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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, AuguST 13, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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GUEST COLUMN
Charred forest has lessons to teach
T
wo years after a major fire
raged through the woods at
Siouxon Creek, the mast-
straight Douglas firs still look like
their lower trunks were dipped into a
bath of black tar.
Their thick bark charred by the
flames, their needles singed and con-
sumed by the 25,000-acre firestorm,
thousands of firs stand as a wooded
charnel house, a ghost
forest of the standing
dead.
Despite all that, joy
and hope washed over
me as I hiked through
the scorched Siouxon
Valley in Washington
ANDRE
state this month.
STEPANKOWSKY
It wasn’t just the
power of nature to heal
itself that awed me. This forest, and
how it has begun stitching itself back
together, reminded me of something
deeper needed to soothe our national
strife.
The so-called Hollow Creek fire
started on Sept. 8, 2020 and grilled
most of the upper Siouxon watershed,
a popular hiking area south of Swift
Reservoir about a dozen miles south
of Mount St. Helens.
By the time crews and rain stopped
the blaze in early October, all the for-
est underbrush of wood sorrel, ferns,
maple, huckleberry, devil’s club and
other shrubs lay in cinders. Even the
moss burned, leaving behind swaths
of velvety orange that still blotch the
rocks and soils of the forest floor.
Yet, despite the scant passage
of time, the forest is rebounding.
Splotches of wood sorrel and other
herbaceous plants are again covering
the forest floor. Jungles of fireweed
— the pink-purple flowered species
that is a post-fire colonizer — thrive
under the canopy of the skeletal for-
est. Emerald green now dominates the
understory, which was a smoking, cin-
der-laden ruin two autumns ago.
Siouxon Creek and its tributaries
again gurgle and clatter over rocks
and gravel with aquamarine-tinged
purity.
Andre Stepankowsky
Nicky Stepankowsky and Robert Grant walk through the forest in the Siouxon Creek
watershed in August.
Although most of the tall firs
died, patches of them survived in wet
spots or where winds shifted flames
away. Some miraculously endured
even though their bark, burned to the
appearance of charcoal, was thick
enough to shield them from the heat.
These survivors will be the source of
seed to sow a new forest.
The newborn forest will be more
structurally complex and biologically
richer than the old one, which was
largely an even-aged woodland that
sprung from disastrous fires in the
early 20th century.
We learned from Mount St. Hel-
ens and other disasters that survivors
of a natural calamity drive the heal-
ing of the land. It’s obvious that these
so-called legacies — seeds, roots,
surviving animals, colonizing birds,
insects and mammals from outside
the burn area — are at play in the the
Siouxon Creek watershed.
In a broad sense, the forest is
regrowing from its roots. Come to
think of it, I was reminded, isn’t it
our own roots — in the form of mem-
ories, families, schooling and a myr-
iad of other accumulated experiences
— that help us cope and regroup after
we endure a setback? The power of
memory is immense, and we lose our
moorings when it wanes.
So, too, isn’t it time for Amer-
ica to return to its roots to help heal
the political divisiveness that poi-
sons our politics? We must remem-
ber who we are and what makes us
great. We need to return to Super-
man’s playbook and rededicate our-
selves to “truth, justice and the
American way,” where politics is a
vehicle for progress and not a blud-
geon for demeaning the opposition.
We’re better and richer when we
work together.
I didn’t revisit Siouxon Creek for
a civics lesson, because like many
of you I’m disgusted with political
acrimony. But the land speaks to us,
often in ways we don’t expect.
Andre Stepankowsky is the retired
city editor of The daily News of
Longview, Washington.
IN A BROAd SENSE, THE FOREST IS REgROWINg FROM ITS ROOTS. COME TO THINK OF IT, I WAS REMINdEd,
ISN’T IT OuR OWN ROOTS — IN THE FORM OF MEMORIES, FAMILIES, SCHOOLINg ANd A MyRIAd OF OTHER
ACCuMuLATEd EXPERIENCES — THAT HELP uS COPE ANd REgROuP AFTER WE ENduRE A SETBACK?
THE POWER OF MEMORy IS IMMENSE, ANd WE LOSE OuR MOORINgS WHEN IT WANES.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
An act of compassion
O
n a recent morning on KMUN, Jerry
Middaugh opened his program by
playing the Ukrainian national anthem,
followed by a song reminding us that
“we are all Ukrainians now.” It was a
good thing to do, even if it was a painful
subject to revisit.
Then, for two hours, he rescued us. He
played, for instance, a tragic but acous-
tically beautiful cello piece performed
by Nancy Blake. And later, a song by the
exuberantly unstoppable Marcia Ball.
And, a gentle reminder by Laurie Lewis
that “a hand to hold” makes all the dif-
ference. It was music that acknowl-
edged sorrow, but encouraged us to look
beyond it.
The choices and sequencing and bal-
ancing of the songs couldn’t but have
come from the programmer’s life expe-
riences. Sharing them in this way was, it
seems to me, an act of compassion.
ROBERT ADAMS
Astoria
Heavens
A
message from the heavens: The
North Star is to guide us, the Big
Dipper to ladle ourselves generous help-
ings of His love and blessings, and the
Little Dipper to remind us to be thankful,
no matter how little we may have.
The smiling moon is to consume our
gloom, and the sun to always shine on us,
to warm our hearts and souls. Thank you,
Lord, for your heavens!
JIM BERNARD
Warrenton
Dread
F
or a long time, I have felt a steadily
increasing dread that Americans
are becoming super dependent on man-
ufactured drugs to “fix” health issues.
Yes, proper medications are required
to address diagnosed medical issues.
But what I have been seeing are the Big
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will “fix” problems. “Ask your doctor”
about this product must drive doctors
crazy.
Over a one-week period of watch-
ing TV during the 5:30 to 7 p.m. news
shows, I counted 30 different medical
products. Most of them were advertised
six to 10 times each during that period.
It was also interesting to hear of possi-
ble side effects. Death as a potential side
effect would be a turnoff for me.
With this advertising process, Big
Pharma must be raking in major dol-
lars. Pfizer alone made $27.7 billion last
quarter.
Hopefully, the legislation allowing
Medicare to negotiate drug prices will
have some effect on drug costs.
LEE JETTE
Astoria