Today as many watch our beloved Columbia River Gorge burn, the question needs to be asked: How shall we restore the beauty that has been lost? How shall we educate future generations so that this does not occur again in the next 100 years?
My great uncle, J. Ed Schroeder, dedicated his life’s work to the forest, working to shape forestry policy and restore green to the Cascade coast after the Tillamook Burn. It was hard work, requiring agencies, companies, dollars, people, cooperation and coordination. Yet, despite the odds, he was successful in restoring what was destroyed within his lifetime. If he can do it, so can we.
A restored Columbia River Gorge benefits all. I urge everyone to begin now, even as ash still falls, to plan to be in the Columbia River Gorge, as a community, on Arbor Day 2018, with as many little seedlings as can be grown, to work together as a region, to unite over a common bond — a treasure, burned, that can be regrown.
Flames, char and ash are all we see today. What will our successors see?
