In this episode, we're joined by two extraordinary guests, Seth Zuckerman and Kirk Hansen, who bring decades of experience and insight to the practice of ecological forestry. Their recent book, "A Forest of Your Own," serves as a comprehensive guide for forest stewards in Oregon and Washington, covering essential skills like evaluating land, sustainable management, wildfire risk reduction, and climate change adaptation. Seth and Kirk address the diverse needs of family forest owners, community forests, municipalities, and Indigenous tribes, offering insights on sustainable wood harvest, wildlife habitat enhancement, and watershed protection.

Kirk Hanson is an experienced forest educator and pracitioner, skilled in guiding forest owners to managed their land sustainably. He has worked with a variety of landowners, and also blogs about his own family's experiences managing 200 acres of forestland in the South Puget Sound.

As a journalist, Seth Zuckerman reported extensively on forests, salmon and the human communities that depend on them. He also serves as Executive Director of Northwest Natural Resources Group, and he is author of several books, including Saving Our Ancient Forests and Salmon Nation.

During our conversation, Seth and Kirk discuss how ecological forestry differs from conventional industrial forestry, advocating for practices that prioritize ecosystem health and long-term sustainability. They share personal experiences and insights, highlighting the importance of interventions like thinning to promote forest resilience, especially in the face of climate change. Their book and work aim to empower forest landowners with the knowledge and tools to become responsible stewards of their land, promoting ecological health and resilience for the benefit of both people and the environment.

As we explore the balance between human intervention and natural processes in forest management, Seth and Kirk address common questions and misconceptions about forest management, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that considers long-term ecological health and diverse benefits for future generations. They highlight the role of ecological diversity in promoting economic resilience and offer practical advice for forest observation and engagement.

A Forest of Your Own book www.nnrg.org/book

Keeping Up with the Hansons Blog www.nnrg.org/hansonfamilyforest

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Music from the show Stayloose | Gunnar Olson | Cumbia Deli

In this episode, we delve into the world of plant medicines. Our guest, Natalie Hammerquist, a herbalist based in Washington state, shares her extensive knowledge and experience in herbalism and foraging local wild plants. Natalie's journey, rooted in a degree from The Evergreen State College, led her to explore herbalism, plant taxonomy, and food science. Under the guidance of renowned herbalists like Cascade Anderson Geller and Matthew Wood, Natalie integrated aspects of Chinese medicine and Western herbalism into her practice.

What's particularly intriguing about our conversation is Natalie's emphasis on the importance of collaboration between restorationists and herbalists to ensure sustainable caretaking and the preservation of plant resources. Natalie also shares her personal journey into herbalism, shaped by her own health struggles during college, and highlights the diverse approaches within herbalism, blending scientific methodologies with traditional wisdom.

Additionally, Natalie sheds light on the regulatory disparities between the United States and Europe, emphasizing the need for advocacy and education to support herbalism and holistic health practices. She offers insights into her forthcoming book, "Medicinal Plants of the Pacific Northwest," which aims to provide practical guidance and visual aids for identifying medicinal plants, emphasizing the importance of accurate plant identification and ethical harvesting practices.

We dig into topics such as the significance of timing in harvesting, ethical considerations inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer's concept of the Honorable Harvest, and the therapeutic properties of plants like knotweed, blackberry, and hawthorn. Natalie advocates for sustainable harvesting practices that balance the benefits and impacts of these plants, promoting a mindful approach that honors the interconnectedness of all living beings and fosters responsibility for the wider environment.

Adiantum School of Plant Medicine website | Instagram

Medicinal Plants of the Pacific Northwest: A Visual Guide to Harvesting and Healing with 35 Common Species

Natalie will be presenting her new book, "Medicinal Plants of the Pacific Northwest: A Visual Guide to Harvesting and Healing with 35 Common Species," at Third Place Books in Seward Park on Thursday, April 18, 2024, at 7:00pm. https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/natalie-hammerquist

Music from this show: John Patitucci | Soy Emilia

Kyle Flanagan asks us how we can truly address the roots of the climate crisis, and how we can keep each other safe in the years to come—while making sure that no one gets left behind. She wrote Climate Resilience, robust with short essays edited from interviews with 39 individuals who have been cultivating resilience for decades. There is a chapter dedicated to ecological restoration and issues related to river restoration, shifting the framing of environmental injustices, soil health, community composting and good fire. Intersecting with restoration, Kylie and the cohort of climate imaginaries foreground skills required in a warming world - relationship repair, participatory & decentralized economics, collective care, community adaptation, cultural strategy and people power. 

Kylie is a climate communicator and the executive director of a small, climate justice-focused foundation. Originally from Miwok lands in the California Bay Area, she currently resides on Munsee Lenape lands in New York City. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College and received a master’s in sustainability solutions from Presidio Graduate School. Driven by a desire to make the world more delicious, beautiful, joyous, and just, she has dabbled in goat midwifery, cheesemaking, tiny house architecture and construction, supper club hosting, edible landscaping, sustainable business consulting, and most recently, writing Climate Resilience. 

Climate Resilience Project and www.climateresilienceproject.org (that launches in early August).

pre-order the book on bookshop.org

Climate Resilience features voices of Native Rights activists, queer ecologists, Gen-Z organizers, urban farmers, and others on the front lines: Reverend Mariama White-Hammond, Ruth Miller, Niria Alicia, Morgan Curtis, Casey Camp-Horinek, Victoria Montaño, Heather Rosenberg, Cate Mingoya, Didi Pershouse, Ceci Pineda, Margo Robbins, Doria Robinson, Cassia Herron, Marta Ceroni, Crystal Huang, Moji Igun, Deseree Fontenot, Jacqueline Thanh, Janelle St. John, Miriam Belblidia, Lil Milagro Henriquez, Amee Raval, Marcie Roth, Eileen V. Quigley, Natalie Hernandez, Mindy Blank, Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, Eve Mosher, Irfana Jetha Noorani, Melissa Reyes, Patty Berne, Selin Nurgun, Sekita Grant, Mara Ventura, Kavaangsaar Afcan, Olivia Juarez, Sona Mohnot, Kailea Frederick, and Dominique Thomas

Michael's podcast recommendations History is Gay & Other Men Need Help

It takes a community to keep a podcast going. I am totally independent, and you can donate to help cover the small overhead costs for the show via Paypal and Venmo and CashApp. 

Music from the show Patiño and TrackTribe

In the early 2020s, many conservation-related organizations seem to have accelerated their promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion as well as reckoning with their racist origins. The University of Puget Sound recently made the decision to remove the name “Slater'' and give back the original name of their natural history museum. Furthermore called Puget Sound Museum of Natural History, the institution calls this out as “an important step in acknowledging the often problematic figures intertwined in natural history museums and ensuring our museum is an inclusive space for all.” My guest on this show, Grace Maria Eberhardt is a PhD student at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign studying the history of science and race. She led the movement to remove the name “Slater” from the Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound, where she earned her B.S. in Biology and African American Studies, and Bioethics emphasis in 2020. 

This episode contains discussion of sterilization, which includes involuntary or coerced removal of a person’s ability to reproduce; murder by police; selective breeding of humans for the improvement of human race; and, genocide.

Puget Sound Museum of Natural History website and @pugetsoundmuseum post about renaming

The History of Eugenics at Puget Sound and Beyond

Chang-Yoo, Albert. University tackles ugly history in Slater Museum renaming. University of Puget Sound’s The Trail. May 13, 2022

Hodder, Sam. “Reckoning with the League Founders’ Eugenics Past.” Save the Redwoods League Blog (2020) 

King 5 News. University of Puget Sound removes name of professor from on-campus museum. May 23, 2023

Miriti, Maria N., Ariel J. Rawson, and Becky Mansfield. "The history of natural history and race: Decolonizing human dimensions of ecology." Ecological Applications 33.1 (2023): e2748.

Wohlforth, Charles. "Conservation and eugenics." Orion Magazine (2010).

Yoon-Hendricks, Alexandra. University of Puget Sound to remove name of eugenics professor from museum. Seattle Times. May 19, 2023.

Music from the show TrackTribe & Dyalla

Despite rapid environmental change, the foremost approach to ecological restoration is to find the elusive, historically-appropriate reference ecosystem as the target of ecosystem recovery. But, the emergence of novel ecosystems beckons new ecological science and political ecology as surprising species’ relationships flourish out of dramatic anthropogenic change. There has been (maybe there still is) a debate within ecological restoration about both the existence of and how to restore ecosystems that some people think have crossed thresholds with no historical analog. Ecosystems that have ‘tipped’ or exhibit ‘new’ nature challenge our training and ecological theories while eliciting perspectives on what we value and respect, such as biodiversity and access.

Mel PIneda-Pinto explores  nature-based solutions, with a particular focus on issues of justice in ecosystems often overlooked and found in interstitial spaces, sometimes characterized as ruderal, wild, wastelands or unintentional. She is currently working as a postdoctoral research fellow at Trinity College Dublin on the project NovelEco in which they are co-designing an online citizen science tool to better understand novel ecosystems in cities. Mel has experience in social research methods, inter-transdisciplinary collaboration, systems thinking and exploring human-nonhuman nature interactions. Previous architectural and planning experience in the industry and not-for-profit sectors gave her skills in design, project management, stakeholder engagement, and technical abilities. Her research interests include urban ecological sustainability, urban ecology, social-ecological-technical systems, environmental and ecological justice, transformative capacity, sustainability, climate and just transitions, environmental and multispecies planning/design. 

Connect with Novel Eco https://noveleco.eu and on Twitter @NovelEco 

Pineda-Pinto, Melissa, et al. "Finding justice in wild, novel ecosystems: A review through a multispecies lens." Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (2023): 127902.

Gandy, Matthew. "Unintentional landscapes." Landscape Research 41.4 (2016): 433-440.

Hobbs, Richard J., et al. "Novel ecosystems: theoretical and management aspects of the new ecological world order." Global ecology and biogeography 15.1 (2006): 1-7.

Kowarika, I. "Novel urban ecosystems, biodiversity, and conservation." Environmental Pollution 159.8/9 (2011): 1974-1983.

Music from the show Quincas Moreira, Slynk, and TrackTribe

Renata Poulton Kamakura reminds us of the importance of nearby nature and the power in community that orbits around urban ecology. Renata is a PhD student at Duke University’s Clark Lab, a NatureNet science fellow, and a NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

Renata’s current work is mostly within the realm of urban ecology. They have authored and collaborated on published research focused on the pace of tree migration and invasion in tallgrass prairies. Also, tree fecundity related size and age as well as indirect climate effects. Long story short, I also know Renata because they have some insights on phenology, growth, mortality and local adaptation of Pacific madrone. I cherish their contribution to the body of thought about madrone as well as their efforts at applying emergent strategy and expanding the possibilities for healthier urban forests in community with our neighbors.

More about Renata and their current research on Duke University website https://sites.duke.edu/renatakamakura

Kamakura, R. P., DeWald, L. E., Sniezko, R. A., Elliott, M., & Chastagner, G. A. (2021). Using differences in abiotic factors between seed origin and common garden sites to predict performance of Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii Pursh). Forest Ecology and Management, 497, 119487. 

From treating ash trees to neighborhood outreach to petitions, residents rally to protect the urban forest. Chicago Tribune. June 12th, 2022.

‘Urban areas are stressful’: Ecologist shares how to help trees thrive amid city life. Spectrum News. March 23, 2022.

The reimagine restoration store is now up! https://treehuggerpod.creator-spring.com | enter code REIMAGINE for 10% off until end of January 2023

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The music for the show you heard from Gunnar Olsen, Riot, MK2l, and Bad Snacks

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Some species walk into our spaces, uninvited – they don’t belong. They can be trees we bring from the homeland to plant, insects that show up through international trade, or fish we stock for sustenance. However, when they liberate themselves from cultivation, they are portrayed as a potential threat to the economy or even challenge our conceptions of wild nature.

This is a short presentation recorded in advance of the Partners in Community Forestry Conference that came to Seattle, hosted by Arbor Day Foundation.

There is a growing underflow of writing and thought surfacing that grinds against the dominant thinking about how we not only talk about, but treat, our more than human relations. The words we use express our values, and are a portal to change how we treat the trees we do not think belong in our Landscapes. Organizing around "Just Language" is key first step to applying a lens of love, compassion and harm reduction to the practice of ecological restoration. The invitation is "What is the role for invasive species and what might they have to share for us?"

Weekend Update: A Spotted Lanternfly on Being an Invasive Species - SNL https://youtu.be/K_x4soinsRQ

Arbor Day Foundation Video of Just Language About "Invasive" Species Presentation

Just Language in Ecology Education https://justlanguage.org

It takes a community to keep a podcast going. Donate to the show @myadrick via Paypal and Venmo and CashApp

Tell a few friends about the show and follow the podcast on Instagram and Twitter @treehuggerpod

Review treehugger podcast on iTunes