Witness Trees

Very little is known about the composition and character of Vashon forests before Euro-American settlement. What we do know comes from 1856 surveys of witness trees from the General Land Office (now Bureau of Land management). As surveyors platted the land for mapping and settlement, they picked witness trees to mark corners of township and range sections. The notes describing the trees and surrounding vegetation give the only documented clues to the nature of Vashon’s pre-settlement forests. 

Citizen scientist Tom Schroeder spent many years combing the thousands of original records and piecing together an early picture of pre-settlement forests in Puget Sound. Read his report and supplemental information here.

• Tom Schroeder Witness Tree Report
• Tom Schroeder Witness Tree Supplemental Information

This compilation provides a good large scale look at Puget Sound forest patterns during this time. However, to get a more local view this information needed to be combined with accounts of forest type and composition from early islanders as well as more extensive research of island specific witness tree records (conducted by Rayna Holtz). 

Artist Annie Brule (bruleillustration.com) combined the above information to make the witness tree map that you see in this exhibit. Through her artistic interpretation we can all better imagine how this information would have played out on a local scale.

Cartographer Damon Burgess created the Vashon Island Big Tree Map. You can use your touchscreen to zoom in and around the map to explore all of the big trees on Vashon! Where does the island have the largest concentrations of big trees? What do the trees in your neighborhood look like?

Get involved planting trees in your local parks with Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust.

Learn about King County's 30-year Forest Plan.

Thanks to King County Department of Natural Resources and Resilient Forestry LLC for this local analysis of carbon storage in Vashon Island forests. This analysis presents the methods and raw data only--without interpretation or analysis of any kind.

• Vashon Island Carbon Study 2020

Click here to listen to Johnny Moses tell the story of Grandmother Cedar.