04/23/2026
Earth Day 🌱
This black and white image of a log barge from 1946 was wedged in between two very dusty drawers of a filing cabinet.
The caption, typed on a Re*****on 17, reads: "W-250-6. 3/20/46. Skagit SCD. Large raft of logs going through Deception Pass. Raft contains approximately two million board feet of old growth fir, cedar, and hemlock logs, and cedar power poles and piling. In a few years, supply of this type old growth timber will be exhausted, and rafts of this type will be history. Photo by A. F. Harsm."
It can be eerie, hearing a historic voice in it's present tense realizing that the actions it's observing will one day become a memory. At the time, timber operations were in their hay day as ancient, tall forests became telephone poles and railroad beams and shingles for buildings. Slowly, at first, then steadily and ultimately permanently, trees that had survived multiple hundred year storms, wildfires, and landslides were brought to the ground. For better or worse, the landscape changed.
This is a complicated story, but one that is worth repeating. We love Earth Day at WICD because we get a chance to brag on the wonderful, intricate world that we navigate daily with residents from every walk of life and background. We get to work with plants that have an ancient footprint AND resources that have a present need. We're tiny, but we do our best to make a good memory for the people who will call Whidbey Island home for years to come.
So, if you ever get the chance to visit an old growth Washington forest, send some love from Whidbey Island Conservation District into the tree canopy. We hope the graceful boughs will catch all of it 🌲
