56 million Douglas Fir seedlings were planted last year in the State of Washington. Doug Fir are, by far, the leading commercial native species; it is the “standard green” one sees driving NW highways. In terms of biomass, it overwhelms all other WA plant species. It is
the NW’s gold that keeps giving and giving. Pseudotsuga menziessi was named to honor David Douglas (an American walking botanist) and Archibald Menzies a Scottish surgeon, botanist, and naturalist on Vancouver’s ship Discovery, who in 1791 first recorded the species. In early days ship doctors were always botanists, and vis a versa. Gone are the days when they walked into a grove and saw a variation among Pseudotsuga menziessi members; today they are clones or close to it. Every sword has two edges; advances in forest practices, toxins, genetics, and profits have coopted politicians, government, and industry behaviors in a great nation built on property rights. Luckily, there is still enough publicly owned lands to be retasked for biodiversity … from Kodiak to San Francisco. But there are a trillion reasons why this can’t happen without those coopted agreeing and supporting the rewilding of the Cascadia Floristic Region. We may disagree, but our grandchildren will most likely agree our generation did not have the courage to fix the mess we’ve created. Our ultimate responsibility is the Earth we leave for future generations. Douglas Fir planting on State and Federal lands should stop; what is needed is conifer diversity.
https://www.workingforests.org/
https://lewis-clark.org/people/david-douglas/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudotsuga_menziesii
https://pioneermillworks.com/blog/whats-name-douglas-fir
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Pseudotsuga+menziesii
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-01.pdf
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/ge_trees_2016_93322.pdf
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-31-mn-9240-story.html
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Pseudotsuga%20menziesii
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/04/science/scientists-try-to-create-forest-of-cloned-trees.html
Douglas Fir was named after:
Douglas Fairbanks
Michael Douglas
David Douglas
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