Forest Medicine

Here we are in the last week of February, and I'm thrilled to see new snow falling in the mountains, adding to what has been a very meager snow pack for this season. Climate models are predicting this may be the new normal, with more winter precipitation falling as rain. While I do track climate trends closely, I try to stay aware of how this data can affect my emotional state, depending on how I take it in. Accepting that change is inevitable helps me to stay positive and do the work that I feel is necessary at this time.

The forest today is not the same as it was yesterday, or last year, or last century. My perception of the forest has shifted over a lifetime spent working, camping, and hiking in wild places, the relationship being more personal and intimate. As I walk in the forest now, my attention is drawn to biological relationships, and subtle microclimates that can have a dramatic impact on species distribution in the landscape. A madrone will grow on an exposed ridge while Sitka spruce will tolerate wet feet in a riparian zone. There are plants that live upon other species, like mosses and lichens that thrive upon the bark of our western maple. There is a mutually beneficial relationship happening between the tree and these epiphytes that make their homes on the bole and limbs of this majestic hardwood.
The plants that cling to the surface of the maple get a nutritional boost from the calcium rich bark of the tree, and the tree benefits from the organic matter and moisture that is trapped by the tissues of the mosses and lichens. The tree has the amazing ability to sense this fertile soil being produced in its canopy, and responds by producing roots that tap into this vital nutrient and water source! 
This is but one example of thousands of symbiotic relationships among flora within our complex temperate forests.