West Seattle Herald

By Sheila Brown

Friday, July 04, 2008

A forest steward is a person who cares for a piece of forest land. It can be the owner of the land or a volunteer helping our public agencies care for a piece of forest held in the public trust. When forest stewards do things today in the woods, they are always thinking about tomorrow. The future of their forest is important to them. They want to make sure their forest will always be there, healthy and growing well.

A forest steward employs the art and science of managing forests to provide the full range of services that society has come to expect from them. These services include fish and wildlife habitat, watershed functions, biodiversity, scenery and recreation. The capture of carbon by trees counteracts global warming and is another important service forests provide. The best forests for providing this range of services are those with a diverse natural structure of native species, different-aged trees, standing snags, down wood, and complex ecological processes -- in short, many of the characteristics we associate with older forests.

Seattle Parks and Recreation has many "Friends of" Groups comprised of citizens who have an interest in and contribute as volunteers to efforts to help Parks maintain parks and open spaces. These groups provide valuable citizen input and may establish partnerships with other organizations to enhance stewardship, funding, and development of parks. A Park Steward or Forest Steward is a citizen who works independently under the direction of Parks staff and/or a "Friends of" group to help maintain parks and open spaces.

The Forest Stewards Program of the Green Seattle Partnership, an effort by the City of Seattle and the Cascade Land Conservancy to restore 2,500 acres of urban forest by the year 2020, harnesses the energy and passion of the community to contribute to the effort. Forest stewards act as leaders for small areas in our local green spaces and natural area parks. In turn, the Green Seattle Partnership provides assistance so that individual community-based restoration groups don't have to "reinvent the wheel." By supporting and enhancing the capabilities of volunteer groups, the Green Seattle Partnership provides an opportunity to establish a foundation for the long-term stewardship and health of our city's forested parklands. For more information on the Partnership, please see http://www.greenseattle.org/.

In collaboration with the Green Seattle Partnership, the Washington Native Plant Society has just completed the second year of an annual 10 week training program for Forest Stewards. The 2007 Native Plant Forest Stewards put all they learned to work to restore selected areas in six Seattle parks. For more information about Forest Stewardship, please visit the wnps web site