House Rental/Caretaker Position – NO LONGER AVAILABLE
House for Rent – The House: The house is a simple, functional, well kept, 900 SF A-frame. It has a bedroom loft above a main floor with living space, kitchen, and bath. Electric stove, oven and hot water heater. Wood stove with back up electric heat. Well water. Solid cell phone coverage. Power from West […]
A Mystery, Dilemma, and a……… Bathroom
The Mystery – (and it is a sad one) – As shared in earlier posts, the Hyla Woods forests are experiencing a much accelerated rate of trees dying. Dead trees are an important part of a healthy forest, and we sometimes help things along by girdling trees to create snags. But in the past two […]
From Bolivia With Love……..
“What’s the big deal about an Olive Sided Flycatcher?” That’s a reasonable question. It was answered in the course of this morning’s third and final annual bird count in our Mt. Richmond Forest. Here are a few of the reasons why we are excited to hear and see them: Inspiring Globe Crossers – Their long […]
Learning About Plantations
Visitors to our forests often ask why we work on growing forests that are multiple ages and many species. “Wouldn’t it be easier and more profitable to just grow single age, single species plantations like nearly all of your neighbors do?”. While we have many reasons for using the approaches we do – some […]
A Most Welcome Surprise
I discovered something that was really uplifting and surprising yesterday. At day’s end I traveled back through the Mt. Richmond Forest with a sense of satisfaction – and fatigue – from having planted the last of the 2,200 seedlings that we’ve planted this winter. Pausing by the “Beaver Pond” wetland I reflected on how different […]
Taking the Long View
Barak Obama’s forecast that the sun would rise on the day after the election verified, yet on November 9th as I looked east from the top of Mt. Richmond Forest over the folding ridges, valleys, wetlands, and hills of the Tualatin Valley toward the rising sun, I realized that while the familiar landscape looked unchanged […]
Catlin Gabel 7th Graders Share Their Results
(Editor’s Note – The Hyla Woods Team is thrilled to have an ongoing partnership with the 7th grade students and faculty from Catlin Gabel School in Portland. Each year, with the excellent leadership of their teacher, Jesse Lowes, and other adults, the students do important and useful scientific investigations in the forests. The report […]
A Nation Divided Cannot…..
Talk of “divides” is all around us. Red/Blue, Urban/Rural, Rich/Poor, White/Brown….. Of course it’s not new, but it seems to be more acute than at any other time in my brief sixty years. There seems to be agreement that is a problem deserving of our attention, which leads to the good question of “how”? The […]
Tipping Point – From Concept to Scary Reality
Do you remember encountering, at some point in your school, a lesson in tipping points? Phenomena the may change at a slow, regular and predictable point but then cross a threshold, or tipping point, when they can change dramatically and rapidly? I do. Images of the concept stick with me; I think of it as […]
Wild About the Woods
This blog was born out of a teacher asking “wouldn’t it be great if we had some way to better learn about what other educators and their students are doing in the Hyla Woods forests?”. Of course, those of us on the Hyla Woods team responded with two things: 1) an enthusiastic “yes!”, and 2) a […]