The Olympia Kiwanis Club, Olympia Historical Society and Olympia Woodturners Association share something in common: They’re all putting to good use some of the big trees that came down or were fatally damaged in the January snow and ice storm.
The Kiwanis Club collects and distributes firewood to low-income families in the Olympia area. In 2011, members distributed up to 50 cords of firewood to families in need of wood to heat their homes.
For the past three weeks, Kiwanis volunteers have been busy beavers, gathering storm-felled wood donated from all over the area, including Providence St. Peter Hospital, Priest Point Park, the Capitol Campus, the Thurston County Public Works Department and several tree-service companies hired by homeowners to remove hazard trees.
“We got seven cords of wood alone out of one big leaf maple at the hospital,” Kiwanis Club member Gene Forrester said during a break from wood gathering.
The service club is running out of room to store the wood but expects to distribute some 60 to 70 cords of dry firewood later this year, club member Derek Valley said.
“We could easily double the volume, if we had a place to store more wood,” he said.
The service club’s firewood project grew out of the most recent major ice storm to strike South Sound, in 1996.
All the wood is not destined to be burned.
Olympia Historical Society members grabbed a few pieces of a historical beech tree that was severely damaged in the storm and had to be removed from Sylvester Park in downtown Olympia. The tree was planted in the park in 1893 when the park was officially dedicated to Olympia pioneer Edmund Sylvester.
The historical society likely will use some of the wood to create a plaque for a new annual historical preservation award memorializing Olympia historian, educator and community activist Winnifred Olsen, society president Mark Foutch said.
“We may use some of it to build a bench to replace one damaged in the park when the tree fell,” Foutch said.
Members of the Olympia Woodturners Association also collected a few pieces of the beech tree, as well as some chunks from the Yoshino cherry trees that were lost on the Capitol Campus in the storm.
The local wood turners have some experience with downed trees on the Capitol Campus. They made more than 30 bowls, vases and other wooden objects from a big leaf maple that fell near the Governor’s Mansion in 2007. The pieces were donated to the Capitol Furnishings Preservation Committee, which sold them to pay for renovation and repair of historic furniture in the Capitol.
The wood artists also crafted about 30 gavels from trees removed in 2009 for the Department of Information Services’ new computer center on the east Capitol Campus.
The gavels were gifted to Gov. Chris Gregoire and various legislators.
Incidentally, I visited the wood shop of Olympia Woodturners Association president Larry Miller on Friday to better understand how a wood turner works. They spin pieces of wood on high-speed lathes, shaping objects with woodworking tools.
“You kind of let the wood speak to you,” Miller said. “You’re only limited by your imagination.”
Miller’s imagination knows few limits. In his well-equipped shop overlooking Luhr Beach on the Nisqually Delta, I witnessed cremation urns, salad bowls, flower vases and cowboy hats, to name a few works of art both functional and pleasing to the eye.
Back to the storm damage to Capitol Campus trees: 38 trees have to be removed from the campus and the Department of Labor and Industries headquarters in Tumwater. One bit of good news: Two Norway maples planted on the west Capitol Campus about 1930 as part of the original Olmstead Brothers landscape plan will need some major pruning but won’t have to be removed.
LAND TRUST HOLDS FUNDRAISER
Some 475 people turned out Thursday morning for the Capitol Land Trust’s 2012 Conservation Breakfast, one of the group’s two major fundraisers each year.
Land trust members and friends donated more than $56,400, which will be used to help the land trust reach its goals for the new year. This year happens to be the 25th anniversary of the Olympia-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and protecting special natural places in South Sound.
The preservation goals for 2012 include an average of 2.5 acres a day, 2.5 miles of marine and freshwater shoreline and 250 acres of working farmland. On the money side, the land trust is shooting for $25 million in conservation funding from 2003 through 2013.
These are all ambitious goals, but the land trust has proved time and time again that it is up to the task.
John Dodge: 360-754-5444
jdodge@theolympian.com
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