Last month, we had a most enjoyable visit from Will Smith, a writer for Enviro Gorge (now Columbia Insight), an online magazine focused on the Columbia River Gorge area. That visit led to Herland getting a mention in this month’s issue. Here’s an excerpt from Will’s article:

A unique dry side woodland – Further east near Klickitat, Washington, the Windward Education and Research Center’s 120-acre forest demonstrates an atypical management objective. A twenty acre section is called Herland Forest, and there they offer a natural burial ground in a lightly managed ridge-top oak and mixed conifer stand. By becoming a ‘Guardian’, anyone can reserve a favorite wooded resting spot, and occasionally camp in the private campground.

The foresters at Windward are researching ancient and novel methods of establishing a society based on forestry rather than agriculture by using their own sawmill and managed thinning. They focus on finding ways to live life within a forest that would provide for societal needs: food, clothing, and housing on marginal land. Besides Herland Forest, a portion of Windward is dedicated to developing a Biomass 2 Methanol project converting local “waste” biomass into transportation fuels.