September 16, 2011

Perhaps we all agree that there are two important goals here:

1) To awaken and foster a sense of wild nature in our kids, and their
participation in it.
2) To establish and encourage practices so that the Magnificent Forest
can flourish for centuries to come.

Our discussions have tended towards seeing conflict in these two
goals.  I see it differently:  they need not conflict.

The peninsula's forests fall into roughly two regions: the old growth 'Magnificent Forest' north of the upper loop road, and the mixed forest and open land to the south.  This southern section has several large areas of relatively mature woods. The
forest is not contiguous. Mowed areas and the ampitheater are
interwoven.

But there is a LOT of rich forest community to be found in here.
There are plenty of places for kids to do 'still sitting' and
observation.  There are places to hide.  Probably places to get good
and dirty.  And -- park policies permitting -- plenty of places to
clamber around on trees and rocks.

Walking in the big woods this morning I was struck, as I often am, by
the savvy of big leaf maples and beaked hazelnuts.  Finding a bit of
open sunlight, a gap in the canopy, the maple and hazelnut very
economically and very strategically send limbs in the direction of
sunlight.  There is savvy in that, certainly, but the savvy that
especially strikes me is their mutual restraint.  Rarely do maple or
hazelnut branches compete for the same space;  rarely do they overlap
and get in each others way.  There seems to be a tacit agreement:
let's come to terms -- this is the space I colonized,  that's yours,
we would both only suffer if we tried to displace each other.

The human use of Seward Park is replete with similar practices.  You
can ride your bike and rollerblade around the lower loop.  You can
drive and park here.  Festivals (like today's huge Pista sa Nayon)
happily coexist with bald eagles and recovering forest.  We already
practice, and successfully, many kinds of multiple use on the
peninsula.

In that spirit, I propose that certain kinds of otherwise wonderful
wilderness education practices be encouraged, provided for, but
restricted to the south woods. Some strategic planning and sensitive
development might be needed to make this really work.

And I propose that the north woods -- the Magnificent Forest -- be
governed simply and completely by the principle of 'Leave No Trace'.
(Maybe the fairy tree, as a didactic spot, could be an exception.)

In a better world, there would be so much wilderness -- even in the
city -- that such restrictions would not be needed.  In order to get
to that better world, however, to create it in our massively logged
and populated Puget lowland, we need to protect our relic forest,
ensure that it grows on its own terms for centuries.