JUNE ’25

I know. We said we wanted to create a mini Nature Conservancy site here at the “Wood”, and it pretty much looks, instead, as if we’ve created a little country home with a garden. But we haven’t forgotten, and it follows that we should have, given our intention, taken the opportunity to see what the Conservancy sites themselves look like. To that end, we’ve traveled over the years to the Zumwalt Prairie site, Juniper Hills, Sycan Marsh, Coberg Ridge. Most recently, in fact, last week, we went with the Conservancy to their site near Camp Sherman, at the Metolious River headwaters. See below:

It’s a beautiful stream, and, a personal note, my dad’s ashes were joined with these waters back in 1988. The Conservancy’s project here was to effect a controlled burn in a fire-adapted forest. A short history lesson from their documents: “The removal of Native Americans and their tribal fire use, widespread livestock grazing, extensive logging, and an increase in wildfire suppression led to unnatural and unhealthy dry forest ecosystems with overly dense forests, overgrown shrubby understories, uniformly young trees and few old, large fire-tolerant trees.”

To see what their prescribed burn looked like, we hiked along an old logging road past newly burned section of forest, and sections which had been left un-treated. Even to untrained eyes, the difference was remarkable. The preparation for the burn is a two-year job, and the burn itself has to wait for specific conditions of temperture, wind, and humidity, allowing for low-intensity fires that primarily move along the ground consuming needles, pine cones, branches, shrubs, and small trees. The oldest, standing, trees have bark that heals after a fire. But we could see how greenery, in the two weeks since the fire, is already pushing through.

Plus — side-bar– it was 92 degrees that afternoon. There in that fire-adapted forest. Warm day for a hike!

But we’re not talking about any sort of prescribed burn here on the farm. Just so you know, the Conservancy is widely involved in habitat restoration on many fronts, and it’s their general purpose which we hoped to emulate.

So back at home Wednesday morning, we arrived to find James, hiking boots, long braid over his shoulder, eating a sandwich on the back of his ATV. He’d been walking the property on behalf of Phoenix Habitats looking for indigenous plant life to record, and potentially protect. He was particularly pleased to find, he told us, some Lathydus holochlorus, or Thin Leaf pea, growing in the oak copse just east of the house. It’s listed as endangered, with only a few known pockets on private land. Well. Of course we looked it up. It’s important for the sake of diversity, and attractive for native bees. Thinning the oak trees, James says, is the most effective course for protecting this small plant. He will be back in a few days to survey and map non-native invasives.

On Thursday we turned back around and went to Portland for my meeting with my Chicks-and-flicks girlfriends, then on to Seattle to attend grandson Will’s university graduation. Majored in biology, Will doesn’t know what he’ll do next, so he’s going to Nashville for a week or so with his buddies. He’ll figure it out. But here’s a question for you: if you’re chatting with your family and the subject of golf comes up, and you say “he putted out on the 7th hole,” for example, and then you say “he hit the green in two.” Why do we English speakers say “putted”, but not “hitted” in using the past tense? Is there a rule? Is it colloquial? Just curious. Answer. Putted is the past tense of putt. Hit is an irregular verb and plays by its own rules.

I have to take a moment and introduce Chris. Granddaughter Alli has moved to London, where, after getting her masters’ degree in marketing, has taken a job with Posh Cockney, and acquired a boyfriend. Who works for the Parliament in the security division of Parliament. Bright, funny, good choice! The two of them had come to Seattle for a couple of weeks for the graduation, getting to know the family. Hmm.

In our four day absence, the chores on the farm have backed up. The ground squirrels have apparently been eating the chickens’ food. Not good, because we seem to have many thousands of the rodents and our wire mesh netting doesn’t deter them. Something is eating the lettuces in the garden. The third new maple planted by the shed looks stunted. Maybe not enough water? Everything needs to be “weed-whacked.” Is that a verb? Let’s just say” trimmed.

When I turned to my four days of e-mail, I discovered a meeting of BLING, the newly created neighborhood watch-dog organization. At the neighborhood charter school. Parking limited. But it’s okay, Marjorie and Ted would pick us up. I said earlier that burning wasn’t a program for us here, but fires certainly are. At the meeting, the retired fire chief of Philomath Fire District and a member of the county emergency preparedness offices gave talks. How to communicate, how to evacuate, what to include in your “go bag.” A member of the fire department will come to your home to assess its survival potential in a wide-spread fire event. Will they try to save it or deem it a lost cause? We could not sit there without reflecting on the Altadena fire and all that was lost. Pay attention!

A two-hour meeting with the available seating on grade school table/benches is grueling. There seems to be a line between neighborhood support and neighborhood opinion. Not everyone approves of grazing cattle as an environmentally sound choice. But, the fire chief advised us, mowing fields is a particular fire hazard. When the whirling blades spark on a rock and the grass is dry? Cows apparently do not constitute a fire hazard. So there’s that.

Tonight, sometime around midnight, our David will arrive for several days. Caroline is presently in New Zealand so we won’t have the pleasure of her company as well. Flights to and from Hawaii are not scheduled out of Eugene, so David will arrive in Portland at around 10:30 and drive down. We have lots in mind for our time with him! Some of that hazardous mowing? Our herd of cows has been moved to the eastern pasture, leaving the area around the barn available for some house-keeping. I may have mentioned the stack of cut wood that needs to be moved to the back of the barn? Pruning the raspberries, which are just now ripening?