Come take a (virtual) walk in the woods

Do you really know the woods around you?
 
Do you see the connections in your own life to working forests?
 
You’d be surprised at how many of the important things you need or want for your home or society are happening when a forest is working. It’s worth taking a walk in the woods to learn first-hand, but until you can get there in person a national partnership of forest landowners has created a virtual pathway for you to wander.
 
The Walk in the Woods website created by the National American Forest Partnership is a beautiful and easy-to-navigate dive into today’s forestry, designed to expand every visitor’s understanding of the ways in which we are really all connected to a working forest.
 
We recommend roaming in the Walk in the Woods website and tracking their posts on Facebook and Twitter. We know you’ll find a lot of information worth sharing. 

Building better, less expensive classrooms with modern wood

School districts are facing many challenges, not the least of which is how to expand facilities for a growing student population when passing bonds for new permanent construction is a difficult ask with voters.
 
Many districts opt for a cheap stopgap solution – light, inexpensive and often inadequate relocatable classrooms, known to most as “portables.”
 
There’s a better way and manufactured wood from working forests – modern cross-laminated timber (CLT) – is an essential part of it.
 
Washington state has embarked on a pilot program to test using CLT to construct solid, new, low-cost, permanent classrooms – three in Western Washington and two in Eastern Washington.
 
CLT components are manufactured for rapid assembly on-site, which can save precious funds in pinched capital budgets. They also conform to high standards for energy efficiency, strength, and resilience, which may reduce long-term maintenance and energy costs for these spaces. And because CLT is made of environmentally responsible sustainably grown wood, we can feel triple good about it.
 
Gov. Jay Inslee visited one of the classroom projects recently. Check out his Medium page for more information about the visit and the pilot project.
 

Private forest landowners recognized by state officials for monumental work on fish passage

We all do good things because they need to be done, but it’s always nice to get a pat on the back, too.
 
Earlier this month, 43 forest landowners were recognized by Washington state officials for critical work done to help in a shared goal of salmon recovery. 
 
The landowners were awarded certificates in appreciation for their combined work to upgrade 25,000 miles of forest road and remove 6,000 barriers to fish passage resulting in more than 3,500 miles of upstream habitat being open to fish.
 
That’s real, measurable progress toward preserving fish populations that are part of our heritage and our economy.