Treehuggers International

On the Verge of the Wild Sky Wilderness

A terrific conversation with Bob Freimark, the Senior Policy Analyst for the Pacific Northwest at the Wilderness Society’s Seattle office, about the impending Congressional passage and creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness.

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Grist’s Humorous Take On Being Green

Podcast: Download (Duration: 31:50 — 36.4MB)

Brendon Smyth, socked in atop Mailbox Peak over the Snoqualmie River Valley.

Grist.org doesn’t exactly embrace your father’s approach to environmental and green matters, leaving sanctimonious outrage on the shelf in favor of humor, irreverence, and a Daily Show meets The Onion template for expressing personable, small-scale, day-to-day advice on making the world a greener place.

As befitting the clever mind and well-trained humor writer, the crew at Grist also never pass up an opportunity to work in a joke.

In doing so, Grist is the funniest, most refreshing site you’re likely to find on the internet discussing the environment or contemporary culture, though their biting editorials on matters of the day also demonstrates Grist isn’t willing to shirk away once the punchline has been delivered or the irony or hypocrisy of a situation been demonstrated.

Exchanging preachiness for hipness in the pursuit of a more relatable approach to good environmental practices, Brendon Smyth, Communications Director for the Seattle-based website, joins us for a chat about the inner workings, worldview, and motivations behind Grist from atop a sustainable skateboard made of from renewable bamboo. Kudos.

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Stehekin and Lake Chelan, Part 2

The second of Treehuggers International’s two-part, on location program from Stehekin, one of the most remote and visually stunning areas in Washington state, located at the head of Lake Chelan deep in the wilderness of the North Cascades.

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Stehekin and Lake Chelan, Part 1

The first of Treehuggers International’s two-part, on location program from Stehekin, one of the most remote and visually stunning areas in Washington state, located at the head of Lake Chelan deep in the wilderness of the North Cascades.

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The Big Trees of Federation Forest State Park

Podcast: Download (Duration: 28:02 — 38.5MB)

A hidden jewel located along the route to the White River entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park, Federation Forest State Park preserves several hundred acres of rapidly vanishing low-elevation old-growth forest along the White River near Greenwater, Washington, smack dab in the middle of timber country.

While Federation Forest’s history spans two locations and the history of the nearby Naches Trail, the park remains a mecca for tree lovers, where remarkable stands of ancient Western Hemlock, Douglas-fir, Western Redcedar, Sitka Spruce, even Pacific Yew, can be found within a few hours’ drive of Seattle and Tacoma.

In this edition of Treehuggers International, Washington State Park rangers Eric Lewis and Jeff Vassallo make the drive from Federation Forest to The End’s studios to talk about recent storm damage and volunteer opportunities at “Fed Forest,” and the wonder of working among some of the biggest, best-preserved trees in the state.

Note: Ranger Jeff Vassallo has since been named head ranger at Kanasket-Palmer State Park near Enumclaw along the Green River Gorge. Congratulations, Jeff!

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Secrets of Northwest Folklife

Podcast: Download (Duration: 28:02 — 38.5MB)

A special Memorial Day Weekend edition of Treehuggers International, featuring a conversation and reminiscence with Michael Herschenson, Executive Director of Northwest Folklife, about the annual Seattle music and community festival. A Memorial Day Weekend institution at the Seattle Center since 1971, Michael offers a rundown of this year’s events and the history of Northwest Folklife, and touches on stewardship and community issues and stories of bygone Seattle.

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Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines

Podcast: Download (Duration: 34:02 — 46.7MB)

A summer morning on Puget Sound, with the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

Treehuggers International welcomes Jacques White, the Director of Marine Conservation at the Nature Conservancy; Karen McDonald, Communications Director with the Trust for Public Land; and Kathy Fletcher, the Executive Director of People for Puget Sound, who are bringing their respective organizations together to create the Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines, a new conservation initiative to save Puget Sound from pollution, toxic stormwater runoff, and commercial over-use, and to advocate for the creation of dozens of new parks along Puget Sound’s shoreline.

While the most recent State of the Sound report from January 2005 shows invasive weeds are being beaten back and the Sound’s orca population is getting more protection, growth-related damage to the Sound’s fragile estuaries is still outpacing government-funded cleanup efforts and the ability of conservation outlets to stay ahead of the curve. With the launch of the Mud up campaign and the creation of the new Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines, the three environmental outlets featured today are seeking to reverse this trend.

Congratulations to Kathy Fletcher, who landed some terrific press as the subject of a piece on People for Puget Sound and her environmental background in the June 2010 edition of Seattle Woman. Read the article HERE or find it below.

At Alki Beach for the Mud Up! campaign launch with Miss Emerald City and the Mud Monster.

Assessing Winter Storm Damage

Podcast: Download (Duration: 27:40 — 38.0MB)

Sustained winds of over 100 mph blew the roof off the Mt. Fremont lookout.

Washington state’s parks, forests, and wilderness areas took a severe beating in this winter’s storms, particularly during November 2006 in which a Pineapple Express delivered nearly a month’s worth of rain in a matter of days, destroying portions of the road to Paradise at Mt. Rainier National Park, including the Sunrise Campground and Kautz Creek trailhead, as well as the hiking bridge to the Grove of the Patriarchs over Ohanepecosh Creek.

Unfortunately, all signs seem to indicate this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not only was the park hit by significant flooding, it was also battered by incredibly high winds, damaging several of the park’s famous fire lookouts, including the Mt. Fremont and Gobbler’s Knob lookouts, as winds reached an average speed of 121 miles per hour at Camp Muir between November 5th and 7th.

As snow continues to melt in the high country, we’re beginning to see the extent of the damage to infrastructure and trail systems, not just at Mt. Rainier National Park and surrounding wilderness areas, but also at Olympic and North Cascade national parks, and elsewhere.

To help connect the dots on trails and parks in need of help this spring and volunteer opportunities for trail restoration, Lauren Braden and Jonathon Guzzo from the Washington Trails Association, the one organization which speaks specifically for Washington state hikers and backpackers, stopped by The End’s studios on Olive Way for a chat about restoration priorities and volunteer needs.