Steve Wilent

By Steve Wilent, For The Mountain Times While the world has its collective eyes on war, politics, and “artificial intelligence,” human researchers around the world are making astounding discoveries about forests and forest products that may have positive impacts on our lives. Two examples involve plastics made from wood and other renewable resources. First, from The Korea Times: “Korean researchers have discovered a way to transform common forest debris into a key ingredient for...

By Steve Wilent, For The Mountain Times I recently had the pleasure of visiting Little Crater Lake, one of my favorite places on the Mt. Hood National Forest. The sun was shining, the air warm — t-shirt weather. But in a way it was a bit eerie: It was April 8 at about 3,000 feet in elevation, and there was no snow in sight. In most years, deep snow would make driving to the lake in April impossible. A woman walking her dog on the trail to the lake said, “It’s weird. We shouldn’t be here at...

By Steve Wilent, For The Mountain Times Years ago, Mt. Hood Community College’s Natural Resources Technology program hosted groups of students from Central America and the Caribbean seeking degrees and knowledge to take home with them. It was a joy and a privilege to have these students in my classes. I think I learned as much from these warm, smart young people as they did in their time at MHCC. One March, during a field exercise in the woods near the college, one of the students — from...