People + Place ~ The Forest and the Trees: Ann Stinson

A monthly feature written and photographed by Southwest Washington native and Emmy Award-winning journalist Hal Calbom

proDuction notes

The Writing and Reading of Books

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

~ Chinese Proverb

It’s temptIng to do nothIng but seek out and interview authors. After all, we are a “Reader,” self-proclaimed. We assemble words, paragraphs, stories, essays and reviews, all readied to be read. Reading is a privilege and a gift. It seems we are not wired to make sense of lines of symbols organized into systems and presented to us in endless marching rows of prose. Thanks to work my wife does with dyslexic children and those with other profound learning disabilities, I’ve learned that those to whom reading comes naturally are, in fact, a relative minority. Educators say only 10–20 percent of all learners take to reading easily. The rest read slowly, hesitantly, out of necessity and often not very well at all. I enjoyed my conversation with author Ann Stinson as much as I enjoyed reading her book in manuscript. We’re curious about the people behind the prose (and the pose) that the author creates. We lionize great writers, or vilify them, for their idiosyncrasies and the sacrifices and indulgences they’ve made for their art. And more often than not, we ask them a very basic question: how much of this book is “you” and how much did you make up? Or, in the case of non-fiction, a deeper probe: How much of this is felt experience, gut feeling and reaction, versus research and regurgitation? As I talked with Ann I realized my pleasure in her book derived from an elegant integration, very candid and straightforward, of what she was thinking, feeling and then writing down. It’s not seamless, in fact it calls itself out, almost like a series of excerpted diary entries or collections of scratchings and poems. The writing and reading of books is so much more than an academic exercise. It’s a perpetual translation of thought and feeling into a very arbitrary and demanding system of signs and symbols. When done well, it both transports us and brings us home.

people+ place

The Forest and the Trees: Ann Stinson

Ann Stinson knows what she wants to say, but like most writers she’s particular how she says it. We walk her property in search of exactly what she does.

“We do struggle with that. The description. When I tell people it’s a tree farm,” she told me, “they immediately assume it’s Christmas trees. It’s not.” As we wind among her 230 acres of fir, western red cedar and ponderosa pine, we emerge into acres of clear cut suggesting industry more than husbandry. We dismiss both political extremes — they are neither tree huggers nor tree muggers at Cowlitz Ridge Tree Farm. And we agree that “preserve” denies the working nature of the place, and has a jellies and jams feel anyway. Tramping over soggy fallen needles and leaves, we debate the nuances of “farm,” a place which usually grows “crops,” which in turn become “food.” And we agree that all the talk of “stewardship” and “conservation” belies the bare-knuckle business of the place. Tree farming is work: planting and protecting the shoots, fighting drought and root rot, setting the price against international markets and regional competition. Put simply, it’s cutting trees down and growing them back — sustainably. We sit down for a chat. The walk is exhilarating. The semantics are tiring us out.

NICE TO MEET YOU

Ann Stinson

resiDes

Toledo, Wash., and Portland, Ore.

occupation

Tree farmer, author of The Ground at My Feet: Sustaining a Family and a Forest from, Toledo, Washington

known for

Gathering friends and family for food and conversation reaDing The Committed: a Novel, by Viet Thanh Nguyen and Rare and Wondrous Things: A Poetic Biography of Maria Siobylla Merian by Alyse Bensel for fun Hiking, reading, exploring new restaurants, playing with her godchild

recommenDations

Memorizing a poem, reading and re-reading Beloved by Toni Morrison.

AS: How about “working forest?” HC: Sure. I’ll settle for that — including the cutting and merchandising of the trees, too? AS: Yes, that’s what we do. Our business is timber, which is wood used in building, carpentry, industry. The end products. This place is beautiful but it’s not hands-off. It’s a livelihood, too. HC:: Is that side of the business — the timber and lumber side — still alive here in Southwest Washington? We hear so much about exporting whole logs and that the saw milling gets done somewhere else?

cont page 22

cont from page 21

AS: That’s why it’s hard to pin down and define. The traditional timber industry is both highly evolved and very much the same. There are two small sawmills that mill our lumber right down this very road. HC: And I spent the morning shooting photos at a hardwood mill in Longview and they’re sawing up all the alder they can get.

People + Place “ This place is beautiful, but it’s not hands-off. It’s a livelihood, too.

AS: Yes. Hardwoods are doing fine. The softwoods — fir and cedar and pine — are more often harvested only as whole logs for shipment overseas. And those are the piles of logs you see at the ports. HC: So, are you simply a hold out, or is tree farming a viable business? AS: There are nearly 1200 members of the Washington Farm Forestry Association. That’s us. Lewis County has 180 tree farms, Cowlitz around 50 and Clark County almost 200. HC: And they’re supporting families? AS: Some of the bigger ones, probably. But most of us have day jobs! HC: What about this “log drain?” The idea we’re shipping all our valuable resources someplace else? AS: Here’s how I look at it as far as exporting logs. Our state and federal wood, which is a lot of it, cannot be exported. None. Period. So the only wood that can be exported is private wood. And if you export private wood, then you can’t bid on a state or federal land sale. A forest service sale. So that self-regulates. I think it’s a pretty good deal because that means the federal wood and the state wood stay local, and that’s a pretty significant volume. HC: And as a private enterprise? You guys… AS: We can sell wherever we want. We still grow and sell “J-logs,” which are our best logs. Premium prices and shipped to Japan. But most of our wood ends up as fencing, forms, medium-quality uses, but in a viable market, nonetheless.

People+Place barks up the right tree.

Michelle Mury

Volleyball Head Coach Kelso High School I honor Jesus by surrendering to the Holy Spirit. I humbly realize “ that my strength and power come from Him. I pray in all situations that His will be done in and through me. Coaching is no different!”

Weatherguard supports the FCA vison: To see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.

“Let Russell Cook”

painting 16x20 inches acrylic paint on canvas by Joe Fischer

Honoring the Successful Lives and Legacy of Alona & Carl Forsberg

JOE FISCHER

This place is beautiful, but it’s not hands-off. It’s a livelihood, too.

”

The gist of Ann Stinson’s quiet but powerful memoir is in its subtitle: Sustaining a Family and a Forest. Stinson nicely integrates the personal and the practical, drawn to Oregon State University Press not only as a successful publishing house but because the school boasts one of the world’s preeminent forestry programs. She evokes the feeling of inhabiting the land, not simply living on it. Stinson’s parents and siblings emerge and grow as integral to the story, even as family seedlings stir in their 300 acres. There are happy and tragic moments interspersed, notably the premature death of Ann’s brother, Steve. There are climate hazards, drought and root rot. History traced back to the Cowlitz Indians and homesteaders. There is the passing of the torch from one generation to another. And there is the irony that in the still- macho culture of forestry, two women —Ann the schoolteacher, writer and librarian, and her sister-in-law Lou Jean, Steve’s widow — now run the place.

HC: Was this book a direct response to Steve’s death? AS: I think more indirect. His legacy is his love for this land. And it felt very creative for me to “come back to the land,” so to speak. It felt like I was making something out of my life, and out of Steve’s death. I mean, I’m making a story that people can read, I hope, but also I’m giving form to something formless. HC: The period you cover?

cont page 24 Above, and opposite page: Ann Stinson with sister-in-law and co-owner Lou Jean Stinson, and parents Fae Marie Beck and Doug Stinson.

MEET THE AUTHOR Ann Stinson The Ground at My Feet

Saturday, Dec. 4, 2–4pm Steamboat Landing 115 Ramsey Way Toledo, Wash. Please RSVP to amstinson126@gmail.com “I start to realize that this account I’m writing about our farm and its produce is a way for me to create something from the trees. I’m not a forester like Dad, or an advocate for tree farmers like Steve, but I can tell a story about our land. This book is a gift from me to the land, to my family, to Dad, to Steve, to the people who work the land and love it. It is me making sense of the grounding the land has given me in my fifty-six years. A call to see the earth and what it gives.” From The Ground at My Feet

The Ground at My Feet may also be purchased for $21.95 at CRR’s office, 1333 14th Ave., Longview, Wash. (Limited supply)

Edward Curtis photo.

Online Auction Nov 30, 4pm – Dec. 3, 9pm Items available for pick-up Dec. 4

In-Person Cocktail Party

Dec 3, Longview Country Club, 6pm

Beautifully-decorated, Full Sized Trees

On display in downtown businesses on Commerce Ave. Hand-delivered Dec. 5 FREE Public Viewing Event Visit Downtown Longview on Thursday, December 2nd from 4-7pm! View the Trees, shop local, and enjoy some festive holiday spirit. JLLC members will be around to answer questions, sell raffle tickets, and spread cheer! Participating businesses will be open with specials or festive offerings! For more info, Cocktail Party Tickets, or to Register to Bid Online, visit lowercolumbia.jl.org Join us in celebrating our community with JOY and GIVING during the 2021 Festival of Trees! The Evans Kelly Family

One Of LOngview ’ s piOneer famiLies.

Proud Sponsor of People+Place

We are supporting various programs that service local under-served youth this holiday season, and ensuring the children in our community have presents to open come Christmas morning. You can be an “Angel” and help by picking up a tag to fill at your local Fibre Federal CU service center.

from page 23 AS: It begins in 2018, ends in 2019. But it goes all the way back, there’s a chapter about the history of this land. I found the very first people, white people who owned this land were named the Willoughby’s. And Edgar Willoughby was a civil war vet. And because of that, there’s a ton of information about him. HC: And you acknowledge the first peoples? AS: Yes, there’s a whole chapter about the Cowlitz tribe, because they’re the first people to inhabit this land. I found a story about a native woman — her American English name is Veronica, but her Cowlitz name is Tasha Smith. And she married Simon Plamondon, the first important Canadian trader to come up the Cowlitz. They had four kids, and one of their many further down descendants I was able to interview for the book. What a joy! I learned a ton from that. HC: Is there a kind of zen thing going on here? You talk about things “spiritual” in the book? AS: Dad calls it a green infusion. We go out every day. Get a little forest bathing — that’s a Japanese term. To be growing trees is a wonderful thing, and even just to bring people out. “Where are the sprinklers?” they say. To listen to the questions makes you realize we have to bring more people out here. So they understand what’s happening. And that’s another goal of this book — for city people to experience this. HC: You end the book on an expedition. Tell us about your Japan connection. AS: Well, it started young. Our best logs get sold to Japan. And so I grew up hearing, ‘That’s a J-log, you know?’ and Dad had a lot of Japanese customers who bought the wood from a lot of the mills. So we had lots of gifts growing up, and interaction with the Japanese. HC: And they actually revere wood more than we do? AS: Oh, of course. I truly think of Japan as the Near West and not the Far East. It is right there. So when I was at Western in Bellingham, my minor was in teaching English as a second language. And I didn’t want to be normal and choose French, German or Spanish. So I took Japanese. HC: And for this book you decided to follow some of these precious J-logs? AS: Dad and I went to Japan as part of this book. I really, really, really wanted to ride a log ship from Longview to Japan. And at first the company, the shipping company said yes, and then they said no, you can’t go but they allowed us to get on a ship in Longview and meet the captain. And I gave him a Pentax camera. And he took pictures for me across the whole voyage. And then we were able to meet that same ship when they landed in Japan and ride on the ship for 24 hours. So that was great. HC: Same question I asked about tree farming — do you hope to sell some of these books are or this simply a labor of love? AS Sell! But I admit I’m not much of an entrepreneur. My marketing director at OSU Press printed it out for me the other day: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to soak up the atmosphere and charm of every bookseller you meet, so they’ll want to buy books and invite you to events.”

HC: How about sharing the wealth? Do you feel duty-bound, like your brother especially, to advocate for and make visible the family forest? AS: Yes, by all means. The Washington Farm Forestry Association that I mentioned before has a very active Lewis County chapter. They have educational events every month. In the summer we do twilight tours, people go visit other people’s tree farms and learn about them. I mean, you can’t really just drop by but we’d love to create more opportunities to share what we have here. The last picnic we had here drew about 70. HC:: Do you have another book in the works? AS: Well, I’m writing. I’m scraping the surfaces, scraping all around but I do keep on writing. One idea that I have is my mother’s journey — it is fascinating. She left the panhandle of Texas at 25, took the train and boat up to Ketchikan, Alaska, to teach school. But she was a bride in the 50s and soon got wind of a little women’s lib. So Mom and Dad have been divorced and remarried. Together still. She’s an artist, a potter, and she’s married to a forester and lives out here, with her own studio. A lot of the artwork and statuary you see out here and in our gardens is hers.

HC: Sounds like the best of both worlds. AS: With some challenges, of course. But that’s the stuff books are made of!

Editor’s note: Interviews are edited for length and clarity.

Hal Calbom, producer of CRR’s People+Place feature series, is also editor of The Tidewater Reach and Dispatches from the Discovery Trail, published by CRRPress. Hal grew up in Longview, now lives in Seattle, and may be reached at hal@ halcalbom.com. Be sure to read his holiday book recommendations, page 18.