Early on, a forester friend help me identify the most predominant trees and shrubs on the land, of which the holly, ivy, and scotch broom are well known nuisances. Removing these, along with creating trails and establishing boundaries has kept and will continue to keep me busy for at least a few more weeks.

Realizing that I’m at the very beginning of journey of understanding how to care for the land, I’ve sought out resources geared towards forest owners in the area. There turns out to be a wealth of them.

WSU has an entire extension program dedicated to it. They’re currently 3 of 9 weeks into a forestry class for property owners being held on nearby Vashon island. I reached out to the lead instructor and got late admittance to that, then binged the online versions of the first three sessions he gave me to get caught up. I’m signed up for a day of sessions at a one day Winter School event next weekend, and subscribed to and catching up on their Forest Overstory Podcast, A podcast for small forest landowners.

Kitsap county offers its own Forest Stewardship Program. Watching some of the presentations within that helped me connect the dots of my neighbor’s account that it’s been years since he’s seen the salmon that used to come up a creek we now share. According to this section on climate change, it was likely a drought in 2019 that prevented the salmon from getting upstream, followed by a deluge that washed away the eggs, along with the generational recollection of the spawning grounds.

Washington state’s Department of Natural Resources has a Landowner Assistance Portal, that I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of.