Humans and the Environment -- Emma

    This picture was taken at English Boom on Camano Island. The heron is perched on a great pillar, laid probably in the early 20th century. These pillars are a common sight throughout the Salish Sea. I always used to wonder what the function of these pillars were. Were they old posts from houses? Giant docks? At the time, the spot was a principal place for ferrying giant logs down the coast. At one time, giant flotillas of lashed logs probably stretched up and down the coast as they came from the Skagit River. And as you look along the coast, you can see hundreds of these pillars as remnants of that operation. These pillars range in size; some are small, while others reach at least ten feet into the air. This spot represents a number of layers of human interaction in the environment.

    In my picture, I tried to capture the number of distinct eras that took place at this beach. First, there was the time before colonization. If the heron had been alive at that time, perhaps it would have been perched not on a pillar, but along the shore or in the marsh. This place is very near the spot called skayuʔqs in Lushootseed, meaning "skeleton point." This name was often given to places where bodies were hoisted into the trees for burial. Perhaps it was instead a reference to the religious skayuʔ power instead. Whatever the reason for its naming, this is a bygone era now, and the marshy lands around the point are thoroughly cleared. This must have been due to the occupation of the land by the lumber company, which installed the pilings that dot the nearby coastline. The lumber industry was deeply transformative, contributing to the rapid growth of the region but also excessive habitat destruction of forest species.

    Today, however, the site has been reclaimed. It was set aside and preserved, emblematic of our evolving relationship with the natural world here in the Pacific Northwest. The pillars are but a remnant of the past, a reminder of our history. Eagles fly over head and dunlins dig through the mud. The pillar provides a spot for the heron to watch over the marsh and the nearby beach. It is part of the environment now, in a way. The heron and the pillar together reflect our evolving relationship to the environment, from extraction to preservation.