The NW 1880’s flood of immigrants accompanied the cutting down of every large tree over 150 years-old along what is the now I-5 Freeway from Ashland, OR to Vancouver, BC (+/- hour east/west). It also saw “almost every tree less than a foot and a half in diameter and within a half-mile distance to salt water, cut and split for fuel by 1910.” The consumers were the 2,500 steamboats of the Mosquito Fleet that plied the waters of Puget Sound supplying
transport and supplies to over 350 ports and river villages in a time when there were few roads. Those roads that existed were dirt or gravel and in towns, sometimes brick; the 1st asphalt road in the Northwest came at the start of WW I. Puget Sound islands were de-forested and shoreline ecologies transformed, with Yews, Douglas Maples (seeds pictured), Hawthorns, Chinquapins, and other mature mid-girth trees all but disappearing in many locations. Without noticing, we have rearranged the NW’s ecology … again and again. Oregon State University recently offered a proposed a solution to the loss of Cascadia’s diversity with the use of 2% of Federally owned forest land by “bringing back the beaver,” see below. This complements PLC’s long-term suggestion to use 10% of State DNR land to create migration corridors to save our native plant and animal species. Recently we’ve suggested using all of State DNR land and Federal for biodiversity. Why should we, the owners, continue to utilize our lands for cattle and lumber mill owners?
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=douglas+maple
https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMPY5
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295748603/homewaters/
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Swedish-Cabin.pdf
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-flood-u-beavers-wolves-150926299.html
The 1st paved road in the State of Washington was the Loop in Maryhill and was built in the year:
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