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” feeling. 

Then the mic shifts to the next generation. Stories of sewing leaves and grasses into small crafts, day camping with a fire and marshmallows, and kids fully immersed in riverside rock play. The through line is simple and powerful: nature connection is built through real time outside, not perfection. 

We also go deeper into forest stewardship and environmental responsibility. One guest describes checking on a beloved aspen in Glacier National Park after wildfire, finding a scar that still radiates heat a year later. From root systems to “mother tree” ideas, we wrestle with what forests need from us, including uncomfortable questions about consumption, microplastics, deforestation, clear-cutting, and the ethics of bonsai when trees are taken from the wild. If you care about forests, wildfire prevention, climate change, and protecting old trees, this conversation will stay with you. 

Subscribe for more stories, share this with a friend who loves the woods, and leave a review so more listeners can find us. What’s the one tree or forest place you’ll never forget?

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 stories you keep because they remind you what you’re capable of and how alive you feel outside.

We also get real about why so many of us crave that “no phone, no feed” feeling. Forest time pulls stress out of the body, sharpens attention, and makes it easier to be present. From urban and community forestry to national forests, we talk about access and why it matters to make time among trees more common, not a rare privilege. The throughline is simple: when people spend time in nature, they’re more connected, more focused, and often kinder to themselves and others.

Then we zoom out to what forests do for everyone, whether they notice it or not. We touch on interconnected ecosystems, clean water coming from forested watersheds, and the urgent future-facing topics of climate change, air quality, and wildfire. We dig into a key idea that often gets missed: fire can play a healthy role in forests, and smart planning like low-intensity, frequent fire can help prevent catastrophic wildfire while supporting resilient ecosystems.

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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 parents and kids about camping, swimming, wandering without trails, and noticing the small forest details you cannot find anywhere else. One parent admits they never thought of themselves as a “nature person” until COVID pushed their family outdoors and it became a lifeline. Another voice describes the woods as a phone-free zone that makes them more present and pulls their mind out of the scatter of daily demands. If you’ve ever felt like there’s not enough air to breathe, you’ll recognize the way they describe the forest as a reset for body and mind, a kind of everyday forest bathing without the buzzwords. 

Then the stories turn toward the future: wildfire prevention, forest health, and what it means to treat forests like a garden that sustains us and deserves care in return. We connect personal wellbeing to conservation and environmental stewardship, because the benefits of Oregon forests only last if the forests do too. If this moved you, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs a little breathing room, and leave a review telling us your earliest forest memory.

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 the agency about the real stuff: building confidence by returning to the same trail until you finally reach the top, learning what “big W Wilderness” actually means, and laughing through the hike where everything goes wrong because someone forgot the water and both hikers got stung by bees. These stories make outdoor recreation feel human and specific, and they quietly underline the basics of hiking safety, preparedness, and respect for the land. 

The conversation also turns toward forest stewardship and mental health. Forest work can mean long drives to remote sites, the joy of finding pristine places, and the hard reality of cleaning up trash dumps. At the same time, forests offer a powerful way to unplug from social media, constant alerts, and the speed of city life. We close with big hopes for the future of forestry: better public understanding of ecosystem benefits like clean drinking water and wildlife habitat, more access for young people through conservation corps programs, and serious attention to wildfire risk as our climate and communities change. 

If these stories resonate, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs the woods, and leave a review. What’s one moment in nature you’ll never forget?

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 stepped up to the microphone to record their memories, personal reflections, and stories of how forests have shaped their lives—creating a living archive of human connection that will inspire support for our forests for generations to come.

Sometimes kids just say it best, "Spend more time in nature and you’re probably on screens less." That single idea kicks off a chain of stories that feel both personal and urgent, recorded at Forest Fest in Portland, Oregon with the World Forestry Center and the U.S. Forest Service. We’re celebrating 250 years of forest stewardship in the United States and 60 years of the World Forestry Center, but what you’ll hear isn’t a lecture. It’s people telling the truth about what the woods have meant to them.

We hear from families and kids about camping trips, tents and cabins, learning to make a fire, cooking outside, playing games, and being as loud as you want without bothering anyone. Others share quieter memories: a calming walk that slows the day down, a backyard patch of woods that turns into a playground, and hikes where you notice animals and feel your attention come back online. Along the way we reflect on why forests support mental health, how outdoor recreation changes our relationship with technology, and why local parks and national forests matter just as much as the far-off places we dream about.

Then the conversation turns forward. People name climate change, deforestation, and plastic pollution as threats that show up in real habitats, not just headlines. The hopes are specific: stop using so much plastic, protect the environments we still have, rebuild wildlife habitat, and manage forests in smarter ways so future generations inherit more than thin memories of trees.

If these stories spark something in you, subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode, share this with someone who needs a reset, and leave a review to help more listeners find it. What’s one forest memory you’ll never forget?