May 2025
In this edition:
Monthly Nature Walks
Weekly Mindfulness in Nature
Traditional Medicine Program
Steering Committee Update
Spring in Bloom
🥾 Monthly Nature Walks
On April 13, eight community members joined our monthly nature walk and explored Hooven Forest. They used all their senses: do Douglas Fir and Western Hemlock needles taste the same? How many Spotted Towhees live in this part of the forest? They got caught in the crossfire of an epic Pacific Wren song battle, and found wild plants to snack on. They found the home of an elusive Mountain Beaver, a species that lives only in the Pacific Northwest and specializes in eating Sword Ferns. There's a lot to learn when we go slowly, but this is a good jumping-off point to discover additional trails in this magnificent forest.
Join us again on Sunday, May 11 at 10am, led by Alexia of Hawthorn Farm. We'll celebrate Mother's Day by finding some wild mothers (plant and animal) raising their springtime babies. Meet at the north end of 170th Ave NE and email hawthornhealstheheart@gmail.com with questions.
🧘♀️ Weekly Mindfulness in Nature
Feeling overwhelmed or disconnected? Reconnect through meditation and community at our Mindfulness in Nature group, held Sundays from 4–5:30pm. We gather rain or shine a few minutes into the woods from the north end of 166th Ave NE / 85th Ave SE to practice simple meditation and nature-based awareness. No experience necessary. Reach out to Ana at ae1031@hotmail.com to learn more.
🌿 Traditional Medicine Program
Interns from the Naa káani Native Program (Facebook page) are regularly visiting Hooven Forest as part of their Traditional Medicine Internship. Led by Linzie Crofoot, they discuss the land and its history, and its importance in wildlife and environmental conservation. In early April, they harvested miner's lettuce, maple sprouts, and Salmonberry flowers for a delicious forest salad. Last week, the interns took a walk through Hooven Forest and pulled a bit of holly, a highly invasive plant species. After pulling, they discussed natural resource management and cultural keystone species while snacking on some nettle biscuits.
🛠 Steering Committee Update
We’ve been busy behind the scenes, working with local partners and agencies to move closer to long-term conservation. We have also welcomed active community members Kayo Stone, Zach Stevens, and Kyle Krakow of Legacy Forest Defense Coalition to our bi-monthly Steering Committee Meetings.
Here’s where things stand:
Valuation: The Steering Committee is asking anyone who may have expertise in valuing land and might be willing to donate their professional assessment of the Hooven Forest parcel to please reply or contact us at info@hoovenforest.org. DNR would proceed with an official assessment for a $30K fee, and the Steering Committee would rather see that money go towards legal fees or actual acquisition costs. Meanwhile, we’re collaborating with UW Bothell to involve students in Capstone projects on ecosystem diversity identification and valuation, water quality, and elementary/middle school curriculum/promotion. Student proposals are due in August, and successfully matched projects would start in September.
Funding: Following up on Commissioner Upthegrove's direction from our February meeting, the Steering Committee met with the DNR Trust Land Transfer department in April. The TLT Program Director set the expectation that Hooven Forest was likely not to score high enough in the competitive process (value per SF too high, no endangered endemic plant or animal species, surrounded by houses, and not sharing borders with other large conserved open space parcels). In addition, the TLT program has a cap of $15M to fund any single project. Undeterred, the Steering Committee will continue to work to determine other appropriate and available sources of funding. We are exploring alternative sources of funding through donations, conservation grants, and perhaps the sale of conservation or other program credits (carbon, land development, etc.). We will continue to keep everyone posted as we make progress.
Receiving Entity: The ideal home for Hooven Forest is a public entity such as a government agency, tribe, or school district. While Commissioner Upthegrove has committed that the forest won’t be sold during his term, permanent protection will take time, so identifying a suitable receiving organization that is committed to long-term conservation and community recreation is our top priority. We’re actively engaging with potential partners including the Tulalip Tribe, Snohomish County Conservation and Natural Resources, Snohomish County Public Utility District, Snohomish County Council, and Washington State Department of Education. If any community members have suggestions or contacts, we welcome your input and connections.
🌸 Spring in Bloom
Walking in Hooven Forest this week, we noticed a couple of the first ground flowers of spring lining the forest walking paths.
The first is called Siberian spring beauty, a smallish white-pink member of the genus Claytonia, also known as Pink purslane, Siberian miner's lettuce, Candy flower and Petrolia pink. Nearby you can find the graceful dangling pink bells and delicate lacy leaves of the Pacific bleeding heart, Dicentra formosa, also known as Western bleeding heart, which is actually a member of the Poppy family.
The trillium are still out, but you will likely see many of their three-leaved flowers fading now from white to pink to dark purple as they mature.
A little higher up at eye level, we always welcome the vibrant pink of the star-shaped Salmonberry flowers on their distinctive prickly, tan bush stems. Many of us look forward to their delicious yellow, orange and red edible berries which arrive a few weeks from now. Salmonberry flowers are an important source of nectar for bees and hummingbirds. These are called Salmonberry not for their color, but for their timing with the annual spawning of salmon in the PNW and journey back out to sea to feed and mature.
Your Hooven Forest Steering Committee
Solveig, Jeff, Randy, and Rosa
P.S. We still have a few small Hooven Forest hoodies ($60) and beanies ($20) available with donation (please note your items and delivery address). Our Custom Ink T-shirt fundraiser has closed, but let us know if you’d like us to run another round! We continue to appreciate your donations, but we are holding off on major fund raising asks until we have secured a more concrete valuation and have a receiving organization identified.
