Forest Stories

A forest can make you feel small in the best way, then hand you a responsibility that’s huge. We sit down at Washington Park to talk about what stewardship looks like when you stop thinking in election cycles and start thinking in generations. You’ll hear why being among trees can feel timeless and grounding, and why that emotional bond often becomes the fuel for real policy, real investments, and real protection. We swap personal stories that sound simple but carry weight: childhood

Some stories don’t fade, they take root. At Forest Fest in Portland, Oregon, we sit down with people who carry the woods with them: a childhood spent climbing campus trees, a first walk among giant sequoias in Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove, and a twilight mile along California’s Avenue of the Giants where coastal redwoods feel more like silhouettes than scenery. You’ll hear how forests shape memory through scale, silence, scent, and that unmistakable Pacific Northwest “everything is alive”

A single run through the woods can lodge in your mind for years and for good reason. At Forest Fest in Portland, hear from those who steppped into the StoryBoth and learn what forests actually mean to people who live, work, and play among them: childhood camping weeks with grandparents, lake days and bikes in state parks, sunrise hikes that make you stop mid-step, and even the tough treks where your feet hurt and you regret everything until you don’t. Those hard moments end up becoming the

Forests can be a place you visit, but they can also be a relationship that changes how you live. We’re at Forest Fest in Portland, where the World Forestry Center and the U.S. Forest Service invite families to share true stories about the woods and the moments that made them feel connected to nature. What we hear is tender, funny, and surprisingly practical: the forest is where attention comes back, where family time gets simpler, and where a single memory can last for decades. We hear from

Goosebumps are a strange kind of truth serum. When someone describes hearing caribou breathing outside a tent in Denali or spotting a brown bear standing on its hind legs from an Alaska flight, you can feel exactly why forests matter more than a scenic backdrop. We’re at Forest Fest in Portland, Oregon, listening to people explain how national forests, local parks, and wild places shape who they become and what they choose to protect. We talk with U.S. Forest Service voices and friends of

On July 18th the World Forestry Center and the U.S. Forest Service came together to host Forest Fest at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon. This free community event marked a historic milestone, celebrating 250 years of America’s forests and 60 years of the World Forestry Center’s mission to educate and connect people with the natural world.To honor this milestone, the StoryBooth Experience was on-site to preserve the personal connection between people and nature. Attendees