Sense of Place: Pop-Up event with Jerry Franklin

BINGEN — Sense of Place presents a special pop-up event: “Jerry Franklin: Rethinking Forests: Then and Now,” taking place Friday, April 24, 2026, at the Bingen Theater.

This evening offers a rare opportunity to hear from renowned forest ecologist, Jerry Franklin, as he considers what we’ve learned, what remains uncertain, and where forest stewardship may need to go next.

Over the course of a long and influential career, Jerry Franklin has been called many things: an iconoclast, a forest doctor, a salesman, a troublemaker, a bridge-builder, a gang member, the father of New Forestry. And while no single word can encompass the man, what’s certain is that few individuals have shaped how we understand — and manage — Pacific Northwest forests more than he has.

At this special Sense of Place event, Jerry Franklin will reflect on the path that led him into the woods—from an early fascination with trees to the research that helped overturn long-standing assumptions about old-growth forests. He’ll revisit the pivotal decades when science, policy, and public debate collided in the Northwest. From the emergence of New Forestry to the controversy surrounding the Northern Spotted Owl, and the political moment that produced the landmark Northwest Forest Plan. And he’ll consider the present and future of Pacific Northwest forests, and his own evolving views on how we might steward them in an era of climate change, wildfire, and shifting public expectations.