. The sheep will also like that diversity in their grazing diet. Livestock are spreading a layer of cold manure each year to boost soil fertility. They play an important part in the restoration of this landscape by providing an on site conversion of vegetation where it grows back to the soil in pelleted time release abundance in place. How often do we cut the vegetation from the land and take it away? The sheep are butchered and sent off to local family tables, so that abundance is lost to the land, but future generations that are born here retain enough of the cycle to keep things vibrant and in balance on this modest 10 acres. The alfalfa inputs brought here supplement what is taken by providing a dense manure I pick out of the barn each year and spread in the garden beds, orchards, and other productive parts of the farm. Organic material is crucial to maintaining soil. Carbon rich debris like the berry cane or animal bedding are a key part of soil building, and EEC does it by the truckload.
After so much labor, it’s nice to just wander the hedges picking berries and admiring the chestnut burrs as they grow. At the end of summer, bottling the blackberries in a home made wine that will be laid down until winter, when the cork pops and summer’s sweet delight pours into the cold dark winter nights. Sharing a glass with friends and family in front of a fire with chestnuts roasting. This is the image I hold as I pick fruit in the hot afternoon, or when I am pulling bramble down and get poked in the thumb, and even when I sweat in the hot sun cutting cane or shoveling manure onto the hedges where more fruit will grow for years to come. This is the lifestyle I pour my effort into, and from where I stand in the nut grove today, it’s a job well done.
We’ve been cleaning out the barn and prepping the pallets for the annual hay delivery. My usual order is three tons of alfalfa, but because of drought, I ordered an extra 2 tons of orchard grass, in case the pastures can’t recover in time for more grazing this summer. I have about three acres of pasture left, and it won’t hold the flock through another month and a half of the forage they need. I am putting all the cut blackberry into their pasture for extra feed, but if rains don’t return till late September, I’ll have to start supplementing the flock with bought hay, which is never great. Earlier this spring, I wrote about the ewes all dropping singles this year. Well I’m glad they did, because if we had twice as many lambs, we’d already be well out of grazing on this property and having to slaughter early. Local hay can be cheap at the right time, but it’s still more than this farm’s budget and holistic philosophy hope for. I’m going to have to start making stricter choices about the size of flock to remain in balance with what a drought summer can offer.
Hedgerows are setting in, and will offer a lot of vertical forage as they mature. I’ll be reseeding with clover and vetch to diversify grazing and improve diversity in plant life and animal diet. The composted bedding and sheep manure can be spread right onto the ground from the barn after a few months of drying out- so I can easily fork it into the truck and onto the edges. Katahdin sheep manure is nitrogen low, a cold manure that can go right onto the land without burning the plants. This makes it easy to spread on the landscape wherever a little fertilizer is needed. The edges of the property, where hedges are establishing over time, are an easy place to bank up manure compost for future planting. By next spring, I can direct plant into these beds along the fence line and grow another layer of vegetation for future browsing and harvesting.
The hedgerow fence line pictured above includes cherry, twin berry, blackberry, apple, plum, rose, scotch broom, alder, and trailing blackberry. A spread of clover and vetch in the fall will prep this expanded planting area for future shrub and small tree plantings. By slowly plating in from the edges, you turn a pasture back into a forest. These fence line edges won’t expand much more, because the orchard- future food forest with intentional cultivar plantings will continue for at least a few more generations, if fruit trees are needed, if not, the space should be reclaimed by natural forest over time. Oaks can be planted for a savanna recovery from open, somewhat barren pasture scapes that were certainly overgrazed and underappreciated in the last few generations, since their inception at the turn of last century. The heat and drought of our future Puget Lowlands will demand fire resistant, drought resistant ecology, something hemlocks and many red cedars will not survive in as forests evolve. Will this property grow its own alfalfa one day? No, forest canopy and water retention for fire resiliency is the key at EEC Forest Stewardship.
Hay deliveries are crucial to year round livestock operations on this farm. When sheep are scaled out of the restoration timeline, poultry will become a focus, and much of the two largest pasture spaces will have been planted in enough to allow a temperate rainforest her time to recover- several generations of human lifetimes. How many of us can stand in a forest and know our grandparents were alive at it’s planting? How many generations can to trace back in a place? I’m the first of my family to come to and settle on The Pacific Coast. Shepherding goes back though, and droving in Scotland. Perhaps clearcuts of great forests feels ancestral too. How many generations back did my ancestors cut down the oaks in their homelands? Were they also accosted by conquerors, Roman legions that burned the forests to destroy native people in those isles that had lived with the oak for centuries. I cannot weave directly into any first nations of The Americas, but I can trace back along the frayed lines of settlers and spillover from over populated European feudal legacy. Was I talking about hay?
3 tons of alfalfa, there are two stacked here, a first time for Leafhopper Farm’s sheep barn. This temporary greenhouse plastic extension has remained steadfast and true through almost five years. I’m impressed, and recommend this simple building method to expand your barn’s dry cover with little cost and effort. I still tarp this alfalfa for protection against UV rays and opportunistic chickens looking for nesting sites or legume gleaning through the bales. Since I ordered an extra two tons, I had to find more space for the hay this year, thus the rush to get the barn cleaned out, my usual late summer access is blocked by this beautiful winter feed for pregnant ewes.
In the traditional hay barn, I put the two tons of orchard grass, much of which will be eaten by the overwintering rams. That’s right, two this year. Okie is our resident ram from Canfield Farms in Snohomish. His offspring from this year’s lambing, 2025, has shown a promising future breeding ram in Quinn, out of Lickity Split. He has short legs, a sturdy, long back, and mild temperament. Another prospect for quick growth and good frame is “Q”, first born this year and already the size of his dam, the largest ram lamb this year. Size is not always the most favored trait in sheep, but that’s up to the breeder. I look for short legs, long backs, and gentle temperament. There are also breed standards, like no horns, completely shed fleece, and ideally an average of two lambs with each breeding. Those standards should be reached within the genetics of this Katahdin flock. Their winter diet of alfalfa ensures enough good protein for gestation and early life. My ewes produce fantastic milk from well preserved body fat put on during their overwintering in the barn and generous feeding of the precious alfalfa stacked in these barns. This delivery is on par with my firewood stacking. Summer harvest becomes winter larder for the cold days and long nights to come. Or perhaps, to better align with the temperatures of climate change- a larder to get us through the drought of fall and keep up with winter’s cold dark edge.
Another opportunity to get into the alpine wilderness for some exploring and lake swimming found me up in DNR land just outside the tree farm with an awesome mentee. We hiked in to three lakes I’ve written about before to enjoy some cold swimming and wading on an overcast day. In a wet suit, these lakes are swimable, but if you don’t have a layer on a cloudy day, it won’t be long before shaking takes you out of the water. As clouds brushed over the ridge peaks around us, the wind picked up, pulling at the surface tension to create ripples across the reflected gray sky. There was no rain coming out of those clouds, but the cover kept the hot sun away, but made it hard to keep warm in the water. Drying off soon after our aquatic attempt, the flies began to gather and we packed up fast. Moving is the best way to avoid insect encounters, and as we bushwhacked back towards the trail out, I appreciated the breeze that had been chilly, but was now overpowering the flight of small gnats and no-see-ems.
The hike out was peaceful, with swainson’s thrushes echoing across the mountainside. On the way in, it had been silent, and I wondered why the birds did not start singing until later in the afternoon. Many birds are nesting right now, and a few flushed from their nests in agitation as we went by. The other occasional vocalization from nature was a pika. The chinchilla sized dark gray rodents thrive along the scree fields in these high mountain ridges. It takes the eye a moment to find them amongst the boulders with patches of lichen in similar shades of brown, black, gray, and white. This incognito persona protects them from predators, especially those from the sky. Can you find the pika in the picture below? It’s standing full broad side, head facing right. It’s making an alarm cry, and if you look to the left of the taller slide alders in the foreground, you might see it.
Besides the wildlife and water features, this hike goes through some rather special plant communities that specialize in rock faces and mountain seeps. From bear grass to tall bluebells, the plants are off the hook out here. My guess on why this once logged area is still so diverse has to do with allowing the original seeds of the place to germinate and return. When we clearcut, spray, replant monoculture, spray, and cut again in less than 40 years, it degrades the landscape and does not allow seeds to recover in a year or two. Once the plants are removed, only the original seeds can bring them back. In the active logging farm, none of these rarer wildflowers, herbs, and shrubs can be found. Here at elevation, the logging was not worth the trouble after a one time lesson, so the land has been left to its own recovery, and the vast native plant diversity is on show. The orchids were hard to get in focus, they are so small. Wetland plants are sensitive, and because people have been draining wetlands for so long, we often miss the beauty found in these delicate, rare ecologies.
Even through it’s a lot dryer this year in Western Washington, the Pacific Ocean still banks it’s evaporated moisture up in The Cascade Mountains, where this wetland, and most of my mountain adventures take place. The water then cascades down the slopes of these rising peaks, lifted by the tectonic activity of subduction along The Ring of Fire. This complex geology and dynamic landscape are often out of mind in our more recent timeline of human settlement, but the oral history of native tribes often tell of great upheaval in recent past. Geologists studying the layers of sand and plate movement confirm these vast changes caused by the plate movements. I am grateful for the mountains that form out of these tectonics, but also have the threat of earthquakes in the back of my mind.
A spring trip in May 2025, took me to a recent erupted strata volcano in our state that you know might know as Mt. St. Helens. Loowit, as she’s know by the locals- aka, tribal people who have lived in the area for over ten thousand years, had an eruption that was considered minor, but did a heck of a lot of damage which you can still see evidence of today. Mt. Tahoma is my closest strata volcano, and no, it’s not about to blow, at least not yet, but rumblings do come and go, and our understanding of eruptions and predicting them is still evolving. The Central Cascades, where I was hiking on this adventure, is not volcanically active, but is in an area of dramatic uplift.
These impressive granite ridges were once melted magma deep under the earth’s crust. The amalgamation of magma chambers cooled in time as the ground continued its uplift, and after a few million years of glaciers grinding and retreating back and forth along the northern part of the continent, magma chambers, now granite, remain the backbones of much of these nearby peaks. Back down a few hundred feet, towards where I park to hike into these cooler elevations, the landscape is dominated by basalt cliffs of lava that cooled and formed on the exposed surface. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the formations and timelines- and I think a lot of professionals are still debating and forming their own theories too, but the point here is, this rock is old, and the exposed granite can best be found by climbing up into the elevations. The rock is cool to the touch, even on a warm day, and seems to lock in the cooler temperatures that remain at elevation. When the clouds come in, wrapping the whole place in mist and wonder, I am so thankful for the chance to get up into these mountains to bathe in 10-20 degree cooler temperatures that the mountains provide.
Western Washington is a place known for dense temperate rainforest. but in late summer, and even by mid July, the weeks without substantive precipitation takes it’s toll on an already dry trend for our bioregion. The winter rains for two years have been thinning out, I’ve watched a couple of our dry cycles come and go, but the overlapping effects of harsh dry heat without dampness or shade bakes the land and evaporates crucial hydration that plants and animals desperately need. Today the creek that graces this landscape for a little over 300 feet of its journey down to The Snoqualmie River, is slowed to a trickle, and we’ve still got two dry months of summer left. It’s the driest I’ve experienced this place since moving here in 2008. I’m watching large, well established trees turning brown. The drought stress has been mounting for years, as the winter rains shrink in length and scope. Dusty soil can’t take in water quickly, and our rain events are getting harder and shorter, where everything comes down at once, instead of the slow winter trickle of continuous revitalization this complex ecology needs to survive.
Pictures I’ve taken at the end of July show a stark difference between areas of intact canopy with shade and replanted understory, vs. areas that remain pasture with little canopy or diverse understory. Some of the forest stands are without understory replanting, and reflect the desolation of summer drought where trees stand alone and vulnerable. Root systems without proper ground cover and the mesh and tangled branches of brush and understory plants that build the many layers of an intact rainforest ecosystem. Some might call such debris a fire hazard, but where there is good mulch and layering in the woods, water will remain in the soil, keeping fire low and slow as it burns through. It would be easy to lite the dry grass and scorched earth where there is no shade or cover for the ground, but where the shade and layers of vegetation remain, the soil is damp to the touch, and none of the green plants will catch a flame.
The gate where our upper pasture meets the creek wildlife corridor is a stark demonstration of grazed space compared to stream buffer habitat without grazing. The planted space on the right is still establishing, with a lot of blackberry trying to return, but a fast growing forest with understory is returning, and will shade out the bramble and return more nutrients and moisture to the soil. Pictures below show other parts of this replanting that are established and the growth continues.
This riparian area and surrounding stream buffer remain lush and green, thanks in part to being in a low lying area where the creek runs through. Shade remains another strong protector of the soil and low growing vegetation in the woods. This habitat has an established forest present to offer an umbrella of protection to younger growing trees in the nursery below. Within the upper pasture, there are two protected groves being replanted, there is still a lot of canopy to replace for total shade protection, but the young trees are reaching for the sky and creating small communities of other understory plants as they grow. Hazel and alder, wild rose and elderberry begin stitching together edges and hedgerows to bring vertical growth and more brows into tended spaces. The long term over-story of these replanted savannas is white oak. Because of an oak’s slow growth, I’ve scattered big leaf maple, hazel, and a few chestnuts in for deciduous companionship and leaf debris build up for more good soil. The tannin in the oaks will one day push out the other trees and shrubs so the oaks will have enough space as they establish. Succession is crucial in forest planning, the trees you plant today will not be the forest one-hundred years from now- what does that grove look like? Because of the continued summer drought in our region, I see oak savanna as the long term evolution of this forest- a lot like central California.
Our pastures already look like something out of a dry prairie, and it’s not a great look for what should be temperate rainforest. In these dry times, I think very hard about replanting more forest sooner, to help keep the ground wet, but there has to be enough soil to hold the trees and establish the understory. A wise forester once told me to bring the forest in from the edges, slowly transitioning from where the forest is already established. This continues to be the best working restoration action so far, with young trees slowly woven in at the edges where taller trees offer shade and some protection from the elements. Edges are great places to see the most diversity in a landscape, where sun can still reach the ground, abundance germinates. Where there are no edges or canopy protection, the ground becomes quite vulnerable, and the livestock has to come off this moon dust ground in the same way they have to come off wet ground to prevent erosion. There will not be enough rain in the next few weeks to bring back our grasses.
The landscape has about another month of vegetation for the sheep, then we’ll be forced to put them back in the barn on hay. I’ve already ordered this year’s tonnage and I’m getting two extra tons of hay to tide the flock over. I’m irrigating the fruit trees and gardens to keep valuable cultivars alive. People do not often thing of Western Washington as arid, but the following photos show a landscape without water. The upper pasture is resting now, until a good winter rain revives the vegetation. In the mean time, these grasses lay dormant in the dust and heat. If animals were left on these lands, the roots would be killed and the ground churned up into fine particulates that would blow away in the slightest breeze. That’s what happened in The Midwest, where I come from originally.
We are well educated about The Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. It’s why you have a conservation district wherever you live in The US today. In Western Washington, we tilled up all the trees, burned the slash, and set cattle upon the landscape. The topsoil ran off the hillsides and down into our waterways. To this day, dredging is required to keep the shipping channels open in and around Puget Sound. Over ten feet of the topsoil is gone now, and the trees trying to grow here today are pressing down into about 12-16″ of soil, then stonewalled by glacial compacted clay below. When a larger tree is blown over in the replanted forests of today, we note the pancake like shape of the root ball. Yes, the older trees are failing and falling over because they do not have enough topsoil to root down into. Future windstorms will teach us hard lessons about our disruption to this ecosystem. I’ll keep piling on the manure rich compost, chop and drop vegetation control, and rotational grazing for soil regeneration. 10-20 new trees and shrubs are planted here each year, and more to come. The brittle grasslands will one day be shaded out by a multi-layered canopy of oak, maple, fir, and much much more. Gratitude for all the growth in these forests, and the billions of small things thriving below our feet each and every day.
The cotton patch geese are growing up here at EEC Forest Stewardship. Goose and Gander parents are naturals, with the babes picking up all the good lessons in how to glean, swim, clean themselves, and avoid hazards like eagles and territorial roosters. This family flock has also learned how to navigate the electric mesh netting and where to graze after the sheep have rolled through. We’re keeping the gate closed now to make sure the geese stay on the farm. They have been known to waddle quite a ways into neighboring fields if left to their own devices. Luckily there is plenty to do here in our fields, so the geese thrive and jive close to home. Most of the young ganders form this clutch have evidence of grey feathers in their plumage. I’ll wait to make a final inspection once they are fully mature, but male cotton patch should be solid white, so this group of young males will be feeding the farm and friends later this year and into the next. The mater pair will continue their work and be a fixture of Leafhopper Farm’s soil restoration plans. For now, managing one pair is plenty. If in future we shift gears and want more birds, there is an amazing breeder here in Washington to support out plans.
In Cascade Katahdin news, the lambs are growing up so fast! All singles this year- very rare, but the babes all had all the milk form mom, so each babe is large and filling out nicely for the fall. Right now there is a plan to cull quite a few animals this year. I overwintered 10 ewes, and think it was just a few too many, though looking at past flock records, I’ve overwintered ten in the past, but this year, having all singles, I am trying to figure out what happened to cause the low birth rate this year. Most of my reading says it’s about how much protein they get right before breeding, so I’ll make sure to have extra mineral and protein blocks available. Okie, our ram, is looking very good too. I wrote an earlier piece on him this Spring. With two years of breeding at this farm under his belt, I am starting to see what I like from his genetics, and what’s not so exciting- like horns. Yes, a ram lamb was born this year with parts of his horns intact, so he and his mom will be culled. It’s important to keep the breeding standards of a given breed to ensure the characteristics that are wanted.
This year, Spring and Summer weather has been blessedly mild, allowing for good pasture growth and lush food for the herd. As I type, on July 3rd 2025, the clouds are moving in, and we’ll only reach about 70F today. What a wonderful day! Tomorrow’s explosions will find me in the mountains on a high alpine lake hike for a few days. The sheep, after observing for seven years, are not adversely affected by the fireworks. Gill, our livestock guardian dog, is also unphased. I can not say the same for Valley, so she will join me in the mountains to avoid the stress of a loud weekend. I wish the other wildlife- especially the small birds, could know to flee in time. Such massive explosions cause small animal brains to hemorrhage if they are caught by the blasts. Night time flashes of light and loud booms scares many daytime birds into the sky at night in great confusion. Finding their bodies on the ground with death masques of shock and horror helped me step away from a beloved childhood tradition.
Have you ever looked so closely at a thing you can shut out everything else in the world going on? Like reading these words right now. I’m writing them with the awareness of a Douglas squirrel alarming from high branch of young red alder in front of me to the north, the whirling circular song of Swainson’s thrush, staccato with robin alarm every sixteenth .p9 (cat jumped into my lap and typed her own notes) Now she is climbing me- the squirrel call heightens intensity. A plane flies by, but the words keep translating across these page and then your lovely eyes follow the breadcrumbs like stars for a captain. If only we could read the landscape like this- moment by moment, because in thinking about this so deeply, trying to translate the importance of each cycle, instead of living it- I miss out on exactly what is going on and being fully present with it. The barking dogs down the hill to my southwest. Knowing the directions and seeing them in my head. Stretching mind’s eye into the topography and going down that hill to see the farm where the golden retriever lives and knowing the neighbors there. Connection to place and people.
The animals are always there helping me learn languages of the landscape. Because of the low mineral count in these soils, due to complete removal of canopy cover and the ability to slow and sink vast rain events, the chickens need certain supplement inputs to stay healthy. Calcium to grow healthy bones, beautiful feathers, and a protective shell on those precious eggs is imperative, and not easily found in the landscape here. Scratch and Peck layer has that supplement in a loose form within the mix. Each bird can selectively take in what they need. Pellets do not allow this self selection, so some birds are over-supplemented, or under, with no way to easily regulate intake. Pellets are also brought to a high temperature, thus killing many of the beneficial living biome the birds are also expecting in the grains within the pellet. The steam is added to kill off any harmful bacteria, like salmonella, but I ask how the source creates such a high count of these bacteria in the first place.
In doing a little reading, I found that animal byproducts and soy are the most contaminated. The grain my gals get has not corn or soy, and no animal byproducts. It’ also certified organic and yes, expensive compared to many other cheaper steam treated crap on the market that will keep your birds alive and healthy enough for the few years of productive laying you’ll get out of them. You may also see a greater depletion in landscape around the coop as they spread the crap you feed them into the soil. Concentrated flocks will spread concentrated amounts. The flock here at Leafhopper Farm has about an acre of well established diversity in fruits, flowers, forbs, grasses, and more. The coop cleanings go into ageing compost for later use in the garden. All the manure is as clean as it’s source, which to this day, in twelve years of feeding, the land and animals remain healthy and clean eating. This trickles up to the sheep and what they are also eating- the same greens grown by the chicken poop, which then adds in nitrogen neutral sheep poop and the ruminants brows the landscape. What a great, restorative cycle from one clean input source.
What you put in is what you get out. The sources really do matter, and your animals will show you what’s missing, in their health and well-being. Weight can fluctuate a bit- more noticeably in the sheep, especially when they are nursing, some ewes are better at transferring nutrition than others, and that goes into the long term breeding shifts I make for the health of the herd. Long term breeding lines are great at transforming the brush and grasses into good meat and healthy carcass size throughout birthing cycles. The ewes that don’t are culled out over time, but it takes a few years of observing lifecycles before making such choices. I had a ewe who became Skelator each lactation cycle, but her ewe lambs did not carry on the habit, so she was not culled for that trait alone. Not many sheep are culled for a single flaw- unless it’s a huge one, like horns. Ability to convert pasture to meat each year is greatly increased by rotational grazing methods, which are in full swing by early July 2025. Rains and cooler temperatures have given us a very productive second growth after initial Spring grazing rotations. Careful planning and reseeding has brought in clover, plantain, yarrow, dandelion, dock, and several grasses in a pasture with additional hedges to brows, creating that diverse diet from no chemical methods of holistic, restoration farming practices.
Poultry remains the foundation stock of any farm- in being the most prolific and, usually grained in one form or another for maximum production. The surrounding vegetation gets the benefit of all the manure laid down from good inputs, and lush garden, pasture, forest, hedgerow, and stream thrive with more diversity every day. There are some more heavily used areas of the ground that are without much diversity- from the building footprints to heavily rocked driveways, but beneath them, the soil lives on. Near the coop and barn structures, there is a lot of restoration happening to reintroduce more plant-life. The soil had been canopied by some older red cedars, which put out chemicals to make it hard for other species to survive. This legacy left the ground in transition, with much of the over winter barn muck piling on to dilute the tannin soil. Now burdock and dock are working on compaction from decades of cows and horses too. The flock loves dashing around in the knee high leafy forest where insects are returning in droves. The best kind of landscape has the many sounds of buzzing and chirping from the small creatures that are so crucial in our living systems of ecology. Though some of the bugs are less welcome, all play intricate parts in nature.
The chickens are thriving on a landscape at it’s growth peak. As I move the young hatch of chickens from their youngster pen to the coop, where an established flock will need a few days of integration with the newbies. Young birds need a group of buddies for successful mixing into an adult flock. After a decade of lessons and learning by doing- with a flock of about 30 birds, I’ve found that a 10 young birds is ideal for introduction, and six minimum for survival. Small groups of five or less get fragmented by the larger flock and picked off. Safety in numbers really does apply in this species. After three days of confinement- with extra feeding, the whole group gets let out again to free range and the young birds now know the coop is home. With the introduction of 10 new birds, I’ll need to cull at least that number in the Fall to keep the healthy number preferred in this system. 30 remains the magic number, for the flock health, with two roosters. I get more than enough eggs to sell and share, as well as keeping grain costs manageable.
The system does grow and shrink with the annual cycles of abundance and dormancy through the seasons. This is why culling is done in Fall. It also happens to be cool and better for meat during slaughter. My current flock of 18 sheep is grazing fine on the landscape while there is an abundant growing season, but as the summer waxes into full heat, without rain, the grass slows it’s growth and once green pastures lay dormant and yellow through the hot long days. If I’ve managed things well in rotation, there will be enough pasture to get the herd through to fall, when shorter daylight hours slow pasture growth to near stand still, and the plants pull all their energy back underground, into the roots till Springtime and longer days signals a renewal in growth. In winter, pregnant ewes are fed alfalfa twice a day while growing lambs for next Spring, the hens low down laying to rest their bodies and make it through winter, so they don’t eat as much. I actually feed the same organic grain serving year round, in the growing seasons, there are a lot of fresh greens and insects to supplement egg laying. In over a decade of forming the rhythms of this farm, the animals have been stellar at showing me the seasons and what needs to be done. I can’t imagine not working with the animals and having them as crucial labor on the landscape. It’s a lifetime of learning and I’m so grateful for this opportunity.
Around the 4th of July, I headed up into The Cascades with a friend to explore some high lakes and backpack at elevation. Following the west fork of Foss River, we began our hike in a beautiful valley flanked by high peaks that we would soon ascend to. Trout Lake is a familiar camp site just a mile and a half in from the trail head. I’ve enjoyed camping there a few times, but never traveled much further up trail towards the higher lakes. Climbing what would be over 3,300 feet of elevation with full pack seemed daunting, but the beauty was mesmerizing, and stopping at different water features throughout the hick helped break up the endless climb. Val carried her own pack and together, we took each switch back and scree scramble in stride. I was very proud of my legs for carrying me and all my gear without too much struggle. It was some great strength training to step up and down the large rock steps throughout the trail. 1900 feet in less than two miles carried us to the outflow of Copper Lake, where we planned to set up camp for the weekend. it was a pleasant surprise to find plenty of space to set up our tents overlooking a beautiful turquoise cove.
At 4,000 feet of elevation, the blueberries were not out yet, but a thick layer of yellow tree pollen ringed Copper Lake. We had to venture out on the rocks quite a way to find a clear space to filter our water, which tasted cold and crisp from melted snow. Fish were kissing the surface from time to time, but a few hours of fishing with all kinds of bait and tackle yielded only a bit or two, no catches. That’s ok through because we packed great camp food- hotdogs for all! It’s amazing how good food tastes after long hikes, and how little hunger I feel when I am on the trail. There are blood sugar moments, and my friend hiking with me, who also happens to be a doctor, knew when we needed to break for a snack and water. It made for some good self care on the journey.
Much of our hiking was along the outflow from Copper Lake, which was one of many alpine lakes we encountered on our adventure. Near to Copper Lake is Lake Malachite, which we dropped our packs at the turn off to hop up to- and it was a hop, lots of rock stairs and climbs- glad we didn’t take the packs with us on that little side trip. After appreciating Malachite, we returned to the trail to Copper Lake and soon found ourselves crossing the outflow and appreciating the scenery of craggy peaks all around. The last of the snow was still clinging to a few scree piles, reminding us of how high up we were in the mountains. Our first evening, the alpenglow was beautiful. We sat and watched the colors stretch out across a partly cloudy sky as the smoke drifted up from a cozy cook fire. We had fabulous weather too, with sunny days and starry nights, just cold enough to appreciate the sleeping bag zipped up.
The night was cool, but I slept snug in my tent in a down sleeping bag. The next morning, we awoke to swarming bugs and were thankful we’d packed bug nets for our heads. It made the morning in camp easier- bugs are a big challenge in the mountains most of the warmer months. Others who had not packed bug protection were heading back down early. We happily put on our day packs and began the trek to Big Heart Lake, stopping at Little Heart Lake on the way up. We knew the hike would be another couple of miles and another 1,000 feet or so of elevation. It was a comfortable traverse with such light gear. The dogs didn’t have to carry packs either. Big Heart Lake was full of activity, from fellow campers to day hikers looking for a nice rock to perch over the blue waters. A breeze chased off the bugs, so we spent a pleasant afternoon fishing, swimming, and chatting about life. We watched one woman inflate a small boat, then load herself and her pointer in for a row. They made it just out to the open water, then the breeze held them back until the intrepid paddler turned and headed back to her launch point.
Still no fish caught, but we did catch a look at several other adventurers with floats, bug net reading chairs, and other dogs on the trail. It was an amiable group, all finding some shore line and a few hours of peaceful mountain bliss in the warm afternoon sun. I ended up getting a little sun burn on my ankles and feet, but well worth it for the relaxing time on the lake. As the shadows began to stretch along the shore, we packed up and headed back down to Copper, noting the light change on the peaks around us and how high we had climbed. The bugs slowly began to return as we headed back to Copper Lake and our camp, but our bug nets continued to keep out the unwanted pests and we moved back down without struggle. The varied thrush calls were lovely, echoing across the pristine blue marble surface of the water and weaving through the fir trees.Most of the forest in these mountains are very old, through they do not have the same size as valley trees. Altitude and tough winters, as well as wind, keeps these old giants slow in growth but no less noble in stature.
At the end of our second day, we had completed our planned trip up and back from Big Heart Lake, and were now ready for another evening of good food and plenty of sleep for our return hike the following day. It was truly a gift to be in the quiet of the back country instead of down in the loud bangs of Independence Day for white land owning men from England. Please do chew on that reflection for a moment. For almost 100 years after July 4th, many people in The United States were enslaved, unable to vote, and otherwise thought of by free white European men as subordination or even subhuman. Many of these abuses continue today in our country, so celebrating anything on July 4th is a little shortsighted. Having the freedom, time, money, and equipment to hike into the back country is indeed a privilege. I will say that everyone we saw up there was white. There was an even split in presenting genders, yeah ladies! I was not surprised to see no children up here, it’s a heck of a climb. An odd teenager did lank through, but little kids would not make it up this mountain, and I was glad to see none around.
The trip was a chance for some peace and quiet, along with vast vistas and some good working out to reach our rewards. As we made our decent, the outflow of Copper Lake came pouring down the mountain side, one great falls churning down the steep slope. At a lower part of the falls, we stopped to filter water and cool off for a bit. My hiking friend had bruised her leg on a rock and took time to soak it in the ice cold water, which helped a lot. I took time to wash my face and hands after filling the water bottles. It was the best water I’ve had to drink in a while. I tried to take a picture of the huge old growth tree that had uprooted and fallen near the water, but it’s hard to see in mere digital form. Most of these pictures do little justice to the actual scenes we encountered.
To the right in this picture, you see a standing root structure over three stories high. The tree attacked to it stretched out across the forest for a few hundred feet. The scale is vast and difficult to capture on film, but you can see some people standing to the right below the tree to get some idea of size. In this lower forest, incense cedar, mountain hemlock, and grand firs dominate the forest canopy. A few red cedars and alder grow close to the river, but most of this sub-alpine forest remains hemlock and fir. There is no evidence of major industrial forestry in these hard to reach steep slopes, but by the time we had returned to the river valley, the old familiar stumps of felled giants returned as witness to the logging carnage through the last 100 years in The Pacific Northwest. I am so glad there are places to climb up to for a chance to visit more intact ecology of the region.
It was a good challenge to get up into the alpine lakes with a pack and take two nights to rest in the forest high above. What an amazing place Washington State is. As my friend and I reflected on our trip, we both agreed we’d rather be up in The Cascade Mountains than any beach in the world. On a holiday weekend, to be quietly ensconced away in the forest by a still blue lake is a dream come true. May I get a chance to have many more, because there are hundreds of lakes in the mountains here to explore, and it will take the rest of my life to see most of them. Gratitude for the opportunity to be out, that we were safe, that gear worked, animals were cooperative, and the weather too. Glad for a hiking buddy who remained supportive, lively, and open to exploring and climbing up up up into the wild yonder. Thanks to all the stones that held us, the water that quenched our thirst, and the good food that kept our energy up throughout the trip. This place remains a beloved place to explore and learn from.
On the last day of June, 2025, I drove up to the alpine region of the tree farm for cooler air and some good back country time. At SCM Lake, I took a trail I had been told circumnavigates the lake, but I did not expect this to pan out, especially because this area of DNR land has gone back to nature in the last few dacades. There is some minor trial maintenance happening by hikers passing through, but it will take a lot of hours with hand saws and clippers to push back the slide alder and willow reclaiming the old logging roads. Yes, this area was clear cut by industrial lumber industries. I think it took till the 1960s to get up this high, but the much of the old growth trees were chopped and hauled out by trucks. You can still see the sun bleached stumps on the slopes as testament to the forest that once stood. New trees are establishing, and a few old giants- mostly wind topped and therefor unappealing to the lumber market, stand as beacons on high scree fields or along the lakes that dot the low pockets between ridge lines.
The trail I chose goes south of SCM Lake, along one of the old gravel roads. Sixteen foot high willows bend their branches out into the sunlight along these clear avenues along the steep mountain sides. There were large boulders to scramble around, along with crumbling frost heave edges to avoid. My dog Val picked the trail through some slide alder, but eventually, I had to choose my own way through the woven branches, not being low to the ground and able to slide under the low branches and arching canopy all around. It was still smooth travels, and I began to pick up on the wildlife trail I was following. What moved through these highlands and matched my size? Elk, deer, cougar, and bear. As the road began to climb up, ascending to the ridge line above, I began to look around more closely for animal sign. Scat is common along wildlife trails, and I soon came upon some old, but interesting segments of poo. The masses were white with bone and age, sun bleached, and probably buried under snow for a bit of time this winter too. What I guessed were rabbit bones volunteered themselves out of the decomposed hair and powdered remanence of the scat. I could not tell what animal might have left this dump in the woods, but the bones told me predator of some kind. Later, I stepped over a massive pile of salmon berry seeds. Since the plants are only just flowering at this elevation, I concluded the pile was left in Spring of 2024, and, because of the size, that a bear used this trail. Coyote will also have seeds in their poo, but not such a massive pile as this. It was a dinner plate’s worth of spread, no coyote could crank out that kind of refuse in one movement.
I walked about 100 feet along the overgrown road, looking for more recent evidence of wildlife activity. I came to a place in the trail where the animals went up a dirt and clay bank, leaving the road for the thick woods, probably heading up into sheltering spots on the higher ground. There were many tracks in the dirt, but no recent bear. I figured the bears would be more interested in seeking fresh plant growth, young leaves and flowering herbs covered the area. I began to note each species, all in flower, or close to it.
It was amazing to see all the diversity, even after man’s cutting, rocking, and compacting of the environment for industrial profit. With the current administration governing our public lands, these areas could easily be logged again, and soon. Because there has only been one major harvest in this delicate alpine environment, many of the native plants survived because of seeds still in the soil, which were allowed to germinate. Most commercial timber forest does not get a second chance like this. It is cut within 40 years, sprayed with toxic herbicides, and planted with a monoculture again and again. These alpine elevations with steep mountainsides were deemed too difficult to cut, and too slow growing to be considered for long term commercial use. If they are cut again, we’ll loose what’s left of the native plants already endangered by our profit greed.
At a fork in the road, I came upon a scat made this season, maybe only a few days ago, but my aging knowledge of animal droppings is not strong. I do know it has rained here recently, but the poo was relatively intact, so it could have been dropped the night before. I knew it was bear, by the size and shape. Cougar scats are very segmented, full of hair and bone, and usually, accompanied by a scrape or two in the substrate. This poo was slightly soft and piled, full of Spring vegetation, which is watery, causing the scat to soften. Big cats don’t eat veggies. I captured a picture with my foot to help with scale, this is a massive poop, no coyote or bobcat could drop such a pile. Bear are active and around, I grew excited at the thought of seeing one. My pup Val was not as excited, she sniffed, wandered, and checked a few old burrows, but gave no signal that any large wild omnivores were around. Most dogs will pick up on fresh scent, subtle noises, and alert accordingly if wildlife is nearby. My climb continued up into bear country.
At the top of the ridge, the road ended, fading into dense spruce and mountain hemlock groves that can latch on and hold on very steep ground, forming clusters of evergreen canopy. It takes these higher elevation trees much longer to grow, so they are smaller looking than low elevation trees of similar age. I slipped under what was probably a 60 year old mountain hemlock, trying to get a view from the top of the ridge. Below me to the north was the western edge of SCM Lake, and towering above on all sides were more ridges and mountain peaks of crumbling granite and basalt. It was a heck of a place to call home. Carefully, I picked my way back through some loose scree to the road and pushed through some more thick brush to another viewpoint to the west. More rock lined ridges and pipe cleaner spruce forests dotted the landscape. Though all this climbing, a chorus of varied thrushes murmured through the mountains, casting a magical spell over the whole wilderness. It was sunny and cool, breezes brought the fresh lush space alive with dancing treetops and rustling willow branches. The mental unwinding in these highlands remains priceless, and the privilege to come here, taking the time to access far wilderness on a Monday afternoon.
As I turned to pick my way back down from this trail’s end, Val became quite animated and headed off the south side of the ridge, away from the road and our path. She came into a clearing of small boulders and began sniffing all around excitedly. I assumed she was tracking a marmot or pika, but then I saw some truly fresh bear sign and join in my dogs excitement.
Cambium feeding is why tree farms don’t like bears. In Spring, when the saps start flowing in trees after a slow winter, bears seek out the sap by tearing off part of the bark at the base of younger evergreen trees. In a more natural forest, like this one, allowed to grow back from seed, the trees are spread out and diverse enough to handle these predator encounters, but in a monoculture tree farm, bears will come into a whole forest of young trees and hit them with gusto. Sometimes, the cambium feeding kills the young tree, but the one above it more typical; small tear which can heal over time. In the picture above you can see bite punctures on the trunk where the bear bit and stripped this piece off. This could also be a territorial mark to let other bears know who lives here. Val remained on the scent, running around and looking off in different directions, listening, but the bear was long gone. It might have been just off the top of the ridge when we came along, but would have quickly descended away without our ever knowing. I am always blown away by how fast and quietly bears move through thick cover to get away. Some might wonder why I was not more concerned, but between the dog and all the options for the bear to get away, the chance of an actual encounter were slim to none. The few times I’ve ever seen a bear, it was usually the hind end diapering into the brush. Black bear are not usually combative or threatening at all- unless you encounter a sow with cubs. I saw no sign of young bears, yet kept an alert ear and watched my dog’s behavior closely throughout the hike.
We left the clearing and headed back down the road. I kept an eye out for more cambium feeding, but saw none along the gravel road, which was not a huge surprise considering most of the trees on the road are deciduous. It felt like we’d stumbled into the bear’s living room, then headed back out onto the street to give it space at home. Of course, the whole area is the bear’s home, since black bears are known to travel several miles in search of food. They tend to stick to familiar paths and home ranges, not migrating over vast territories. If their larders are drastically changes, say, with clear cutting or the development of a neighborhood where forest used to grow, the bears die out, because they have great trouble relocating to unknown areas where they did not grow up learning about food sources from mamma. Bear trails are often ancestral, meaning many generations of bears share the same larders. The trail I was on today is a well established bear trail, also used by other wildlife traversing the area. Roads are often used by wildlife to get around. They seek convenience the same as people, only we make vast cuts into the landscape to extract natural resources on industrial scale, not on foot with our bare hands like the other animals. It’s sometimes quite hard to fully grasp human scale on the natural world, but it’s short sighted at best.
As the shadows lengthened across lichen shag walls of blue basalt, evening settled across the mountains as we headed back to the truck. Crossing the outflow of SCM Lake, I took a moment to face the ridges, thanking them for holding so much wildness, and teaching me so many good lessons when I visit. Ancientness holds strong in rock, tree, and the very earth holding it all together. The bear roams here in wholeness, and I hope to take a small piece of that sense back to my own land for some grounding. Thrushes will be singing the same songs in the valley, where EEC Forest Stewardship stands on its own ridge line where bears often roam. All this is connected through our very being, and when we take time with out wilderness, we become a little wilder ourselves.
Pilchuck is a name most people living in or near Snohomish County know well. Apparently, it comes from Chinook Jargon– a pigeon language developed for trading. The Lushootseed language, endemic in the area, calls the mountain bellybutton, or bəlalgʷəʔ. Like an alter risen into sky, this beautiful lone peak was thrust up by the great Cascadia Plate, her quartz monzonite granite exposed to the elements as wanting feet and hands scramble to reach her 360 views. In mid-June, the snow above prevented summiting, which was never the goal of this day’s adventure. The journey rather than destination, but we drove up 3,000 feet to park at the trail head, so we were already at the destination when we started. The vast base of this peak is still actively logged, and the familiar monoculture stands of Douglas fir surround the lower section of this majestic peak. From the trailhead up, you’re lost in a mixed coniferous sub-alpine slope, with talus edges and a few lone older growth giants. There is subtle evidence of clear cutting old growth long ago. A hundred years later, the legacy stumps are shrouded in new trees, well on their way to old growth standing, by our country’s legal definitions. Because it’s a popular public trail, this part of The Bake Snoqualmie National Forest is protected from logging, for now.
As my legs carried me up through familiar Cascadian landscape, I heard a woodpecker feeding it’s young in an old hemlock snag, a Clark’s nutcracker silently watched from above as the noisy brood cried out. There are so many layers to a naturally regenerating forest, from the understory of vine maple and younger tree nursery, ground species like sword fern, huckleberry, and oval leaf blueberry gave way to hellebore and heather as we climbed higher. Thick mossy forest floor cradled fallen trunks and glacial till, which held the trail in a sheltered embrace. Above 4,000 feet, the stunted mountain hemlock dominated a sparse treeline where massive scree fields of white rock asked our feet to scramble up a red stained trail through the fallen debris. Some salmon berry clung to the shaded edges of the rocky slope, while a few braver rhododendron and silver firs hold their own where the soils allow. The ecology of The Cascade Mountains is complex and ever changing through the elevations. Our observations of this biodiversity were as breathtaking as the mountain its self.
As we mounted the trail’s accent towards the peak, most of the herbaceous lush landscape relented to craggy mountaintop sparsity. No soil and the harsh exposure to bitter cold and biting winds keep the barren rockscapes clear. Water still finds a way down these steep slopes, cascading from melting snow still piled high in the sheltered crevices of this boulder field. We chose to turn back at the base of these impressive falls, drinking in the vastness of this alpine landscape. Lines of trees along natural granite retaining walls offer little cover. The final ridge of Pilchuck beckons to those wishing that panoramic view, but haze in the valley cut short the vision on this day, so we did not miss much. Drawn in by the sound of splashing wild water, a breeze of cool mountain air flushed us back down from the exposed mountainside back down into the evergreen forests below. A lone pika alarmed in her harsh sequels as we scrambled back down the boulders and melt water muck below. I will say, the forest rangers are keeping this trail in great condition, with signs of recent boardwalk construction along the delicate wet meadows of this alpine habitat. It will be another few weeks before most of the wildflowers bloom.
The natural beauty of this hike was like so many of my hikes in The Cascades of Western Washington, gorgeous, with wildlife observation, new plants to think about and try to ID later with a field guide, and plans for future exploration of the area- out of season, like we did on this day. In summer, when the snow has melted and wildflowers bloom, the crowds will descend on Mt. Pilchuck for an easy hick with a view. Considering only half the parking lot was full on this partly cloudy June morning was a sign we were visiting at the best time to avoid crowds. I can see this peak being a nightmare to approach during the high summer influx of tourists and weekend warriors from nearby Seattle. I would not recommend this hike to families with small children or people with any impaired movement. The trail has some scrambling points with larger granite stones and steep steps to get up and down. There is a nearby easier hike with a view of the peak from a lower lake. I might enjoy that one next time just for a different view and experience.
When I set an intention to visit a place on our public lands in and around my home, there is a mindset of reverence for the original people who once tended and thrived with these forests and mountainscapes. I look at the devastation colonial extraction culture brought to these wild places and give thanks for those lands that are now protected from such extraction, but overcrowded with people eager to make it to the top for another 360 view. If we were more mindful of our encroachment, and took more time to reflect on what once was, will be, and should be in future regarding our connection to these special places, we might have more relationship with these beautiful places. We might then look at the less beautiful places and reflect on how we take care of all the land, not just high peaks or sandy beaches. The industrial runoff and septic overflow washing into our waterways is still happening. Commercial timber operations are still going on just up the road and out of view of the majestic peak you’re trying to get a picture of. These abuses to the landscape are even present at the Mt. Pilchuck trailhead, where erosion from foot traffic has demanded the construction of massive rock filled causeways to keep all the scrambling feet and hands from pulling apart the very trail they travel.
Looking down into the valleys below as we climbed, I took note of the clearcuts, development, and highway cuts along the rivers where town build ups string along the bottom land cleared long ago for European settlement. This mountain is protected because it’s remote, but was still logged in the early days of colonialism. The legacy of a few trails to high craggy peaks will not replace the endless clearing of temperate rainforest, but it might give a small glimpse into what could be if we showed better stewardship and maybe took a picture from the road instead of getting to the top for that selfie. Still, a good hike up and back down again in The Cascade Mountains is part of why I choose to call this area home. Access to so much public land, well maintained trails, and incredible biodiversity is not easy to find in this chaotic extraction world we live in today. Such a blessing to have the time, health, and appreciation for this place and the ability to explore it for the rest of my life.
EEC Forest Stewardship 