The Ground at My Feet: Sustaining a Family and a Forest

by Ann Stinson

Ann Stinson grew up on her family’s tree farm in southwestern Washington state, on a ridge above the Cowlitz River. After building a life in New York and Portland, she returned home at the age of fifty, when her brother’s death from cancer left her manager and co-owner of three hundred acres planted in Douglas fir, western red cedar, and ponderosa pine.

The Ground at My Feet is a memoir about loss and grief as well as a portrait of a family, a region, and an industry. Combining personal story and research, Stinson weaves essays, poems, history, and science into a rich and layered account of life in a family forest in the Pacific Northwest. She maps interactions between the land and its people over two the Cowlitz peoples, homesteaders, and several generations of logging families who have worked the property. She follows her family’s logs as they become lumber for fence boards and suburban homes, touring a local cedar mill and traveling with her father to visit mills in Japan.

Stinson adds a landowner’s voice to conversations about the human tendency to demand more of the land than it can sustain. With its uniquely personal view of the Pacific Northwest’s timber and forestry heritage, The Ground at My Feet is an engaging addition to the literature of the landscape and ecology of the West.

144 pages, Paperback

Published November 23, 2021

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely personal story. I appreciated the author's vulnerability. I loved the variety of stories woven in. I wish the book was longer and hope she writes many more.

[Aron Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoyed the way Ann drew all of these elements of the tree farm--the history, the science, the poetry, her own memories--into a graceful whole. As a relative newcomer to the Pacific Northwest, this book enriched my appreciation for my new home.

[Ben Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful portrayal of grief and longing and connectivity.

[Jessica Gigot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the creative and non-linear structure of this book as well as the poetry that appears throughout. Stinson offers an important perspective on how to find solace in land and family legacy and also how managing forests can lead to new and profound insights about how we relate to nature and tend and care for land.

[Cortney Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book intriguing… tenderly written and very informative. There were times I felt a bit lost in the jumble of logger/forestry specifics, but also gained a greater awareness and understanding. Overall, I was inspired by Ann’s storytelling as the daughter of a logger, the grieving sister of her older brother, and a courageous woman with a relentless sense of curiosity surrounding the male-dominated logging industry.

[Todd Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta love the Tree Farm folk

I think I heard about this book on a Tree Farm Zoom call. I added it to my read list and here we are done with the book. A good account of one of many who love the forest. Worth the read.

[Nancy Backas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is such a personal story but so very easy to relate to. How wonderful to step into her life and feel the special relationship she has with the land and her family.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t for me. I appreciate the author’s message.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Oregon State University Press for the advance read.