Forest Management at Bloedel Reserve

Gardens in the Forest

Forest at Bloedel Reserve

At Bloedel Reserve, trees are part of the very fabric of this place. The nature of this relationship is beautifully described by Arthur Lee Jacobson in the introduction to Trees of the Bloedel Reserve published by the Arbor Fund in January 1992.

Trees of about three hundred kinds grow at the Bloedel Reserve. They span the range of treedom, from maples of centurial statue, dripping with mosses and ferns, to the slender, shrub-like angelica trees luxuriating in the understory. You can vividly feel the importance of trees by simply imagining them gone. That bleak and bare prospect is a shockingly different scene, one of raw desolation. But the trees are here. As with millions of other acres in the maritime Pacific Northwest, the trees enjoy a generous climate and an adequate soil. It is, however, the artfully planted beautiful foreign species fringing the native woodlands, that have made the Bloedel Reserve a unique combination of natural and human creative forces; an ever-evolving work of art where changes in the season are marked mostly by the trees.

So Japanese maples glow against the deep green firs of the West Coast, and English yew trees enclose a pool that reflects images of Washington natives. This thoughtful blending of the best exotic species planted tastefully in a lowland Washington forest, enriches the native beauty like a turquoise set in leather. Lovers of our native woods, please don’t be offended at the comparison–because of this area’s untold millennia of volcanic, glacial past, our present forests are dark, subdued and low in diversity. Although beautiful and moving nonetheless, for us to enliven or “spice” the drab acres of alders and close-packed ranks of swarthy firs, is to give ourselves still greater pleasure.

Bloedel Reserve has two full-time arborists on staff, Ken Little and Fen Vitello. Ken and Fen maintain the health of the forest with regular pruning, limb removal, and selective tree removal. They are careful to leave as much of the wood in the forest as snags or falls to encourage wildlife habitats and nurse logs.

This seminal book by Lawrence Kreisman, The Bloedel Reserve: Gardens in the Forest takes the reader on a historical journey of how Bloedel Reserve came to be and the importance of the surrounding forest.

Forest Management

Cedar at Bloedel Reserve

As the Reserve develops a Forest Management Plan to care for not only the trees, but the roads, water sources, wildlife habitats, and lawn areas present on the land, our goal is to steward the property for future generations to enjoy. Learn about Forest Management Planning at knowyourforest.org.

As part of Bloedel Reserve’s Conservation & Stewardship pillar, the Forest Management Plan provides silvicultural prescriptions for preparing and implementing management activities across the Reserves 70+ acres of forests.

For more reading about trees and their relationship to people and each other, read Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard.

A Garden in the Forest