Conservationists want to stop the cutting of “legacy forests.” Logging concerns accuse them of moving the goal posts on “old trees”
All clear: Washington’s Sherwood Forest before and after logging. Photos: Joshua Wright (left), Mason County Climate Justice (right)
By Nick Engelfried. September 12, 2024 . Sherwood State Forest in Washington’s Mason County escaped the industrial clear-cutting that transformed much of the Northwest last century.
It was selectively logged in the early 1900s, but while nearby areas were converted to farmland or tree plantations, Sherwood was left largely undisturbed, eventually regenerating into a forest with 100-year-old trees.
“Seeing cedar trees that were harvested here by my ancestors gave me great pride,” says Redwolf Krise, a Squaxin Island tribal member who advises the group Mason County Climate Justice. “But knowing this is one of the last remaining forests around the Squaxin territory where I can go and harvest from the same trees as my ancestors has been disheartening.”