The sweet refugium we call home

Published 11:30 am Tuesday, December 2, 2025

The mysterious tales of Whispering Firs Bog are mostly fictional, I suppose, but it’s a fact that our precious bog is an unusual place indeed.

It developed over 7,000 years in a natural depression that never connected to the surrounding streams. Rainwater pooled in that basin, turning it acidic and inhospitable to most plants. Yet in those conditions, sphagnum moss took hold — and with it, unusual companions also found a home, such as the carnivorous sundew, red-legged frogs, bog laurel and Labrador tea.

Such wetland micro-ecosystems are increasingly rare. Whispering Firs is one of only a few peat bogs (sphagnum-dominated wetlands) in lowland Puget Sound. But here on Vashon-Maury Island — thanks to the foresight of Emma Amiad and the stewardship of the Land Trust — it is preserved. (The bog is open to the public only for annual guided tours hosted by the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust each Mother’s Day weekend.)

This bog is more than a curiosity: It is what scientists call a refugium, a sheltered place where life carries on in its own unique way, even as such habitats disappear elsewhere.

In some ways, our whole island works like that — as islands often do — both ecologically and culturally.

During the Ice Ages, islands acted as refugia, places where plants and animals survived while surrounding landscapes were uninhabitable. In Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago — perhaps on nearby unknown or now-submerged refuges — Sitka spruce, hemlock and many other species persisted through glaciation.

Farther south, California’s Channel Islands sheltered species away from mainland ice and, through long isolation, even enabled evolutionary divergence — for instance, the island fox now exists there as six distinct subspecies found nowhere else on Earth.

Island refugia are cultural too. Throughout history, islands have preserved languages, literatures and traditions amid upheaval. Irish monastic communities safeguarded manuscripts and learning that later reseeded Europe’s intellectual life, while Iceland conserved Old Norse sagas and oral traditions long after they had vanished elsewhere.

Islands have also given refuge to people: dissidents, minorities and communities seeking to nurture different ways of living.

Here on Vashon-Maury Island, we have our own examples, from early immigrant settlements — like Japanese American farming communities — to author (and egg-producer) Betty MacDonald; from the Wesleyan Community to today’s All-Merciful Saviour Monastery and Puget Sound Zen Center. Each is a reminder that islands shelter not only species but also spirit, tradition and imagination.

It is here that we preserve our deepest values as well. Of course, each of us holds our own — and that diversity is something to be treasured — but we also share certain common strands.

These best emerge and are refined in ongoing conversation, but perhaps a good starting place is the set of values identified by islanders themselves during the creation of the Vashon-Maury Subarea Plan: independence and self-sufficiency; care for the natural environment; equity and diversity; preservation of history; creativity and self-expression; support for sustainable local livelihoods; and strong community collaboration.

Providing a safe place for those in danger elsewhere — furthering equity and diversity — fits as naturally within that weave of values as protecting Whispering Firs Bog.

A refugium is a kind of sanctuary; for humans, it’s sustained by the ethic of stewardship — the obligation to care for the vulnerable, both human and ecological, in a way that sustains the whole community over time.

Though our values sometimes pull in different directions, respect for one another’s ways of living has long been part of islanders’ tradition. That, after all, is what makes a refugium work — not conformity, and not the freezing of life in some immutable form — but the presence of shelter enough that living things are not overwhelmed, and freedom enough that they can find their own way forward.

And that’s what we have here: a sheltered island on which we keep each other safe from storms, preserving what is good in our lives while creating together a future shaped by our deepest values.

I’m glad that you and I are both a part of that wonderful process, as we walk and work together to sustain this astonishing refugium we call home.

JC Graham is President of the Vashon‑Maury Community Council. He has lived on Vashon Island since the turn of the century. Email JC at President.V-MCC@proton.me or permessos@proton.me.