Walnut Studiolo's Tree Project

The temperate rainforests of the American Pacific Northwest where we live are uniquely well-suited for planting and preserving trees to capture carbon and mitigate climate change:

• more undisturbed soil for better carbon capture

• native tree species that are particularly efficient at carbon storage

• less wildfire risk

We have a front-row seat to the logging and infill that is clearing forests in the Pacific Northwest Rainforest. In the past 10 years, 2 new homes immediately adjacent to our property have razed over 30 acres of trees.

Across the valley we’ve watched the mountainsides get clearcut one patch at a time, totaling thousands of acres. Some of those patches are home to drinking water for local towns, and suffer when logging companies aerial-spray herbicides over the recently logged lands. They have even gassed beachgoers with herbicides.We see loaded-down logging trucks driving on the highway in front our house nearly every week.

Oregon has less stringent logging rules than neighboring Washington, allowing starker clear-cuts closer to streams. After a cut, the land looks stripped bare. And to add insult to injury, logging increases the risk of wildfires.

On our homestead, there are 2.5 acres of North Oregon Coast rainforest, on the downslopes of the Coastal Range. Our little corner of the forest burned in the Tillamook Burn of 1933-1951: huge blackened trees are still visible on our property today.

The forested acres are up the slope from our workshop. They are first regrowth from the original logging done in this area at the beginning of the 1900s: it’s dominated by huge, nearly hundred foot tall Western Hemlocks, Douglas Fir, and Sitka Spruce, with stands of Alder at the disturbed edges. Western Red Cedar would be native to the forest but it was all but eliminated during the first logging decades ago. A utility line easement cuts through the middle of the forest, which makes weed management an active requirement.

Soil quality degrades after each harvest, so first-regrowth soils are second only to virgin forest in preservation importance. Up-mountain from us are privately-owned timberlands that we are currently being clear-cut: they’re owned by Wall Street. Abutting the privately-owned timberlands is the Tillamook State Forest, which is over 60% clearcut.

We’re watching the shifts in wildlife migration patterns happen from deforestation happen on the front lines. Our little tracts of woods are ever more important to bear, deer, elk, and cougar, and our soil is an important incubator of native soil fertility.

This is what we pledge to do with our Tree Project: 

1. We're protecting old trees in the back 2.5 acres. These are 70+ year old trees in first-regrowth forest. We manage weeds on the edge zones by planting native plants and manual removal of invasive weeds. 

2. We’re re-introducing native Western Red Cedar to the forest. This is the species that was selectively logged from this area back in the day. It’s not coming rapidly back on its own, so we’re going to give it a lift by planting mature 3-4+ year olds.

3. We’re expanding the forest boundary by planting new native trees and climate change resilient trees on the currently-mowed slopes of our highway frontage 2 acres.

4. We’re planting more trees on the valley floor for biodiversity, wildlife, and food production, such as crabapples, hazelnuts, and oaks.

5. We're only planting mature trees (3-4 years old) — not masses of saplings — for more carbon impact, more visual impact, less invasive weeds, and a higher success rate. (They’re also less likely to get destroyed by the deer and elk!) Mature trees are more expensive, but buying them also has beneficial downstream impacts by supporting the industry growing them.

6. We will be matching the funds we raise with in-kind tools and materials, labor, land ownership, and dollars: procuring, planting, and managing the forest and weeds on our homestead.

7. If we have more work than we can manage or excess funds, 100% of the excess fundraiser proceeds will be donated to the North Coast Land Conservancy, an accredited land trust. North Coast Land Conservancy has been working since 1986 to conserve and connect the landscape of the Oregon Coast, from the Columbia River to northern Lincoln County, by acquiring or otherwise managing lands for their habitat value. With a portfolio of more than 61 fee-title properties, in addition to 15 conservation easements, NCLC has completed more fee acquisitions in Oregon than any other local land trust, ranking it alongside The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Lands for statewide conservation impact. This nationall- accredited private, nonprofit land trust works to ensure that this extraordinary region is a place where healthy communities of people, plants and wildlife can all thrive. Walnut Studiolo has been an annual supporter of this organization for nearly 10 years. 

We have a modest-but-achievable initial fundraising goal of $1,000 to purchase trees and supplies and hope to plant at least 20 trees (which includes our matching). 

Each 3-4 year old mature tree costs roughly $100 (depending on species and availability) but much of the mowed soil has been denuded of nutrients or it's poor quality fill dirt. Each tree requires an initial planting of quality soil and fertilizers in the tree hole, plus regular maintenance fertilizing and mowing to get established.

As a stretch goal, there is space and capacity to plant 60+ trees, so we intend to keep this fundraiser open for some time. We hope to fully realize a re-forested homestead, replete with forested slopes, gardens and a food forest.