“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
― Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam
What could be more important to a forest than the trees that constitute it? In Bridle Trails State Park, we have many different species of trees, including: vine maple, bigleaf maple, red alder, Sitka alder, pacific madrone, European white birch, pacific dogwood, western hazelnut, Oregon ash, common apple, black cottonwood, bitter cherry, Sitka willow, European mountain ash, western yew, western red cedar, Douglas fir, and western hemlock.
Trees in the park can be categorized in two main groups:
Every tree is different: they can have different barks, leaves, colors, environmental needs, habitats, qualities of bark and wood, root growth, branch growth, etc. In the Pacific Northwest, we have lush and healthy forests that work as systems – communicating to each other as well as fungi and other organisms, some trees with deep taproots that reach down to the water table and some with shallow roots that stretch out under the ground and hold the soil together, and grow year-round because of the mild climate. Trees can live for hundreds if not thousands of years and scientists determine the age of a tree by taking a core sample with a tool that takes a long cylindrical chunk out of the tree. Scientists can also look back through the rings of a tree to identify extremely hot and dry summers or long and wet winters based on the size of the ring.
While we mostly harvest trees to build buildings and make paper, Native Americans in the PNW utilized many types of trees for everything from diapers to canoes to cooking utensils to food and medicine. At home, look around and create a list of everything that is made from wood. What type of tree do you think they came from? Would you say the material is better than something else, such as plastic? How many trees were used to build your home and the items within it? Becoming aware of what we used in our day-to-day lives can help us appreciate them more.
Forests
A collection of trees and other plants is called a forest; Bridle Trails State Park consists mostly of one large 482-acre forest and horse arenas! Our forest became a park in the early 1930s but was logged until 1936. Because of this it is considered a mature forest but not yet old growth. However, it has many characteristics of old growth – logs providing habitat, snags (trees that lose their tops), underbrush, varied tree growth and age, minimal human disturbance, and more. It takes at least 175-250 years for a forest to be considered old growth. The oldest trees in Bridle Trails are a little over 300 years, and most are 80-110 years old.
Vine Maple
Vine maples are small-leaved trees that grow in a sprawling fashion as they search for the sun in a shady forested area. These searching branches can then root themselves to create patches of vine maples. The leaves of trees in the open turn red in the fall. The wood is soft, can be trained to bend as it grows, and is used by many survivalists to make bows. Look for a vine arch over the Trillium trail!
Bigleaf Maple
Bigleaf maples are the largest maple trees in our park and the surrounding area, and have the largest leaves of any maple - up to 2 feet in diameter. It grows along the coast at low elevations and has shallow roots that spread out. This hardwood tree can live for 300 years and grow up to 160 feet high! Many other species like to live with this maple and it will commonly have many types of moss, lichen, and licorice ferns growing from its bark. Bigleaf maple was also one of the best choices for Native American’s to use for paddles.
Red Alder
Red alder is another common deciduous in our forest and the PNW. It has smooth bark and is often one of the first trees to pop up after a disturbance. This is helpful for a recovering forest because red alder has a mutualistic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria to enrich the soil for other plants. As a member of the birch family it rots quickly once it falls and is used as firewood. Native Americans used almost every part of the tree for different ailments and small tools. It is used widely for smoking salmon and basket making. Red alder can be spotted by its serrated leaves and long tassel-like catkins in the spring.
Western Red Cedar
Cedar can be spotted easily in our park and many forests in the PNW. It has cinnamon-red, thin, shredded-looking bark with drooping branches, flat scale-like leaves, and exceedingly small cones. They can grow about 200 feet tall and up to 20 feet wide in circumference. Native Americans used red cedar for almost everything because it was easy to strip the bark and the wood is resistant to insects and mold, earning its title as “the cornerstone of northwest coast Indian culture” (usda.gov). Many recommend using red cedar for decks, boats, and outdoor furniture because of this resistance to rot.
Western Hemlock
Our state tree, western hemlock grows tall and narrow with a slightly drooping top and down-sweeping branches. The needles are fine and feathery, growing in different directions like a “bad hair day.” It is known as the mother tree because of the thousands of seed cones it produces. It tolerates shade and is most likely to be found growing out of stumps and nurse logs in our park. The wood is fairly soft and can be worked easily so Native Americans used it to make spoons, combs, and other implements.
Douglas Fir
Douglas fir is the dominant conifer in the park and in the Pacific Northwest. Many easily recognize it. It is not actually a true fir and its scientific name means “false hemlock.” They have long, flat, spirally arranged needles that grow completely around the branch and can grow for 1,000 years but are cut down before then (including in our park). It is the main character of a popular Native American children’s story about mice escaping a forest fire into the cones of the Douglas fir trees, creating cones that look like the hindquarters of mice are hanging out. This tree is commonly used for building and as Christmas trees, and is the primary commercial species grown in Washington.
More information:
Learn to draw a Western Red Cedar from a Burke Museum employee here!
For an interesting take on trees and forests, check out the book by Peter Wohlleben titled The Hidden Life of Trees.
For a PNW tree “cheat sheet,” visit this webpage from the Washington Trails Association.
The North Cascades Institute’s “Mountain School at Home” resource has a couple tree-related activities, including “Tree Bud Journal.” This lesson in the form of a song.
For something to listen to, check out the “From Tree to Shining Tree” episode of Radiolab on your podcast app.
To brush up on your tree identification as you walk the trails, check out the Trees Pacific NW app on your phone.
For some basic information on cones, check out this Deep Look video.
For more reading information, check out this document from the Forest Service, “Old Growth, Disturbance, Forest Succession, and Management in the Area of the Northwest Forest Plan”
Here is a link to the song “I’m a Tree” by the Banana Slug String Band.
Bridle Trails State Park plant overview and species list here.
Photo credits: H. Rutherford, Friends of North Creek Forest, Oregon Live, iNaturalist, Britannica, Wikimedia.