Western Washington is home to a collection of the most beautiful native plant life anywhere. Here in Western Washington we have an abundance of what you may refer to as “brush.” Many realize that these brush plants have names and can add a great deal of quality to any landscape. While these plants are esthetically pleasing, they also offer much more than the average person may realize.

Our forests have made the timber industry into an international economic juggernaut, but there are thousands of other nontimber forest products that are hidden below the trees that may be more valuable yet. Examples of these products are mushrooms, medicinal plants, seasonal holiday greens and many others that can be discovered on a walk among the trees.

Another example of this is salal. The harvesting of this plant is a worldwide multimillion dollar business. It proliferates under our massive Douglas fir trees and is harvested and sold to flower shops to provide a green base for flower arrangements. Jim Freed at Washington State University is a great resource freedj@wsu.edu. It is his job to educate forest owners about the marketing opportunities of their forest products.

There is a much larger need to increase awareness of these important brush plants. It is likely the removal of these native plants where we have built our houses, cities and roads have caused a great deal of harm to the environment and animal habitat. The importance of this fact is reflected in the native plant salvage events offered through King County. This fall and winter volunteers from the community will be out at the proposed YarrowBay development sites in Black Diamond to rescue the native plants before the bulldozers take over. These natives will be moved to other sites around the county where the brush has been removed or destroyed by humans. Volunteer help is needed for harvesting, potting and reinstalling. Most of this activity takes place from November to early spring when the plants are dormant. These events have an enormous upside. Getting participants closer to nature while helping the environment and creating better more productive landscapes. The contact for these events is Cindy Young at cindy.young@kingcounty.gov if you are interested in getting involved. In exchange for your volunteer efforts you will also get to harvest some plants to take home with you and improve your own landscape.

Arguably the biggest benefit of all is the habitat improvement that is created for wildlife. Spend some time observing nature and you will notice that birds and small mammals have no interest in hanging out in a disturbed area of land. Then, if you can find a place that has been restored you will notice these wild animals flourishing in their natural habitat.

Typically, when land is disturbed it will grow non-native plants if left unattended. An example of this is seen along our roadways and rights of ways where you will notice non-native invasive plants like Himalayan blackberries, evergreen black berries and reed canary grass. These invasive plants should be removed and replaced with quality native plants. See the list of native plants at: Washington Native Plant Society’s website. See the list of invasive plants at the website.

There are tax incentives for private rural land owners (more than five acres) to remove these invasive plants and replace them with quality native plants. King County offers landowners the Public Benefit Rating System (PBRS). For information about this and other tax incentive programs contact me at b.mckinney@comcast.net.

Check out the Middle Green River Coalition website.