Trail Talk – February 2025

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” ~ Aldo Leopold

THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY HERE, in the gradual reclamation of a damaged environment, to be out and about on our two legs, to experience some of this healing. Our trails lead us forever on, ribbons of knowable encounters in a world too often hidden from everyday living. The protected woodland areas around Jacksonville, Beekman and Britt Woods and Forest Park, are living examples of the evolution from misused landscapes back to a more natural equilibrium.

We’re experiencing a healing winter, with (thus far) ample rainfall to start rebuilding our aquifers. Dry gulches become rills, hillside gopher tunnels become so many novel and unexpected springs, stream channels are noisily turned over in a roaring torrent, and the waterfalls, oh, my yes, the waterfalls! One can only hope that folks have been out and about in this glorious wet weather to marvel at the roar of so many cascades. Jacksonville’s Forest Park would feel no shame to be known as ‘Waterfall Wonderland’ during these weeks of spectacular rainfall.

It’s been a delight to hike along such spirited waterways, to feel the thunder of the rushing water through the very tread of the streamside trail. Remarkably, during the highest of the runoff in the streams, the water coming from Forest Park down Jackson Creek carried far less sediment than the water coming along the highway. This is testament to the efforts in the last two decades by city crews and volunteers, with assistance from MRA (Motorcycle Riders Association) to begin the healing process in the Jackson Creek Watershed.

Fuels reduction work has continued, removing overgrown vegetation to provide fuel breaks in the event of wildfire. The catastrophic fires of recent years speak clearly to management decisions and cultural choices that saw our woodland environments become unbalanced. A century-long effort to replace the open oak savanna and ponderosa forests of our valley hillsides, evidenced by so many historic photos and journals, with commercially valuable Douglas firs, is being reversed by nature itself, as we witness the die-off of these firs with our changing climate.

There is so much to be aware of on our walks in the woods. Winter is a time of quiet forests contradicted by rushing water. The brightly colored trunks of our madrone trees and manzanita brush are at their finest. The pungent aroma of the decomposing carpet of leaf litter invades our noses. In the waterways, our resident Pacific wrens scold passing hikers and the occasional song of the spring peepers reminds us of warmer days to come. Listen, learn, and walk on—the woods await.