forest history

"That feels like home to me," Jennifer Ott noted at the end of this episode. What happens when we trace the history of our forests - not just through trees, but through people, place and change? In this interview, I talk with Jennifer Ott, Executive Director of HistoryLink.org, Washington’s free online encyclopedia of history. Jennifer is an environmental historian, author of Olmsted in Seattle: Creating a Park System for a Modern City, and co-author of Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal. She brings a deep knowledge of Seattle’s reshaped landscapes; it's filled tidelands, leveled hills, and rechanneled rivers, and a lifelong commitment to accessible public history.

We dig into HistoryLink’s new Forest History Project, a wide-ranging effort to tell the story of Washington’s forests through essays, oral histories, and educational curricula. Funded by the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the project includes over a dozen new feature essays - from Indigenous land stewardship to timber company towns, the Douglas fir to the Northwest Forest Plan - as well as 15 interviews with key figures from forestry, conservation, and tribal leadership.

We talk about the relationship between ecological change and historical narrative, the legacies of environmental thinkers, and how public history can shape our understanding of climate adaptation, land stewardship, and just futures. This conversation is a reminder that forests are more than trees; they’re stories, struggles, and visions of what’s possible.

Resources and Links

Forest History Project (HistoryLink): https://historylink.org/File/23334

"FIeld Notes" Podcast: https://historylink.org/File/22657 

Learn more about Jennifer Ott’s work:
Olmsted in Seattle: Creating A Park System for a Modern City
Seattle at 150: Stories of the City Through 150 Objects
Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal

This episode features music from The Grey Room / Golden Palms. Find more at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOTOoAbEhY-WD_XhkvJBJg

Upcoming Event: Plants as Teachers

I’ll be giving a talk on January 28, called Plants as Teachers, Messengers and Climate Partners: Habitat Care and Adaptation in a Warming World,  hosted by Tacoma Tree Foundation. As climate change reshapes our ecosystems, ecological restorationist Michael Yadrick invites us to rethink so-called “weeds” as allies in adaptation, revealing how plants respond to stress, guide our land care decisions, and help us imagine better futures. Register here:
https://tacomatreefoundation.org/calendar/plants-as-teachers

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