President's Perspective
- tom52644
- Oct 6
- 3 min read
Fall 2025
Do you remember that first natural landscape that took your breath away and changed the way you interact with the natural world? I do. For me it started when I was about 10 years old. I was an Army brat and we were stationed at Holloman Air Force Base located between Alamogordo and Las Cruces NM. Our “neighbor” was White Sands Missile Range. We were just a “stone’s throw” from White Sands National Monument (now a National Park), Carlsbad Caverns, Bottomless Lakes State Park, and the Lincoln National Forest (home to the real Smokey the Bear). We lived in the middle of a desert, in the “land of enchantment” (imagine all that in the mind of a ten-year-old). My imagination ran wild! From there we moved to San Jose, CA and in no time, I started to explore the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite National Park, the John Muir Wilderness and lots of local state and county parks. I learned to sail on San Francisco Bay. All those natural spaces hold a special place in my memories. Admittedly I’ve created a “mythology” of my interactions with those wild places and the friends I shared them with. Stories I’ve told my kids, and will tell my grandkids, seem to get more adventurous in every telling.
Last Christmas a friend of mine gave me a book, “Landscape and Memory” by Simon Schama. In it the author poses the questions, “What do we see in our minds eye when we talk about nature? Where do those images come from that haunt our minds – of the forest primeval, the river of life, the sacred mountain?” Many images come from history and literature as the author explains, but I believe they also come from: our own experiences as children and young adults; adventures in our own backyard; a first camp trip, road trip, or a quiet walk through a forest. All those experiences shape us, and the stories we pass on of our “adventures” can influence our friends and family.
So, I’d like to pose a couple questions to you - What will our grandkids see in their minds eye when they talk about nature? What can we do to ensure there will be “forests primeval, rivers of life, and sacred mountains” for them to explore? We can start by protecting the last of our “natural places” right here in Kitsap County and the Miller Bay watershed. Miller Bay is so much more than the “bay”. It’s all the upland forests and creek and stream channels that make their way through the wetlands and tidal marshes to the bay and out to the sound. And it’s the special place we call home.
On September 30th, FOMB submitted a proposal to the Department of Natural Resources requesting transfer of 40 acres of upland forest, through the state Trust Lands Transfer Program, to Kitsap County Parks. That is just the beginning of the process. We will need your continued support to protect this property with a conservation easement and then take future steps to restore this forest to a semblance of the mature Northwest temperate rainforest it once was. Let’s make sure we do everything we can to ensure that our grandchildren and their children’s children will have places to go to conjure up grand adventures: see a black bear fishing, hear the cry of an Osprey, watch the salmon run, and create stories they can tell their kids.
Thanks for your support. See you out and about,
Michael
