Shannon Liedtke

As a hospice nurse, I watched people reach the end of their lives still waiting for their turn to rest. I recognized myself in that.

I started squeezing short walks under trees into the spaces between patients, and that practice changed my life. The forest held me in a way nothing else did. A Douglas fir that’s been standing for 150 years has a particular way of making your worst week feel passable.

I have a deep kinship with the woods and not a lot of patience for wellness clichés. I’m not here to fix you. I’m here to guide you into the forest so you can let the trees do the heavy lifting for a while.

I’m a fifth-generation resident of the Tualatin Valley, raised in the woods of the Chehalem Mountains. I have roots here that go way back, and a lifelong sense of responsibility and mutual care for this place and its non-human communities.

This is more than just another line item on your self-care to-do list. This is my home, and I’m inviting you into it.

I am building Fern Kingdom for the ones who give too much:

• The nurse finishing a brutal shift, or waking up with that low-grade dread before the alarm even goes off.

• The teacher buying school supplies on her own credit card and answering emails at 10 PM.

• The parent holding everyone else together and doubting themselves the whole time.

You don’t need to be a nature person. You just need two hours where you can lay it all down in the company of trees that were already old when your grandma was born.

I am a Registered Nurse, an ANFT-certified Forest Therapy Guide, and a Harvard-accredited Nature as Medicine Practitioner. I am currently pursuing board certification in Nurse Coaching.