Washington State Native Trees Tour 

Native Trees are here because of Human Stewardship

As caretakes of the land, the native peoples here have engaged in mass scale sustainable management, forming a symbiosis with the land and ensuring its resources would persist for generations. In forming such a relationship with the land these nations have developed a deep fundamental understanding of the trees growing upon it, using the resources to make food, shelter, medicine, and materials. Indigenous peoples of Washington also historically utilized entire ecosystems to their advantage, not picking out individual commodities to the detriment of the forest as western culture does in modern times, but using the diversity to their advantage of both humans, plants, and wildlife. One example of this is the controlled burns used to maintain open oak woodlands. These woodlands support a wide variety of wildlife, and the open deciduous nature of the Oregon White Oak allows for immense diversity in plant community associations as well. This in turn meant bountiful food for humans living near and in this managed landscape. The overall ecosystem was also maintained in good health, as frequent small burn meant that fuel stocks were low and major destructive forest fires far less common. The full extent of human and forest interaction through the ages here is far beyond the ability of this webpage to convey, but we hope that in taking this tour you might learn a bit more about this place and the connections that abound here.