
Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence near the Rhododendron Garden
“What are you doing?” asks Peaks & Pints, standing in front of a tall Western hemlock tree just east of the Rhododendron Garden at Point Defiance Park.
“You look like a lumberjack, so I’m sending Moss code to the other hemlocks in the park,” said the Western hemlock.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” replied Peaks & Pints. “The Tacoma Tree Foundation sent us.”
“Now that’s rustling news,” the tree quipped back.
Peaks & Pints first partnered with Tacoma Tree Foundation, or TTF, in the fall of 2019, pairing our then-house beer, Kulshan Brewing Tree-dimensional IPA, with TFF-selected trees around Tacoma. For 2024-25, we brewed our eighth house IPA at Loowit Brewing in downtown Vancouver. Since the brewery is named after Mount St. Helens and its eruption silenced many trees, we named the beer Silent Trees IPA and have partnered with the Tacoma Tree Foundation, once again, to tell the stories of their favorite trees. The TFF sent us to Point Defiance Park to chat with the Western hemlocks across the parking just east of Rhodies.

Breaking Silence near the Rhododendron Garden
“Point Defiance holds the largest of very few relatively undisturbed forest remnants in the Puget Sound area. This Central Old Growth forest stand comprises the 336‐acre area within the 5‐Mile Drive loop,” adds the Western hemlock. “It’s characterized by level, mesic forest disturbed occasionally by wind and rarely by small fires. Heavy logging has never occurred at this stand: clearing roads and trails and small‐scale tree removal during the 1930s were the only disturbances directly caused by humans. So, I panicked when I saw your cutoff flannel shirt and long beard.”
“Certainly, this wasn’t the first time you saw flannel?” asked Peaks & Pints.
“I didn’t see any flannel during the big scares in the 1930s,” explains the tree. “First, dying trees were taken out for Madrona Camp for Works Process Administration workers, and then, in 1934, Fort Nisqually was moved to the park. We weren’t chopped down. None of us. And the builders wore heavy work shirts, coveralls, wool pants, and big work boots, not bullshit sleeveless flannel.”

Western hemlock | kʷaləkʷəc | Tsuga heterophylla
In 1946, Portland Oregonian suggested Washington state choose the Western hemlock as its state tree. State Representative George Adams of Mason County argued that the hemlock would be a key part of the state’s forest industry. The Washington Legislature passed Adams’ bill in 1947, making the Western hemlock the state tree.
“The Western hemlock became the state tree because of its over-commodification,” says Jaala Smith, TTF’s Planting director. “It’s been a beloved and cherished community member of the Coast Salish people since the beginning of time because of its resilience and interconnectedness to all things. “
The hemlock is a large, native, always luscious green, tiny cone-bearing tree that can grow more than 200 feet.
“This local bad bitch grows a mature trunk wide enough to lock three sets of hands together in a big-giggling friendship tree hug,” says Smith. “Its feathery needles are smooth but varying in size and placement, giving it a whimsical shimmering look distinct from our bold Dougie firs and uniform cedars.

“Their cones! So tiny! So smol! Smith adds excitedly. “Growing off the tips of fern-like branches are the quaintest most adorablest thatched hobbit houses you’ve always dreamt of shrinking into. Living out the rest of your days sipping soup and reading by candlelight. Western hemlock cones are light, so when they fall, they can bounce and roll into soggy, mossy woodland crevices and sprout in the understory of their elders. These little saplings grow alongside our hippest mushie: Chanterelles. Our hemlock is known for providing a ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll give you a lush fairyland to escape to’ relationship known as a symbiosis, which is a must-have if we still want cool things like oxygen.”
Check out this Western hemlock close to the beginning of the Point Defiance Park’s Five Mile Drive, and then head to the Proctor District for a pint or Campfire Crowler of Loowit Silent Trees IPA (6.6%) at Peaks & Pints. Loowit Brewing in Vancouver, Washington, collaborated with the Tacoma craft beer lodge on their house beer. Paying homage to trees and outdoor enthusiasts who join Peaks daily in Tacoma’s Proctor District, Silent Trees IPA is the perfect beer to toast passing trees on powder, currents, or trails and reveal the sprains. Silent Trees IPA continues Peaks & Pints’ love affair with old-school piney IPAs, this time brewed with Simcoe, Columbus, and Chinook for all the pine and citrus.
“Next time you walk around Point Defiance, Swan Creek, or Wright Park, feast your eyes on baby saplings, spindly teenagers, and towering elders all within feet from each other, modeling intergenerational and interspecies community,” concludes Smith.
LINK: Loowit Silent Trees IPA inspires Tacoma Tree stories
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence at Swan Creek Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence Near People’s Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence at Oak Tree Park
LINK: Kulshan brews Peaks and Pints Tree-dimensional IPA