By Kelly Sanderbeck, Donor Engagement Manager
If anything can save the world, I’d put my money on beauty.
–Doug Tompkins, founder of The North Face and Esprit
Beauty, it’s said, is in the eye of the beholder. Your grandmother is just as beautiful to you (now) as she was to the larger world in her 20’s because the more we love something, the more beautiful it becomes. And I’d say the main reason we love our parks is for their visual beauty, right? Their exquisite majesty, their absolute uniqueness – what we see of them. We take in the solo vision of Mount Rainier, the vertical relief of the North Cascades, and the veritable uber-lushness of Olympic with ocean, mountains, lakes and rain forests.
So I was intrigued by an interesting campaign, titled And Beauty for All that evokes the idea that beauty can change the world, serves in many forms and covers all the senses. Sounds like large shoes to fill, but I’ll choose to bypass sarcasm for just a moment to dig deep and look for atypical ways of seeing beauty that can expand beyond the ordinary, such as in this national beautification plan from the 60’s. It’s so evocative of a slower time with simpler choices. Still possible?
Here around the office, I’ve heard various versions of how the parks are beautiful to our staff. Laurie finds beauty at Snow Lake in Mount Rainier, especially on an early morning hike in the summer, as well as at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic when there is no moon and the stars are in her lap. Nicky finds beauty in looking up through the Bigleaf Maple leaves in the Hoh Rain Forest and seeing the sunlight through and around the leaves. And in feeling their soft, mossy trunks. Heather sees it in old growth, trees that stand tall and wide and would take four people to wrap around them, and in the Hoh Rainforest as the sun filters through trees draped in lichen and moss. And I am entranced by the North Cascades Highway when it first opens after the winter, especially when melting starts and there is water coming from EVERYWHERE!
For me, always the rebel though, I find beauty in what I can’t see. And the more I dig, the more I discover. I find it in nurse logs that started as trees, ended up as soil, and produce life for over 600 years. You’ve seen them – the perfectly aligned row of trees with roots stretching over an empty cavern (where the old log used to be), looking like the marching brooms in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. That fallen tree created a stream of light and, by adding moss, ferns, rotting wood, the tree life faded. Keep adding insects, fungi and tree seedlings, and a transformation begins to create new life. You’ll also see nurse logs growing out of stumps, often even in the middle of a lake. From endings come beginnings.
I find it also in mushrooms, especially when I try to visualize that the largest and oldest organisms in the world are fungi. Our local Olympic mycologist and owner of Fungi Perfecti, John Stamets, in his new book Mycelium Running does research showing that growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment. They can capitalize on their digestive power and target it to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants, catch and reduce silt from streambeds and pathogens from agricultural watersheds, control insect populations, and generally enhance the health of our forests and gardens. He also just authored an editorial in the New York Times to engage all backyard gardeners to work to save bees.
There is even the local DIRT Corps, who provide on-the-job training for adult workers, specifically encouraging women, people of color, LGBT and veterans to enroll, with a focus on rain garden and cistern design/build, operations and maintenance, vegetation management and ecological restoration.
And then there are worms! But, enough of the underground…
One thing outside predictable notions of beauty in our parks is the beauty of time. Time is so rare these days that to give it away is a mighty gift. We’ve recently heard from park superintendents that many volunteers want to help out in the parks during the government shutdown – moving outside their normal duties by adding on trash collection and bathroom clean up. BUT because Volunteer Coordinator staff are furloughed, there’s nothing volunteers are permitted to do because there is no oversight available. You can send cards to park staff as a kind gesture to show support that we’re here for them. When they return to work, they’ll know you were there for them. This is a great use of your time!
And, of course, reach out to your Representatives and Senators.
With our three amazing parks (two in full view from Seattle), we can celebrate their beauty above ground, below ground and everything in between. Spend some time and thought creating your own beauty in our parks – whether in observation, action, exploration or giving of your time. Our Backyard Rocks!