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Spring classical season includes musical meditations on forests and a lost Oregon waterfall

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Wednesday, March 26, 2025

This spring’s classical music calendar includes concerts featuring the instruments that led the way to the future: string quartets (in the 19th century), percussion (in the 20th), and electronic (21st). It also offers remembrances of injustices past and present, and, right in season, music inspired by nature.Here’s a look at the season’s highlights:‘Requiem For The Forgotten’ – Cappella Romana & 45th ParallelInspired by encounters with homeless people in his neighborhood, famous requiems of the past, religious faith (some text comes from the biblical Book of Lamentations), a contemporary poem about Ukraine, and more, California composer Frank La Rocca’s “Requiem For The Forgotten” offers not just mourning but also comfort and hope. The superb singers from Cappella Romana will also perform an earlier Mass by 19th century composer Josef Rheinberger, who dedicated it to Pope Leo XIII, known for his social justice advocacy.2 p.m. Saturday, March 29, St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1739 N.W. Couch St., Portland, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 30, Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Lake Oswego; $5-$58, cappellaromana.org. Members of PUBLIQuartet will perform “What is American: Rhythm Nation” on April 6 at Beaverton’s Patricia Reser Center for the Arts.Lelanie Foster‘What Is American: Rhythm Nation’ – PUBLIQuartetThis New York-based foursome specializes in contemporary music that leaves room for improvisation. That means delightfully unconventional programs like this fascinating Friends of Chamber Music show of mostly African diasporic music, which includes jazz, of course, (Duke Ellington, Alice Coltrane, Pulitzer winner Henry Threadgill) but also global sounds (Guinean composer Lassana Diabaté, Venezuelan composer/violinist Eddie Venegas), pop (Betty Davis) and even contemporary classical (Julia Perry, Imani Winds composer/hornist Jeff Scott) influences. 3 p.m. Sunday, April 6, Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, 12625 S.W. Crescent St., Beaverton; $32-$59, focm.org.‘Pergolesi: Stabat Mater’ – Portland Baroque OrchestraPoor Giovanni Pergolesi didn’t even live as long as Mozart, dying of tuberculosis at age 26 in that earlier non-vaccination year 1736. But the Italian prodigy still managed to produce enough masterworks to be considered one of the finest Baroque composers, and his famous “Stabat Mater” (performed here by PBO and guest singers) one of the great monuments of sacred music. The concert also includes vocal music by JS Bach, earlier Italian Baroque master Alessandro Scarlatti, and a seasonal Vivaldi concerto.7 p.m. Saturday, April 12, First Congregational Church, 1126 S.W. Park Ave., and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 13, Kaul Auditorium, 3017 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.; $28-$77, pbo.org.‘People Into Trees’ – Third Angle New Music, Portland Percussion GroupPlanetariums typically show us the stars, but this time, OMSI’s dome immerses us in, well, our planet — specifically its forests. Those images will accompany contemporary percussion compositions by Portland’s own master composer/percussionist, Andy Akiho, Stanford University wild card composer Mark Applebaum, the great Scottish solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and more, including rising next-gen stars Molly Joyce and Meg Day (a world premiere for percussion quartet and American Sign Language poetry), Quinn Mason, Juri Seo, and Inti Figgis-Vizueta. This collaboration with local accessibility advocates CymaSpace provides wearable haptic vests to give Deaf/Hard of Hearing audience members access to the pulsating music.7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, April 16-17, Kendall Planetarium, OMSI, 1945 S.E. Water Ave.; $35-$40, thirdangle.org.The string quartet Brooklyn Rider will perform co-founder/composer Colin Jacobsen’s original song cycle “Chalk & Soot” on April 18 at Beaverton’s Patricia Reser Center for the Arts.Erin Baiano‘Chalk & Soot’ – Brooklyn RiderFor 15 years, string quartet Brooklyn Rider has carried on the avant-garde tradition that stretches back to art movements like its renowned near namesake, the early 20th century collective Blue Rider. BR co-founder/composer Colin Jacobsen’s original song cycle “Chalk & Soot” sets to music a Dada-inspired text by Blue Rider member and immortal painter Wassily Kandinsky, and the program includes a quartet from the era by another famed Blue Rider, Arnold Schoenberg. The show also looks forward with four new works, co-commissioned by Beaverton’s own Reser Center, by leading contemporary composers including Clarice Assad, Tyshawn Sorey, Giovanni Solima, and Portland’s own Gabriel Kahane.7:30 p.m. Friday, April 18, Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, 12625 S.W. Crescent St., Beaverton; $35-$55, thereser.org.‘Grounded’ – FearNoMusicEvery year, the groundbreaking Portland new music ensemble produces a Locally Sourced Sounds concert — and each one has been so different from the others that they collectively form a testimonial to the diversity of Portland contemporary classical music. This year’s program focuses on electronic music, blended with violins and piano, and features established composers Kirsten Volness and William Campbell, with emerging voices Ravi Kittappa, Caroline Louise Miller, and Anwyn Willette.7:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, Eliot Chapel, Reed College, 3203 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.; $25 suggested donation, fearnomusic.org.‘Treasured Resources: Water and Music’ – 45th Parallel UniverseEqually enamored of the natural and musical worlds, Deena Grossman has found an ideal position to meld them as composer-in-residence with the environmental organization Columbia Riverkeeper. “Waterways,” the latest in her series of increasingly evocative nature-inspired composition premieres in this concert featuring Oregon Symphony musicians and esteemed local pianist Maria Garcia. The program also includes acclaimed Japanese composer Yuko Uebayashi’s playful, lyrical “Au-Dela du Temps.”7 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, The Old Madeleine Church, 3123 N.E. 24th Ave.; $26-$36.50, 45thparallelpdx.org.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81wskrTSOT4‘Heavens Full of Stars: Music of Ēriks Ešenvalds’ – Oregon Repertory Singers Since Portland’s Oregon Repertory Singers became the first American choir to bring Ēriks Ešenvalds to the U.S. in 2012, the then-rising Latvian composer has become one of the brightest stars in the choral music firmament. His ethereal setting of Sara Teasdale’s “Stars” (enhanced by tuned wine glasses) has become a popular choice for choirs worldwide. ORS (which recorded it) will sing it here, as the choir also does at every Christmas concert, along with Northwest premieres of standout compositions and a trio of new works setting words by Oregon poet laureate emerita, Paulann Petersen.4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, May 3-4, First United Methodist Church, 1838 S.W. Jefferson St.; $30-$50, orsingers.org. ‘Found Sounds’ – Cascadia ComposersPercussion isn’t really an instrument but rather a whole passel of sound makers. This program of duets performed by Florian Conzetti and Wanyue Ye includes conventional percussors like marimba and vibraphone, as well as flowerpots, brake drums, wind chimes, and more. The lineup features new music by Eugene composers Paul Safar and John Hidalgo, Portlanders Brian Magill, Nicholas Yandell, Lisa Neher, and more.7:30 p.m. Friday, May 9, The Old Madeleine Church, 3123 N.E. 24th Ave.; $10-$30, cascadiacomposers.org.Members of Resonance Ensemble will perform “We Are Still Here” as part of the 10th Vanport Mosaic Festival in early June. The work combines song, art and memories from survivors of Japanese American incarceration during World War II, and is a world premiere commission from Portland’s own Japanese American composer Kenji Bunch.Photo by Rachel Hadiashar‘We Are Still Here’ – Resonance EnsembleAs part of the 10th Vanport Mosaic Festival, the socially conscious Portland choir will use song, art (by Chisao Hata), and memory (from survivors of Japanese American incarceration and their descendants) to “reclaim and heal” the site where almost 4,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly detained during World War II. The performance includes historical photographs and video projections, a communal altarpiece, and musical and theatrical offerings — including a world premiere commission from Portland’s own Japanese American composer Kenji Bunch. 3 p.m. Sunday, June 1, Portland Expo Center, 2060 N. Marine Drive; $5-$40, resonancechoral.org.Oregon Symphony principal cellist Nancy Ives collaborated with Native storyteller Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock), photographer Joe Cantrell (Cherokee) and Portland Chamber Orchestra in a commemorative multimedia composition, “Celilo Falls: We Were There.” The work will be performed by the Oregon Symphony in early June.Photo courtesy of The Oregon Symphony‘Scheherazade’ and ‘Celilo Falls’ – Oregon SymphonyFor 15,000 years, Celilo Falls, one of the world’s largest waterfalls, was a vital trading center for Indigenous communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. It took only months for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to inundate it by building the Dalles Dam in 1957, depriving the original inhabitants of their traditional salmon fishing grounds, livelihoods and ancient cultural home. In 2022, Oregon Symphony principal cellist Nancy Ives collaborated with Native storyteller Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock), photographer Joe Cantrell (Cherokee) and Portland Chamber Orchestra in a commemorative multimedia composition, “Celilo Falls: We Were There.” The OSO will play this new version for full orchestra along with one of the most colorful works in all of classical music, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s magnificent “Scheherazade.”7:30 p.m. Friday, June 6, Smith Auditorium, 270 Winter St. SE, Salem, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Monday, June 7 and 9, and 2 pm Sunday, June 8, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway, Portland; $25-$59; orsymphony.org.

Highlights include several concerts inspired by precious natural resources, and an Oregon symphony performance based on Celilo Falls.

This spring’s classical music calendar includes concerts featuring the instruments that led the way to the future: string quartets (in the 19th century), percussion (in the 20th), and electronic (21st). It also offers remembrances of injustices past and present, and, right in season, music inspired by nature.

Here’s a look at the season’s highlights:

‘Requiem For The Forgotten’ – Cappella Romana & 45th Parallel

Inspired by encounters with homeless people in his neighborhood, famous requiems of the past, religious faith (some text comes from the biblical Book of Lamentations), a contemporary poem about Ukraine, and more, California composer Frank La Rocca’s “Requiem For The Forgotten” offers not just mourning but also comfort and hope. The superb singers from Cappella Romana will also perform an earlier Mass by 19th century composer Josef Rheinberger, who dedicated it to Pope Leo XIII, known for his social justice advocacy.

2 p.m. Saturday, March 29, St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1739 N.W. Couch St., Portland, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 30, Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Lake Oswego; $5-$58, cappellaromana.org.

Three men and a woman pose for a photo on a metal fire escape.

Members of PUBLIQuartet will perform “What is American: Rhythm Nation” on April 6 at Beaverton’s Patricia Reser Center for the Arts.Lelanie Foster

‘What Is American: Rhythm Nation’ – PUBLIQuartet

This New York-based foursome specializes in contemporary music that leaves room for improvisation. That means delightfully unconventional programs like this fascinating Friends of Chamber Music show of mostly African diasporic music, which includes jazz, of course, (Duke Ellington, Alice Coltrane, Pulitzer winner Henry Threadgill) but also global sounds (Guinean composer Lassana Diabaté, Venezuelan composer/violinist Eddie Venegas), pop (Betty Davis) and even contemporary classical (Julia Perry, Imani Winds composer/hornist Jeff Scott) influences.

3 p.m. Sunday, April 6, Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, 12625 S.W. Crescent St., Beaverton; $32-$59, focm.org.

‘Pergolesi: Stabat Mater’ – Portland Baroque Orchestra

Poor Giovanni Pergolesi didn’t even live as long as Mozart, dying of tuberculosis at age 26 in that earlier non-vaccination year 1736. But the Italian prodigy still managed to produce enough masterworks to be considered one of the finest Baroque composers, and his famous “Stabat Mater” (performed here by PBO and guest singers) one of the great monuments of sacred music. The concert also includes vocal music by JS Bach, earlier Italian Baroque master Alessandro Scarlatti, and a seasonal Vivaldi concerto.

7 p.m. Saturday, April 12, First Congregational Church, 1126 S.W. Park Ave., and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 13, Kaul Auditorium, 3017 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.; $28-$77, pbo.org.

‘People Into Trees’ – Third Angle New Music, Portland Percussion Group

Planetariums typically show us the stars, but this time, OMSI’s dome immerses us in, well, our planet — specifically its forests. Those images will accompany contemporary percussion compositions by Portland’s own master composer/percussionist, Andy Akiho, Stanford University wild card composer Mark Applebaum, the great Scottish solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and more, including rising next-gen stars Molly Joyce and Meg Day (a world premiere for percussion quartet and American Sign Language poetry), Quinn Mason, Juri Seo, and Inti Figgis-Vizueta. This collaboration with local accessibility advocates CymaSpace provides wearable haptic vests to give Deaf/Hard of Hearing audience members access to the pulsating music.

7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, April 16-17, Kendall Planetarium, OMSI, 1945 S.E. Water Ave.; $35-$40, thirdangle.org.

Four men pose for a portrait.

The string quartet Brooklyn Rider will perform co-founder/composer Colin Jacobsen’s original song cycle “Chalk & Soot” on April 18 at Beaverton’s Patricia Reser Center for the Arts.Erin Baiano

‘Chalk & Soot’ – Brooklyn Rider

For 15 years, string quartet Brooklyn Rider has carried on the avant-garde tradition that stretches back to art movements like its renowned near namesake, the early 20th century collective Blue Rider. BR co-founder/composer Colin Jacobsen’s original song cycle “Chalk & Soot” sets to music a Dada-inspired text by Blue Rider member and immortal painter Wassily Kandinsky, and the program includes a quartet from the era by another famed Blue Rider, Arnold Schoenberg. The show also looks forward with four new works, co-commissioned by Beaverton’s own Reser Center, by leading contemporary composers including Clarice Assad, Tyshawn Sorey, Giovanni Solima, and Portland’s own Gabriel Kahane.

7:30 p.m. Friday, April 18, Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, 12625 S.W. Crescent St., Beaverton; $35-$55, thereser.org.

‘Grounded’ – FearNoMusic

Every year, the groundbreaking Portland new music ensemble produces a Locally Sourced Sounds concert — and each one has been so different from the others that they collectively form a testimonial to the diversity of Portland contemporary classical music. This year’s program focuses on electronic music, blended with violins and piano, and features established composers Kirsten Volness and William Campbell, with emerging voices Ravi Kittappa, Caroline Louise Miller, and Anwyn Willette.

7:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, Eliot Chapel, Reed College, 3203 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.; $25 suggested donation, fearnomusic.org.

‘Treasured Resources: Water and Music’ – 45th Parallel Universe

Equally enamored of the natural and musical worlds, Deena Grossman has found an ideal position to meld them as composer-in-residence with the environmental organization Columbia Riverkeeper. “Waterways,” the latest in her series of increasingly evocative nature-inspired composition premieres in this concert featuring Oregon Symphony musicians and esteemed local pianist Maria Garcia. The program also includes acclaimed Japanese composer Yuko Uebayashi’s playful, lyrical “Au-Dela du Temps.”

7 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, The Old Madeleine Church, 3123 N.E. 24th Ave.; $26-$36.50, 45thparallelpdx.org.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81wskrTSOT4

‘Heavens Full of Stars: Music of Ēriks Ešenvalds’ – Oregon Repertory Singers

Since Portland’s Oregon Repertory Singers became the first American choir to bring Ēriks Ešenvalds to the U.S. in 2012, the then-rising Latvian composer has become one of the brightest stars in the choral music firmament. His ethereal setting of Sara Teasdale’s “Stars” (enhanced by tuned wine glasses) has become a popular choice for choirs worldwide. ORS (which recorded it) will sing it here, as the choir also does at every Christmas concert, along with Northwest premieres of standout compositions and a trio of new works setting words by Oregon poet laureate emerita, Paulann Petersen.

4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, May 3-4, First United Methodist Church, 1838 S.W. Jefferson St.; $30-$50, orsingers.org.

‘Found Sounds’ – Cascadia Composers

Percussion isn’t really an instrument but rather a whole passel of sound makers. This program of duets performed by Florian Conzetti and Wanyue Ye includes conventional percussors like marimba and vibraphone, as well as flowerpots, brake drums, wind chimes, and more. The lineup features new music by Eugene composers Paul Safar and John Hidalgo, Portlanders Brian Magill, Nicholas Yandell, Lisa Neher, and more.

7:30 p.m. Friday, May 9, The Old Madeleine Church, 3123 N.E. 24th Ave.; $10-$30, cascadiacomposers.org.

A choir poses for a portrait.

Members of Resonance Ensemble will perform “We Are Still Here” as part of the 10th Vanport Mosaic Festival in early June. The work combines song, art and memories from survivors of Japanese American incarceration during World War II, and is a world premiere commission from Portland’s own Japanese American composer Kenji Bunch.Photo by Rachel Hadiashar

‘We Are Still Here’ – Resonance Ensemble

As part of the 10th Vanport Mosaic Festival, the socially conscious Portland choir will use song, art (by Chisao Hata), and memory (from survivors of Japanese American incarceration and their descendants) to “reclaim and heal” the site where almost 4,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly detained during World War II. The performance includes historical photographs and video projections, a communal altarpiece, and musical and theatrical offerings — including a world premiere commission from Portland’s own Japanese American composer Kenji Bunch.

3 p.m. Sunday, June 1, Portland Expo Center, 2060 N. Marine Drive; $5-$40, resonancechoral.org.

A woman holding a cello poses for a portrait.

Oregon Symphony principal cellist Nancy Ives collaborated with Native storyteller Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock), photographer Joe Cantrell (Cherokee) and Portland Chamber Orchestra in a commemorative multimedia composition, “Celilo Falls: We Were There.” The work will be performed by the Oregon Symphony in early June.Photo courtesy of The Oregon Symphony

‘Scheherazade’ and ‘Celilo Falls’ – Oregon Symphony

For 15,000 years, Celilo Falls, one of the world’s largest waterfalls, was a vital trading center for Indigenous communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. It took only months for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to inundate it by building the Dalles Dam in 1957, depriving the original inhabitants of their traditional salmon fishing grounds, livelihoods and ancient cultural home. In 2022, Oregon Symphony principal cellist Nancy Ives collaborated with Native storyteller Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock), photographer Joe Cantrell (Cherokee) and Portland Chamber Orchestra in a commemorative multimedia composition, “Celilo Falls: We Were There.” The OSO will play this new version for full orchestra along with one of the most colorful works in all of classical music, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s magnificent “Scheherazade.”

7:30 p.m. Friday, June 6, Smith Auditorium, 270 Winter St. SE, Salem, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Monday, June 7 and 9, and 2 pm Sunday, June 8, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway, Portland; $25-$59; orsymphony.org.

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If a tree-planting scheme in western England can match the first national forest, people as well as wildlife will benefitThe benefits for bats were presumably not at the top of the government’s list of reasons for announcing the creation of the new western forest. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, regards rules that protect these nocturnal mammals as a nuisance. Nevertheless, the rare Bechstein’s bat, as well as the pine marten and various fungi, are expected to be among species that benefit from the multiyear project, to which central government has so far committed £7.5m. Continue reading...

The benefits for bats were presumably not at the top of the government’s list of reasons for announcing the creation of the new western forest. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, regards rules that protect these nocturnal mammals as a nuisance. Nevertheless, the rare Bechstein’s bat, as well as the pine marten and various fungi, are expected to be among species that benefit from the multiyear project, to which central government has so far committed £7.5m.Like England’s only existing national forest, in the Midlands, this one will be broken up across a wide area, featuring grassland, farmland, towns and villages as well as densely planted, closed-canopy woodland. John Everitt, who heads the National Forest organisation (which is both a charity and a government arm’s length body), describes this type of landscape as “forest in the medieval sense with a mosaic of habitats”.Stretching from Gloucester in the north to Salisbury in the south and Weston-super-Mare in the west, the new project will span three counties and the city of Bristol. The aim is to combine the environmental benefits of tree planting with social and economic gains, such as new opportunities for tourism and leisure. Unlike in the Midlands, where the forest was established in a post-industrial landscape scarred by mining and clay pits, the western forest includes prime agricultural land. This means that while the Midlands is the model, this is in some ways a very different scheme. The hope is that it will demonstrate how forestry and agriculture can be combined – and counteract the view held in some rural communities that tree planting is anti-farming.The UK is underforested relative to the rest of Europe, and also among the most nature-depleted nations in the world. While tree cover in Scotland has substantially increased, in England it is estimated to be just 12.8% by Friends of the Earth, compared with an EU average of 38%. Increasing this figure is a pillar of climate change and biodiversity policies. The government’s target is 16.5% by 2050, to support the transition to net zero and boost wildlife. In the Midlands forest area, tree cover has increased from about 6% to about 26% over 30 years – with bats among the beneficiaries.When that forest was established, it was a regeneration project as much as an environmental one. Initially championed by two Tories well known for their commitment to nature – John Gummer (who went on to chair the UK’s Climate Change Committee) and Michael Heseltine (who owns an arboretum) – the scheme has since attracted cross-party support. The western forest is the first of three that were promised in Labour’s manifesto. In the Midlands there are plans to plant another 8m trees.The gains attributed to the forest there include higher property prices – a mixed blessing in any area, given their impact on lower-income renters and first-time buyers. As yet, reliable estimates of the scheme’s overall impact on carbon emissions (with tree planting offsetting emissions from development) do not exist. But the forest is working towards a net zero target. There is a vibrant outdoor learning programme in local schools. New jobs have been created in tourism, leisure and green industry. Given that local economies and landscapes change anyway, it is far better for public authorities with an interest in nature, as well as profit-seeking businesses, to be involved in overseeing this. The promise of a new forest in the west of England is a hopeful one.

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Protect This Place: Montana’s Untamed Black Ram Forest

A proposed timber sale within the Yaak Valley threatens massive old-growth trees and habitat. Instead, could it become the nation’s first climate refuge? The post Protect This Place: Montana’s Untamed Black Ram Forest appeared first on The Revelator.

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The Yaak is also the epicenter of western larch, a deciduous conifer that can live nearly 1,000 years and rains billions of golden needles onto the valley in the fall, covering everything, the animate and the inanimate, in spun gold, sometimes over the course of but a single night. Why It Matters: Not every gesture in the Anthropocene should be made purely for the sake of that brief, wobbling, severely untested species called humanity. It should be noted, however, that old and mature forests such as those in the Black Ram region protect us: They can store up to 12% of the globe’s annual carbon emissions in long-term safekeeping. The Yaak itself has been called “the Fort Knox” of aboveground carbon storage in Montana. So it matters that Yaak Valley is the poster forest for Forest Service overreach — for the agency’s stealth campaign to liquidate old growth rather than protect it. In this case the Service has proposed a timber sale at Black Ram that would affect more than 95,000 acres, including 4,000 acres that could be clearcut. The Service has already hacked its way into this ecosystem, widening a road near an existing clearcut and harming centuries-old trees in the name of “fire prevention.” It matters because an enormous timber lobbying group, American Forest Resources Council, has declared Black Ram a line in the sand. Well, so too have the six employees of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, The Montana Project, and a whole lot of other people, including writers Wendell Berry, Richard Powers, Bill McKibben, Terry Tempest Williams, musicians Maggie Rogers and James McMurtry, poet laureate Beth Ann Fennelly, painters Monte Dolack and Clyde Aspevig, and many more. AFRC has specifically listed YVFC’s 2023 court victory, which temporarily blocked the logging plan at Black Ram, as one of the key reasons they’ve petitioned the Supreme Court to do away with the National Environmental Policy Act, complaining that a group as small as ours should not be able to intervene in lawbreaking. As you can see, democracy is under attack here, too — one of 10,000 arrows fired at it daily. The successful defense of Black Ram — since appealed by the Forest Service — also matters because it is important from a scientific perspective that the general populace understand that the wildfires of this century are wind- and drought- and temperature-driven, not forest-driven. One need look no farther than the streets and buildings of Hollywood to understand this: that the dark cool forests of the north country are not our enemy; they are our solution. Global warming and the burning of fossil fuels is invisible, unfortunately, and therefore deniable. Black Ram matters also because it is the foundation for a new social movement of artists-as-activists. Much as the Harlem Renaissance and the Hudson River School became a place-based social and artistic movement, so too is the old forest at Black Ram becoming one, attracting the nation’s finest photographers, painters, poets, musicians, sculptors, performance artists, luthiers, and more. U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón visited the old forest and wrote two poems about Black Ram, one of which she read to President and Mrs. Biden. Actor and musician Jeff Bridges has commissioned several craft guitars to be made from a piece of ancient tight-grained spruce damaged by a Forest Service roadbuilding operation — 315 years a tree, and now but in one year a guitar. The guitars are being played around the country as part of Bridges’ and Breedlove Guitars’ “All in This Together” sustainability campaign.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Stop Black Ram (@stopblackram) Who’s Protecting It Now: The tiny band of six employees of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, whose mission is “working for a wild Yaak through science, education, and bold action,” are aided by an arts-based organization called the Montana Project. YVFC has partnered to provide invaluable ground truthing to partner in legal victories along with the Center for Biological Diversity (publisher of The Revelator), the Alliance for Wild Rockies and Wild Earth Guardians, as well as Save the Yellowstone Grizzly, to help hold back the bulldozers — for now. The heart of wildness, heart of science, heart of mystery, heart of art is at stake, clinging by one thread: a good story. The story is this: We went into the old forest with rage against the U.S. Forest Service, which plans to clearcut this ancient primary centuries- or perhaps millennia-old forest — but we realized our rage might not be the most effective advocacy. Instead, we’re gambling on art, paired with an increased dosage of science. The Forest Service went in prematurely and painted the trees with bright orange and blue paint. It strung what seemed like miles of ribbons and widened a road to the edge of the proposed giant clearcuts. We went to court and prevailed, but still the Service hungers for this land, appealing our victory. In the old-growth clearcutting that occurred when the Service widened the road (calling it “fire protection”), they damaged numerous ancient giant Engelmann spruce at the edge of the new clearcut. Engelmann spruce are prized for producing guitars that make the cleanest, clearest sound. From this fallen giant, we cut out a section about the size of a whale vertebrae, which revealed the most perfect tight-grained spruce imaginable. We wheelbarrowed it out, took it to master luthier Kevin Kopp and the team at Breedlove Guitars, who used the thin sheets cleaved from its center to make a small handful of Black Ram guitars, which now advocate for the protection of old forests around the world. Can one tree save a forest? Absolutely. What This Place Needs: We need more artists to come paint it, poets to write about it, and musicians — around the world — to sing for it and to play the Black Ram guitar at concerts. We need more scientists to study this unique ecosystem, engaging grad students in long-term studies that measure the effects of climate change on sensitive species, including our own. There are so many questions to answer here: Do western larch hybridize with alpine larch, and if so, where is the strand line between the two, and is it rising or falling? What about our whitebark pine, the northernmost in the lower 48? What is the fungal profile beneath a clearcut compared to that of an ancient primary forest — never logged, never roaded — such as the rarity at Black Ram? What a great opportunity for a biological transect across the entire million-acre Yaak country, such as explorer Michael Fay and National Geographic did across the entirety of the African continent.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Stop Black Ram (@stopblackram) We also need a big green group or coalition to sponsor a national concert of awareness campaign — call it Climate Aid — celebrating the ability of old and mature forests to store up to 12% of the world’s annual carbon emissions. Sure it’s a big dream, but what have we got to lose? Oh, right: everything. How much time do we have left? Another 1,000 years? Certainly not. A thousand days? Unlikely. Hurry. Twelve percent is not 100%, but it is enough to buy us a bit of the commodity rarer than gold or silver, time, and life. The Yaak Valley Forest Council’s dreams are as big as the land itself, yet utterly achievable. Because forests of big old trees store far more carbon than younger forests and smaller trees, and because they continue over the course of their long lives to absorb and store carbon at a far faster rate than the pipe-stem youngsters. (Even when an old forest burns, the vast majority of its carbon remains stored on-site, aboveground, in the dramatic firescape of the sentinels and spars that then become the home of so many of the cavity-nesters that are part of the secret thrumming engine of the Yaak’s relatively unstudied ecosystem.) We envision Yaak being declared a Climate Refuge — the first in a national and then global Curtain of Green, old forests protected everywhere but particularly in the northern latitudes, where boreal and sub-boreal forests possess the ability to store extraordinary amounts of carbon, up to six times more than the Amazonian rainforests. We envision the Black Ram Climate Refuge as being a place dedicated to the maximum recovery of the Yaak’s grizzly bears — currently referred to by some scientists as “the walking dead,” unless current management practices change. We envision it being an area for increased scientific as well as artistic inquiry into the effects of climate change on sensitive species, including our own, and co-managed by a Tribal nonprofit such as the Montana band of the Kootenai, who traditionally performed the annual summer drumming ceremony of the Sun Dance along the banks of the Yaak River. And the tiny staff of YVFC needs financial support; for parts of nine years now, our little six-member group has kept the Department of Agriculture, 35,000 strong, from erasing this ancient inland rainforest. But most of all Black Ram needs one more year of grace, after the thousands that have preceded it — millennia that have been invested in this farthest and most unknown corner of Montana. Lessons From the Fight: We don’t have the kind of access where a lobbyist can freely enter a congressperson’s office, but each of you has the ability to write and let the politicians know they’re being watched on this issue. That a light is shining down from above on this dark shady cool wet ancient forest. You may well know a musician or other artist with whom you want to share this story, or a scientist. That’s what a refuge is, in part: a place to come to, in advance of the flames. It’s your land, our land; the law requires the management officials and agencies to take into consideration your input on these actions. Whether you’ve ever walked in the old forest at Black Ram or not is not the primary consideration. Your passion is your authority, this land is your land, and again, by joining in the defense of Black Ram — advocating to protect it forever as a Climate Refuge, rather than converting it to hot windswept dust — you can take active steps to help slow the rate of climate change. There is so much now that lies beyond our control that it’s exhilarating to find something we can do: that we still have the power of action available to us. All it takes is one short and direct letter: “Don’t clearcut Black Ram. Protect it as a Climate Refuge. Make the recovery of the Yaak’s supremely imperiled grizzly bear far more of a priority than it currently is for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.” Scroll down to find our “Republish” button Previously in The Revelator: Protect This Place: Ladakh, the Planet’s ‘Third Pole’ The post Protect This Place: Montana’s Untamed Black Ram Forest appeared first on The Revelator.

Forests
Climate
Agriculture

New national forest to see 20m trees planted

The government says the new Western Forest project will help the UK meet its tree-planting targets.

New national forest to see 20m trees planted Malcolm Prior and Jenny KumahBBC News rural affairs teamGetty ImagesThe new Western Forest area will include a mix of 20m newly-planted trees and restored woodlandTwenty million trees will be planted and 2,500 hectares of new woodland created in the west of England as part of a "national forest" drive, the government has announced.The Western Forest will be made up of new and existing woodlands across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, the Cotswolds and the Mendips as well as in urban areas such as Bristol, Swindon and Gloucester.It will be the first of three new national forests promised by the government to help meet a legally-binding target of achieving 16.5% woodland cover in England by 2050.However, with only 10% cover achieved so far, environmental groups have warned much more needs to be done to meet tree-planting targets.Malcolm Prior/BBCAlex Stone, chief executive of the Forest of Avon Trust, said the Western Forest will create up to 30% tree cover in some areasThe most recent research shows the total area of woodland across the whole of the UK is currently estimated to be 3.28m hectares.That represents 13% of the total land area of the UK but in England just 10% is woodland.Across the UK, the aim is for 30,000 hectares of woodland to be planted every year.The latest annual figures show about 21,000 hectares were planted, with the vast majority in Scotland and just 5,500 hectares in England.Andy Egan, head of conservation policy at the Woodland Trust, said there had been "significant progress" on tree planting but that there was still "much more to do" to meet the UK's targets.He said maintaining government funding was essential."Successful tree planting and ongoing management needs long-term grant support," he said."A tough public spending environment could risk undoing much of the good work."Malcolm Prior/BBCIt is hoped at least 2,500 hectares of new woodland will be created as part of the new national forestAlex Stone, chief executive of the Forest of Avon Trust, which leads the partnership behind the Western Forest project, said there were some areas in the region that currently had only 7% of land covered by trees."This is about bringing those areas up so we have trees where we really need them," she said."What we are aiming to do with the Western Forest is get to 20% of canopy cover by 2050 and, in five priority areas, we are looking at getting above 30%."The scheme will particularly target urban areas, including Bristol, Swindon and Gloucester.Create jobsThe government said it would be putting £7.5m of public money into the forest over the next five years.It said the project would not only help the UK's drive to net zero but would also promote economic growth and create jobs in the region.Mary Creagh, minister for nature, said she hoped the Western Forest would also "make a huge difference" to water quality, flood resilience and to wildlife as well as bringing nature "closer to people" in the region.But she conceded there was much more to do in order to hit England's national tree-planting target."I am absolutely confident that we can get to where we need to get to," she said."Projects like this give me hope and confidence that, with everybody pulling together, working with the public sector and the private sector, we can do it."She added that, despite ongoing budget cuts, the next two national forests would be delivered by the end of this parliament, with other sources of funding explored.The Western Forest is the first new national forest to be designated in England in 30 years, following the creation of the original National Forest across Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, where 9.8m trees have been planted.

Forests
Government
Nature

Portland International Airport’s timber roof is famous. How PDX shows where the wood’s from

New signs invite travelers to take in a self-guided, "forest-to-frame" tour before their next flight.

Since the remodeled Portland International Airport was unveiled in August 2024, reviews have been effusive.Enter the first major U.S. airport with a timber roof and the wow factor is everywhere.Undertaken at a cost of $2.1 billion, the four-year PDX remodel uses 3.7 million board feet of wood. It features a nine-acre Douglas fir roof, Oregon white oak flooring and expansive ligneous detailing everywhere in between.Its latticed ceiling includes 35,000 individual three-by-sixes, alongside 2 million board feet of arched glulam beams. Tree-adorned wooden concessions, sky-lit oak flooring and seating, and decorative wood walls are as un-O’Hare as it gets.Even the terminal’s wood-slatted TSA screening booths have been described as “ease-inducing” and “biophilic.” (Well, okay …)All very Oregon. The remodel has been touted as the largest public works project in state history.Now there’s a new feature that helps those with an abiding interest its construction gain an even greater appreciation of all that wood.One of the project’s more ambitious (if less obvious) achievements was its effort to keep track of where all the wood it uses comes from.Trace elements: Wood origin signage is found throughout Portland International Airport’s main terminal. Chuck ThompsonTelling that story are new signs scattered around the terminal titled “Where’s the Wood From?”“EVERY BOARD COMES FROM WITHIN A DAY’S DRIVE,” notes a wooden sign in carved caps in the mezzanine near the Loyal Legion beer hall in the upper level. “WE SET OUT TO SOURCE THE WOOD AS LOCAL AS YOUR FARMER’S MARKET, SO WE KNOW THE FORESTS LIKE WE KNOW OUR NEIGHBORS.”Translation: the airport’s wood-sourcing efforts are worth marveling over, too.If the heritage of Colin the Chicken can become an international sensation, why not wood?The wooden signs, which weren’t ready for the grand opening last summer, were installed over the winter.They’re worth seeking out. How do you trace wood, anyway?Every piece of wood in the main terminal comes from Oregon and Washington, within 300 miles of the airport, according to airport operator Port of Portland, the project’s architectural firm ZGF and conservationist wood consultant Sustainable Northwest:Most eye-catching of all on a self-guided PDX “Where’s the Wood From?” sign tour is the wood’s traceability.COQUILLE INDIAN TRIBE GREW THE DOUGLAS FIR FOR THE DOUBLE BEAMS IN THE OVAL SKYLIGHT ABOVE YOU.ZENA FOREST GREW THE OREGON WHITE OAK FOR THIS BENCH.COW CREEK BAND OF UMPQUA TRIBE OF INDIANS GREW THE DOUGLAS FIR FOR THIS WALL.About 30% of the wood in the PDX remodel can be traced to its specific forest of origin.While that may not sound like a high number, it represents a huge amount of traceable timber in an industry that doesn’t do that sort of thing.“The current, opaque supply chain makes it difficult to know how wood is harvested, exactly where it is harvested, who owns the land and the values that drive the forest’s management,” co-wrote ZGF Principal Jacob Dunn and Sustainable Northwest Senior Director of Wood Markets Paul Vanderford, in a blog outlining the PDX project’s multi-year efforts to engage with landowners and mills across the Pacific Northwest, and shift the usual timber production protocol.Once it was decided that the PDX remodel would be done with wood that was both local and sustainably managed, tracking where that wood came from would be the biggest challenge of all, according to Dunn and Vanderford.It would also become a touchstone for the entire project.“It was the first attempt at anything like this,” they wrote. “And while we didn’t achieve it all, we reached targets no other projects have.”One million board feet in the airport terminal’s roof can be directly traced to wood from 13 regional, tribal-owned, family-owned, community, public and nonprofit forests, according to a sourcing chart by Sustainable Northwest that’s reminiscent of a farm-to-table menu detailing the origin of every item on a plate.“If salmon that we consume can be tracked back to its source of origin, and our coffee traced back to the farm where it was grown, why can’t we know where our wood comes from?” asks ZGF’s Dunn. The project’s traceability effort reimagines “farm-to-table” as a new tagline: forest-to-frame.“I’ll go on record and say it’s possible ‘forest-to-frame’ was coined for this project. It’s the first time I’d ever heard it,” says Ryan Temple, president of Sustainable Northwest Wood, a subsidiary of Portland-based Sustainable Northwest and the wood consultant that championed the project’s traceability effort.“Wood traceability doesn’t happen on a large scale,” says Temple. “Logs come in, get mixed together and there’s no way to trace what comes out the back end—unless a mill is willing to actually separate logs from a specific forest, run that batch on its own and say, ‘Here’s your three-by-eight from the Chimacum Ridge Community Forest.’ That’s a whole different way of doing things, so it took some time, effort and convincing.”Was there pushback from the mills?“There were mixed feelings,” says Temple. “Some mills were on board from the start and thought it was really cool that people know where the wood comes from. Others were initially like, ‘This is gonna require way more work and transparency than we’re used to. Can’t we just do business as usual?’”Most of those reluctant mills came around, says Temple.As the project progressed, and sawmills and forest owners started getting more attention, accolades and positive press than they’re used to “a lot of those skeptics became believers.”Source of pride: Sarah Deumlingan and her son, Ben, run Zena Forest Products, an Oregon-based, multigenerational family business that contributed to the PDX remodel.Aedin Powell/Sustainable Northwest Tribal timber, legacy loggersAnother project goal was targeting underrepresented links in the supply chain—small mills, family forests, nonprofits and tribal nations—as well as forests from both western and eastern Oregon and Washington.Nearly a third of the wood in the new terminal was sourced from underrepresented landowners—including 16% tribal wood.“When you use traceable timber, all that wood has a story behind it,” says Temple. “One of my favorites is with the terminal’s seam wall—this grid-work of Douglas fir that kind of looks like a giant wine rack and happened later in the project.“The airport was scrambling to get it done, came to us and said, ‘Hey, we need some Doug fir, and it would be great if it came from a well-managed forest with a story behind it, but we really just need to get this thing done.’”As it happened, the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians, south of Roseburg, Ore., had recently started a forest program and was stocking loads of reclaimed wood.“They were salvaging wood that was the result of a fire which had started off of the reservation and had burned onto it,” says Temple. “They lost thousands of acres, but were doing the best to try to create something out of this wood.”PDX ended up using some of that wood for the seam wall.“It was absolutely perfect for what the airport had in mind,” says Temple. “Not only was the wood harvested and salvaged by the Tribe, but it was turned into lumber at their own mill. That revenue from the Tribe’s forestry and mill operation is now being used to reacquire parcels of ancestral land.”Stories are ingrained in wood used all over the terminal.The pergola designs by the coffee shop concessions are built with beams from the Yakama Nation. They support a lattice structure of Douglas fir from JayZee Lumber based in northeast Oregon’s Wallowa County, “where fourth-generation loggers work with fourth-generation ranchers,” says Temple.“It’s local wood, it’s good wood, it’s sustainable wood, but it’s more than that—and more than just a magnificent airport project,” says Temple. “It’s a celebration of the people, places, communities, businesses and individual forests where all of that wood has come from.”Can a project of this magnitude inspire a broader forest-to-frame movement?“Our hope is that this project helps catalyze a new level of rigor and options for sourcing and tracing mass timber and other wood products sustainably,” Dunn and Vanderford wrote. “Hopefully this makes it easier for future project teams to follow suit and ask—Where does the wood come from?”Jordan Rane is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in CNN.com, Outside, Men’s Journal and the Los Angeles Times.##Columbia Insight, based in Hood River, Oregon, is a nonprofit newsroom focused on environmental issues of the Columbia River Basin and the Pacific Northwest.

Forests
Business
Sustainable

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Where Do They All Go?

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The Story of a Forest

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