(Images, clockwise from upper left: Kit Ketcham reads from “A Litany of Remembrance” in her neighbors’ backyard; neighbors from one household listen at a safe distance; Development Director Lorraine Ortiz reads names in front of her house in the Nehalem Valley; Lorraine’s audience.)
For 10 years, friends and supporters of North Coast Land Conservancy have gathered annually in the Memorial Grove at Circle Creek Conservation Center in Seaside to read aloud the names of all those honored with memorial gifts to the Conservancy over the past year and throughout its history (names are below). This year COVID-19 precautions resulted in cancellation of the public side of this gathering.
But these loved ones were still remembered. On April 25 at 11:30 a.m., NCLC volunteer Kit Ketcham sat in a chair in her neighbors’ backyard near the east end of the RiverWalk in Astoria and read the reflection she wrote and reads every year to open the gathering that NCLC calls The Forest Remembers. She was joined by five neighbors, who sat a safe distance away, listening and taking part in the Litany of Remembrance. Kit set the scene for her neighbors, describing the forest at Circle Creek where the ceremony is normally held, and when she finished, the six of them shared favorite forest experiences, leavened with lots of laughter. “It was a wonderful moment in time,” Kit said.
At the same time, a few miles to the south, volunteer Pat Johns stepped outside her Gearhart home and read a selection of names while standing beside the stump of a spruce felled by the gale of 2007, repeating the refrain “The Forest Remembers” after every 10 names or so, while a Steller’s jay chimed in. NCLC board member Vianne Patterson drove to Thompson Creek and Stanley Marsh Habitat Reserve in Seaside and found a peaceful, tree-lined clearing to read her names. Board member Tom Horning ventured to the edge of the forest at Neawanna Point across the Necanicum Estuary from his house and to read his group of names, some of them people he’d known for many years.
In Cannon Beach, board member Betsy Ayres stood on her back porch next to a massive Sitka spruce to read names. In Arch Cape, board president John Mersereau read names at the foot of the Spirit Tree, a living memorial to a friend who was among those remembered by NCLC this year. In Manzanita, volunteer Julianne Johnson stood on the shore and read names to the breaking waves, whispering “May she rest in peace” and “May he rest in peace” after each one. “As I prepared, printed out, and reviewed my list the day before,” Julianne said, “I felt a strong feeling of gratitude to the donors honoring these people in perpetuity.”
Meanwhile NCLC Development Director Lorraine Ortiz stepped outside her home above the Nehalem River and read aloud more names of those remembered by NCLC, to no one but her partner and the dairy cattle grazing across the road. “I was surprised that, for me, it was just as moving to read the names in my front yard as it was in the memorial grove,” she later said.
The Forest Remembers will return to the grove at Circle Creek Conservation Center on Saturday, April 24, 2021.
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Gail Achterman
Obo Addy
Lisa Alba
Charles Blair Allen & Joanne Kinneman Allen
Gwen Allen
Leo Aman
Douglas Anderson
Sasha Anderson
Liane & Ingrid Ashberry
Charles & Janice Ault
Beverly Autzen
Alfred Aya
Bob AyresJanet Babbitt
Ben Baker
Jean Baker
Fred & Kalla Baker
Dora Bansen
Marcia Barrentine
Eddie Basha
Esther BeBout
Howard Bell
Russell “Lee” Belknap
Tom Bender
Mark S. Berry
Stewart Berry
Tiffer Bevis-Sandler
Jack & Dorothy Birkby
Virginia Birkby
Broughton Bishop
C.M Bishop Jr.
Anna Wessinger Boggess
Ernest Bonyhadi
Bill Boone
Jane & Gerry Borg
The Bourdonnec Family
Joyce Bouton
Gary Braasch
June Bracher
Horatio, Merle & Patrick Brackenbrough
Erhart Braun
Bill Bray
Patric Brice
Carol Briggs
Mr. & Mrs. John Brooke
Yvonne Brossard
Mick Brownlee
Phyllis Brownlee
Jan Bruton
Louis Burzycki
Barry Campbell
Wilma Caplan
Les Carlough
Natalie Cellars
Robert Charkham
Alyce Cheatham
Zephyr Christianson
John L. Christie
Don & Betty Church
Frances Clifford
Bob Coe
Dr. William Eccles Coit
George F. Cole
Dean Coleman
Steve Collins
Margaret Jean Cottrell
Phyllis Courtney
Kay Covert
Judy Cowell
Norman A. Creitz
Suki Cupp
Wayne Curtis
Elaine Daum
Betty Jane Whiting Davis
Tom Horning read names at the edge of the forest at Neawanna Point, across the creek from his home.
Ralph (Coach) Davis
Gill Dennis
Gabriel Desautel
Antionette DeWit
Tam Tattam De Witt
Dr. H. Lenox Dick
Helene Biddle Dick
Lily Dooley & Tevis Dooley Jr.
Faith Dorothy
Brian Doyle
John Thomas Drumheller
Nadine “Bea” Dudley
John Duncan
Kathie Durbin
Richard Dykstra
Allan Edwards
John Emmett Edwards
Debbie Eley
John T. Emery
Susan Emery
Gordon Engelstad
Walter H. Evans, III
Sharnelle Fee
Frances Felder
Larry Fellows
Gail & Lil Fenderson
Gareth Ferdun
Elizabeth B. Fewel
John “Jay” B. Fewel
Suzanne Fields
Elsie “Peggy” Fife
Dave Finch
John & Marjorie Fitz
Robert Flowerree
Cheri Folk
Orcillia Z. Forbes
Gene Franklin
Wes Franklin
Pat Friedland
Pete Frisbee
Janet Martin Gadsby
Walter Gadsby
Frances Gallagher
May & Don Gallagher
Helen Gaston
Zulema I. Gatewood
Dr. Charles Geiberger
Virginia Geiberger
Evelyn & Ossie Georges
Gene Gilbertson
David Gillis
Shirley Gittelsohn
Betty Glarum
Ann Goldeen
Emily Georges Gottfried
Jill Graham
Brian Charles Green
Joan Green
Robert W. Green
Louise Misun Grey
Geraldine Grout
Matthew Guderian
Nadia Gugnyak
Paul Hacking
Hal & Evelyn Hankel
Paul Hanneman
Harry Hansen
Inez Stafford Hanson
Todd Harding
Harold Hart
Charles Hartill
William A. Hart & Hattie Rider Hart
Alec Hart, Emma Hart Smith & Sam Hart
Bill Hastie
Kathy Hayes
Ned & Sis Hayes
Philip Hayes
Peter Heitkemper
George Hemingway
George & Jan Henderson
John Blake Hering
Ruth Herrington
Elnora “Keni” Hertig
David Hess
John & Joanie Hill
Jack Himmelwright
Dan Hodgin
Mary Hoffman
Betty Holland
Dave Holland
Cameron “Kip” Holmes
M.H. Holtz, Jr.
Kenneth Hooley
Jerry Hopp
Walter H. & Ruth C. Horning
Lindsay Horton
Gail Hubbard
John Grant Hubbard
Michael P. Huling & Rose Mizokami-Huling
Sunny Hunt
Bernie & Bette Hutmacher
Marjorie & Samuel Hyslop
Andrew Ibert
Shirley Irvin
Barbara Baker-Horning-Jensen
Bill & Cora-May Jensen
Marie Jensen
Patrick Jensen
Jerry Jeronen
Ray & Dorothy Johns
Dick & Pat Johnson
Freida Johnson
Tree Johnson
Ann Irene Johnston
Genevieve Jones
Dr. Mac Jones
Katie M. Jorgenson
The Jubitz Family
Rod Judge
Irene Kan
George & Janice Kangas
Ron Kaser
Yassi Kashfi
Neal Keefer
Gene Keever
Winton Kemmis
Rosemary Kemper-Riddock
Jane Kendall
Mona & Merritt Ketcham
Edward Marvin Key
Ralph Key
Wilma June King
Ted Kingery
Karen Kirby
David Kloepfer
Rex Knight
Warren Knispel
Mike Knop
Calvin Knutsen
Peter Koehler
Karl Konka
Bob Koons
Mary Krebs
Francis “Frankie” Lackaff
Branislav Lalich
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Browny Lalich
Ruby Lalich
Angie & Jerry Langteau
Irene Lavorato
Ursula Le Guin
Floyd Lee
June Mersereau Lee
Karen Lee
Samuel Lee
Reta Sabey Leithner
David Leonelli
Norbert Leupold Sr.
Rosalind Levine
Terry Lewis
Bob Liberty
Marjorie Lippert
Leslie D. Lloyd
Linda Lloyd
John Lochner
Cecelia Love
Larry Lynn Loveridge
Greg Luth
Maybelle “Middy” MacDonald
Jennie Madden
Daniel Madden
John Madden
Roger Madden
Robert Madge
Karen Maine
Mr. & Mrs. Ned Malcolm
Caryl Mangan
Cris Manning
Pete Mark
Leo, Elna & Lorian Marlantes
Jan Martin
Frieda Martilla
Lia Matthews
Jan McCallister
Doug McCallum
John McGuire
Wayne William McVey, Jr.
Rol Mersereau
Terri Mersereau
Edward & Mary Meshak
Larry Meyers
Joan Wilson Metz
Clare Midson
Robert Miles
Prue Miller
Rob & Dolores Miller
Gainor Minott
Hope Moberg
Chris Monck
Rod Moore
Wanda Moore
Cathy Morgan
Jan Morgan
Noanie Morrison
Stan Muir
Jan & Audrey Muller
Marion Mulvihill
Hal Murdock
Royal Murdock
Stephen Murdock
Austin & Louise Myers
Ernestine Neitzel
Barbara Nelin
Emily & Bob Nelson
Richard Newlands
Dennis Newton
Norine Newton
Tom Niedermeyer
Edith Noble
Carl Nordmark
Perry H. Nordmark
Blanche Nosworthy
The O’Callaghan Family
Jeanette O’Connor
Rodney Odegard
Clifford Olsen
Katie Elizabeth Olson
Margaret E. Olson
Lois & Lou Ortiz
Toby Lee Alban Ortiz
George & Nancy Osgood
Steve Osburn
Sumner William Ostrom
Jane Owen
Ronald Park
John Patterson
Zoe, Kit & Molly Patterson
Toby Patterson
Bud, June, Craig & Karen Paulsen
Dick Pellissier
Eloise Peper
Harold R. Peterson
Mary Peterson
Pat Peterson
Ron Phillips
Peter Pope
Samuel Potter
Colleen Powell
Bob & Dot Prier
Clifford Propst
Eloise Putz
Thea Linnaea Pyle
Ann Radich
Lillian B. Rathman
Bob Rautio
Dorothy Ray
Buster Reich
Daniel Reich
Janet Rekate
John Reynolds
John C. & Emily F. Ricker
Norman Rickles
Merle Rider
Louann Riggan
Libby Rippey
Jim Riner
Craig Roberts
David Roberts
Gene & Dorothy Roehm
Earl Robert Rogness
George Ross
Miles Rubic
Valerie Ryan
Sandy Hook Elementary School, teachers & children
Pat Scanlon
Bob Scearce
Mel & Tilly Schafer
Bonnie Schein
Susan Schiffer
John Mersereau reading at the Spirit Tree outside his home.
Ron Schiffman
Harold Schnitzer
Arthur Schoenfeldt
Paul See
Jenny Holtz Seton
Barbara Shaw
Carolyn Mary Shawgo
Muriel Shookhoff
Jasmine Simonson
Rogan Sloan
Doris Snodgrass
Harold “Hal” Snow
Laura Snyder
Barbara Aline Somers
Mark J. Somers
Mary Thelen Miller Soot
Shirley Sopko
John M. Sproul
John Stahl
Tom Stegner
Jay Stewart
John M. Stone
The Story-Hill Families
Gordon Story
Pheraby Elizabeth Stricklin
June Stromberg
Edwin Strother
Lucille Summerfield
Keith Surerus
Charles & Frank Svec
Louis & Claire Svec
Bradford J. Sweet
Bryon W. Sweet
Michael R. Sweet
Terry Swigart
Al Taylor
Pulga Thamann
Margaret Thierry
Helen Thompson
Robert E. Thompson
Yolanda Thompson
Niki Tippett
Melissa Brown Tompkins
Florence Truax
Tula
Susan Faye Valachi
Helene Hidden Van Buren
The Velder Family
Carol Vernon
Lori Nicole Visser
Missy & Lucky Vitello
Elizabeth Voelke
Mary Voelke
Jean Vollum
Anne von der Mehden
Leona M. Vorhees
Evelyn Wagner
Muriel Walker
Gordon Wallace
Judy Walsh
Peter Walsh
Caroline Ward
Lester Weatherly
Mitzi Wells
Elizabeth Wessinger
Bill & Grace West
James R. Wheatley
Hilda White
Sam Whittemore
The Mel Wick Family
Arlee Wickersham
Maude Luella Wieting
Jim Wills
Doris Wiseman
Arliss Witt
Louis Wolfsheimer
Jonathan Wollert
Brian Workman
Kathleen Wysong
Laurie Yarbrough
Melissa Yowell
Falcore Zerangue
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Ancient wisdom tells us that we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, that we drink from wells we did not dig and sit in the shade of trees we did not plant, that we are forever bound together in community.
Today we come to honor those whose shoulders have given us a foundation, who provided the wellsprings from which our lives are nourished, and who nurtured the forest which sustains and delights us.
The forest remembers their gifts and gives them back many-fold as we walk its paths, sense its fragrance, the life it sustains, and the voices of its inhabitants.
We honor and remember, with the forest, the selflessness of those who gave of their resources and their life’s energy to protect and preserve these living communities of the land we love.
—From The Forest Remembers: Litany of Remembrance, by Kit Ketcham
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