Native Tree Society BBS

WNTS Forum Members-
Having a free day in the northcoast of California, I chose to revisit a number of locations once quite familiar to me, including a hike into the Ladybird Johnson Redwood Grove near Orick, California.
To encourage fellow WNTS-ers, I used a point and shoot camera, an old laptop, and Microsoft software (MS Word, Internet Explorer), to illustrate how quick and easy it is to capture an afternoon outing or a weekend hike.
It's spring somewhere, time to get out and rejoice in our local woods and forests!

WNTS/ENTS-
In about 10 weeks, those attending the 2nd Annual WNTS Rendezvous will be arriving/will have arrived in Durango. The recent change in our forum from GoogleGroups to the ENTS BBS has me feeling a little remote, but I'd like to make it feel more real by letting folks know that Laura Stransky (our 'anchor' in Durango!) has reserved for us a block of very reasonably priced dorm rooms. Of course folks can stay where they wish, but our thinking was to provide opportunities for very low cost housing (dorm rooms at Fort Lewis College, under $20 per person if I recall correctly).
I am not sure what the weather is now across the US, but up here in Alaska, Spring will sure be welcomed, and Durango in June has a very nice sound to it. To be up in the mountains of Colorado with deep blue skies and warm clear air, is very appealing. And to be out in the forests gazing across acres of trees, smelling the earth's spices, and hearing the symphony of sounds of wind, weather, and wildlife...has me planning on more time in the gym, walking tracks to get ready!
We're looking at a balanced agenda of field time and in-town presentations, measurement seminars and local attractions, events of interest to all attending.
And there's still time for those considering attending to inquire, suggest, comment...we'd love to hear from you!-
-Don Bertolette

While I've not yet 'shot' a waterfall with my laser rangefinder, I did 'snap' this one with my iPhone...I'm including an image of Cameron Falls which is about an hours drive from Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, taken last July after outrunning a horde of voracious mosquitos...none near the waterfalls, it was heaven there! YK iP Dump 009.jpg
Although, it might be more accurately described as Cameron Cascades...perhaps the volume of water that goes over gives it some credence as a waterfall?

Couldn't tell where the Moody Forest was (which state...), or what kind of woodpecker was in the photo above (not a birder, yet).
But, the photo reminded me of a detail I was sent on from Kentucky, to South Carolina (Francis and Marion Sumpter NF, I believe). We were there to clear roads after Hurricane Hugo (if fading memory serves me!). Many of the trees that were blown over (and some of these were 24' to 36" pines!), broke at Red Cockaded wood pecker dens. Wildlife biologists came in after us, and made 'habitat boxes', just like the one the photo shows the woodpecker on. Even went to the trouble to trickle sap down the front, so that the habitat looked authentic (and perhaps as was suggested, the sap kept preying snakes from access the habitat).
7 three-person teams and two weeks later, and we had cleared some 200 miles of USFS roads. Quite a challenge clearing jackstrawed trees stacked 5'-10' deep...worked in teams of three, two cutting, one keeping a second set of saws fueled, oiled, sharpened. Learned about trusting partners!

.

WNTS/ENTS/and other good friends!
The Alaska Big Tree List webpage is up and running. It has room for refining, and comments, criticism, and/or praise are welcome. It has two outgoing links that provide for each Alaska tree species, a dendrological information link to (of all places) Virginia Tech, and a species range mapping application (courtesy of University of Alaska at Fairbanks) for those wanting more! For those still wanting more, we've added a links 'page' and a gallery, both of which we hope to grow over time.
Please contact me with the contact information below if you've questions, contributions, potential nominations.

The Alaska Big Tree List is affiiliated (I am as well, serving as the state coordinator) with American Forest's National Tree Registry. Those wishing to nominate big Alaskan trees can find forms through my webpage (http://www.akbigtreelist.org), or through American Forests (http://www.americanforests.org)

Don't know how many are familiar with following webpage:
http://www.wildlandsandwoodlands.org/
but it would I imagine be of interest to New Englanders.

Their vision? Protect 70% of New England's forested landscape. Sound good? Check it out!

You are not authorised to read this forum.

WNTS/ENTS folks-
Having left Alaska at nearly sea level, and flown to Denver, Colorado at 5000' and then driven onto Durango at 6500', and then to various big tree hunting sites at 8000' to 9000', it's taken awhile to acclimate. I can't speak for the others (Laura Stransky, our delightful host; Lee Frelich, our dellightfully loquacious Minnesotan; Randy Browne, our delightfully underspoken Ohioan; and Bob and Monica, our delightful ENTS couple), but there was some huffing and puffing going on!
I have the least number of photos, but am downloading some of them here and now, with a little bit of morning time availing itself. Most of them are trailside shots, to give you all a feel for some of the fine forests of the San Juan NF.
The number of exemplary trees we've found here is astounding when you consider the relatively small sampling we've made!
Time to be off, to some high mountain passes...breathe in, breathe out...drink lots of water...apply sunblocker...wear hats! Try to keep up with Bob!

James/ENTS/WNTS-
Seeings how you enjoyed the first few hundred miles of the ALCAN Highway, I'll continue the narrative on to White Horse, Yukon Territories, Canada. And if I have you pegged right, you'll appreciate the map I'm loading up front (oops, I see that the BBS takes the PDF file down to the bottom!)! It's available as a *.pdf and/or *.html file, depending on your preference (it's hefty as a .pdf file (3.5Megs)).

http://mappery.com/map-of/Wrangell-St-Elias-National-Park-and-Preserve-Official-Park-Map

One more graphic, and we'll be on our way...it's a roadside interpretive sign, explaining to Bob Leverett that Colorado has no corner on the sand market!

RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 081.jpg

For the next several hundred miles the ALCAN skirts the mountain ranges to the south and west, traversing relatively flat ground with waterbodies ranging from small boggy ponds to Kluane Lake. Several images taken in route follow as we sought our nights lodging, often an adventure in itself, with towns often several hundred miles apart, and not big towns at that!

RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 112.jpg

Though we weren't aware at the time, British Columbia and Alberta had many wildfires going on, and while it's faintly detectable here and around the corner going along Kluane Lake, it did significantly 'flavor' our experience from there on, all the way to Yellowknife. But the winds were variable, and we'd get intermittent clear skies. The next images provide a sense of the land features that one would encounter in the section between Glenallen and Tok.
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 119.jpg
Note beaver lodge in following image!
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 143.jpg

Coming up on Kluane Lake...
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 050.jpg
And closer...
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 433.jpg

Close enough that we decided that we should find a campsite, and take in some of this magnificent scenery, from a more stationary vantage! The following image provides the same input we obtained from the first three campgrounds we investigated...
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 105.jpg

Having identified the soapberry plant in our northern plants book, we saw that they were in deed, ripe for the picking, although not that palatable for humans. Not that eager to practice my best bear encounter behavior, we decided to consider options. One that looked promising soon offered itself up, curiously located near Destruction Point. In addition to campsites offered, there were also several cabins available. While just recently completed (2008), they were 'off the grid', with neither power nor water. Utility-wise the only concession was a propane powered furnace. That said, the furnishings were topnotch, if not elegant for a log cabin. WIth the sleeping comfort of relatively bear-proof logs (as opposed to the nylon of our backpacking tent), we were happy to call it a day and have a leisurely afternoon. A few of the images here follow, a view from the shoreline looking east, then looking west, and from the inside, looking north (and south by reflection...
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 096.jpg
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 066.jpg
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 210.jpg

And finally, from the porch, our evening sunset (because of the high peaks so near behind us, it was only 8:00PM, with a lengthy dusk following that we captured visually from a 'horizontal perspective. Thus ends the ALCAN segment to Whitehorse, where the next segment starts.
RED ROADTRIPTHROUGHAUG20_2010 398.jpg

Well, almost finally, as I've just discovered a wonderful website (courtesy of Mario Vaden) that has among THOUSANDS of 360 degree images available, one of Kluane Lake! I'm going to try and place a URL immediately below, and recommend that you check it out. With my two year old laptop, the image takes about 20-30 seconds to load. Then all you have to do is place the cursor on the image, press and hold the mouse button, moving cursor to right to pan to the right in the image, and so on, for left. If you're amazed by the website, try other places in the West (or the world) like Yosemite Valley and you'll find that many of the images allow significant exploring up and down! Anyway, here goes!
http://virtualguidebooks.com/YukonNWT/SouthYukon/KluanePark/SoldiersSummitKluane_F.php

We'll travel tomorrow north on a section of the Klondike Highway to Carmack. Turning east, we'll traverse a section of the Campbell Highway to Ross River, half of this segment being of graded gravel construction. Taking the Canol Road (Canadian Oil road, built in the 1950s) south, we'll try to make it to our evenings reserved lodging at Johnson Crossing, the full length (150 miles) of which is one-third primitive (SUV, pickup recommended) and the remainder much like the Forest Service roads throughout the West). This was to be our longest day. But from my perspective, and that of the camera, our most imagery productive...absolutely gorgeous country, that is pretty much unrivaled in my experience...with intermittent rain, thunder, lightning, rainbows, and lighting like that which led Ansel Adams to see the Sierra Nevadas, as "the range of light".

Attaching an image for those WNTS/ENTS botanists needing a challenge...:>}
Provide common and scientific name for the following plant!

DRBroadtripAug4 247.jpg

Cues: Found along the boundary (read longitude) between Yukon/Brit. Columbia and NWT/Alberta. Seems to like pioneering role, lots of light.

Neil/Ed-

Regarding Posts 12-14, I thought I'd add some of my thoughts on old-growth ponderosa pine ecosystems, specific to Northern Arizona, and located in Grand Canyon NP's North and South Rims.

Being a westerner, for some time at UMASS, I tried think of old-growth trees, and ways to defined them. After slogging through seemingly countless (as a grad student doing manual literature searches, the list seemed nearly endless) citations that strove to define old-growth, I, and Bob Leverett at about the same time, began to realize that there were indicators that certainly 'filtered out' the second growth from "old-growth". Many of those indicators are listed in your recent publication, and I think many of the uninitiated will find your paper very helpful.

After returning to the West, with a post graduate stint at Northern Arizona University, my thinking began to change along with others, I noticed. I started thinking in terms of old-growth ecosystems, rather than individual trees. While I can accept academia's disfavor with a definition for an old-growth tree, I have spent to much time wandering through the currently largest, relatively undisturbed ponderosa pine forest ecosystem not to think that that an old-growth ponderosa pine is a perfectly valid concept.

But more than individual tree and individual tree characterisics, there needs to be structural homogeneity (uneven aged multi-storied stands in small to medium landscape scales), and a compositional mosaic (even if in the case of the relatively depauperate vegetation community that characterizes ponderosa pine forests) of grasses and shrubs that serve to 'incubate' regenerating pines after disturbance (usually wildfire, in this fire adapted species).

Following, I'm including some images of mine, previously seen in our online journal, but certainly they seem pertinent to this discussion.

image001.jpg
Figure 1. A relatively undisturbed Pinus ponderosa ecosystem found on Rainbow Plateau, biogeographically a peninsular plateau, with classic array of structural diversity. Note native grasses, pine seedlings and saplings in the wildfire created opening (mosaic), and mature stand of ‘yellowbark’ pines.

figure2.jpg
Figure 2. Pinus ponderosa at the edge of Rainbow Plateau, with increased wildfire activity cycle, and resulting multi-aged “islands”. Note passing of large old pine at left in primarily native grass foreground, the incoming pine regeneration in photo center, and the “islands” of large pines ranging from photo center to right in background. Much of the Rainbow Plateau’s periphery could be similarly characterized.

figure3.jpg
Figure 3. The Pinus ponderosa forest ecosystem as found in Grand Canyon National Park, is relatively depauparate. Less so than adjacent, more disturbed forests, this image displays an opening created by a wildfire of medium to high burn severity, slowly returning to forbs, grasses, and shrubs. Pine regeneration in background is returning in less severe burn area mosaics. Mid-ground large pines show the accommodation that thick bark offers to fast burning, low intensity, high frequency fires expected of this fire-adapted species. The Rainbow Plateau, as well as the nearby Powell Plateau, is characterized by similar wildfire mosaics varying from forests with islands of grasses, to grasslands with islands of the large old yellow-barked pines.

figure4.jpg
Figure 4. The first visitors to Grand Canyon’s uniquely little disturbed ponderosa pine forests (at the time of settlement, part of the largest contiguous assemblage of ponderosa pines in North America), characterized the forests as open park-like stands, such that one could ride on horseback and wagon unimpeded, and see far into the stands ahead.

There are some cues in the figures that I should bring more to the fore...the continuum from large land mass, to a thousand acre peninsula, to an isolated point, to a 'biogeographical island' found on the North Rim is an excellent opportunity to explore the effects of natural disturbances, relatively distinct from those forests with man's interventions. The Powell Plateau is one of the biogeographical islands, Rainbow Plateau is functionally a 'point', Walhalla Plateau is larger peninsula, and broad sections of the North Rim's nearly pure ponderosa pine ecosystem, and all have relatively little interference, especially in the order just presented. With these geographically distinct forests, the influence of "edge effect" can be studied more clearly. By edge effect, I am referring to the array of moisture and temperature conditions that differentially affect edges of these land masses, than they would land mass interiors. As well, in an area known to have one of the highest numbers of lightning downstrikes in the Southwest, the spatial relationships of wildfires relative to downstrike ignition locations are also worthy of consideration.

But I'm rambling, it's late, and there's lots to do over the next three weeks~!
More later...

Don

Jenny/Ed-
Great discussion!
While I can say authoritatively that I have no direct knowledge of New Jersey's Pine Barren forested ecosystem, it unmistakably resembles in many ways that of the Ponderosa Pine forested ecosystem in the Southwestern US.
Ten years of walking around much of the Grand Canyon NP forests eventually set me to thinking about the patterns of growth (and it's absence) there. In a tour that I was leading with some of the higher echelon park managers, I was asked why the spot where we were standing was pretty much devoid of trees, supporting little more than sage brush and paltry grasses.
On the spot, and with other "ologists" around ready to pick on what I might say, I was a little bit apprehensive. What I said was that we were in a fire-adapted forest, and all other things being equal, I would expect that ground fires under most conditions in the park had been historically of low burn intensity and high frequency. It's only been in the last 50 years that the Park's early fire suppression policy had led to a more dense understory of ponderosa pine regeneration, and that as time went on, wildfires began to exhibit higher burn intensities although of lower frequencies (less often).
Under such a scenario, the wildfire would burn across the landscape, not in a catastrophic all-consuming line of fire, but in a mosaic reflecting the fuel patterns of big trees, little trees, grasses, etc., with varying burn intensities. Severe burn intensity fire sites are where all organics are consumed, and only bedrock and certain soil types remain...the continuum of burn intensities relate to the proportions of the organic layers (soil and vegetation) consumed.
The Deputy Supervisor liked my response, and the good scientist she was, didn't dismiss me out of hand, but promised to read up on it. Later that day, I sent her a sample of the rather large body of literature that had accumulated (much of it local, university or USFS-based) on wildfires and their role in shaping the landscape in the SW.
While those of us in our division (Science Center - Natural Resources Branch) fought tooth and nail with some of the other divisions, and administration folks, our work prevails after our departures. One of us still remains there, and recently pleased us all immensely with the report that our research studies/papers on the Mixed Conifer Forest fire ecology/management were used extensively by the Division of Fire and Aviation folks, in their wildland fire reintroduction program. Today, the visitors are in a safer environment, the Park structures and residences better protected, and the resource is returning to a more natural fire regime (lower burn intensity/higher frequency).
I would guess that there are similar findings in the Pine Barrens...
-Don

While it has been interesting to read of the speculation for the curious bend in these trees, I'd vote for an exceptional snow storm/avalanche/year. I've seen these kinds of bends before in northern forests...the uniformity (similar response to an event coming from the left (relative to the view we're looking at) speaks to a singular response to a fairly significant event.
-don

Mario/Marc-
Wow, what nice cameras/lens you use! Do you always go out with your full complement of camera gear?

I started out several decades ago, with a Nikon body and added lenses over the years...got to carrying such a large case that it got in the way of being in the woods.

I've probably gone to the other extreme recently, with the purchase of a Sony Cybershot HX9V which has a 35mm equivalent of a 24mm-360mm zoom, 16 Megapixel resolution. I've only had a little bit of time in the woods, but will attach a macro image of some fresh Douglas Fir cones.

DSC00400.JPG

Don

DSC00323.JPG DSC00235.JPG Having the opportunity to join my better half (Rhonda) in Iceland, where she had work-oriented tasking, I flew in to Reykjavik the capitol of Iceland. After napping for several hours to shake the jetlag off, I rented a car, and drove to Akureyri where Rhonda's conference was held. Arriving on her next to last day of the conference, the images that follow document the countryside enroute and then of our return to Reykjavik by way of the Western Fjords.
I was struck by the similarities between Alaska and Iceland, though immensely different in size (Iceland is about the size of Kentucky), they both are characterized by low population densities, large expanses of wide open spaces. Iceland has few predators (we did see briefly, an Arctic Fox), but a wealth of birdlife.
I started out with a new camera, and I offer my apologies for my bumbling about. The camera, a Sony DSC HX9V, is a point and shoot basically, but clearly complex enough to "grow into". My primary criticism is the lack of a user-friendly instruction manual, as some of the features I wanted to access the most were somewhat embedded. That said, the journey begins.
DSC00126.JPG
DSC00130.JPG
DSC00132.JPG
DSC00142.JPG
Focused on a timely arrival in Akureyri, most of the images that follow, were taken in Akureyri, or from our return.
DSC00171.JPG
DSC00181.JPG
DSC00196.JPG
DSC00232.JPG
DSC00235.JPG
DSC00252.JPG
DSC00271.JPG
DSC00274.JPG
Leaving the coast for a bit, we travelled somewhat inland, never far from the sea. Wide open spaces characterized much of our travel here.
I believe the next image is of Djupafjordur, on our way to the ferry at Brjanslaekur.
DSC00293.JPG
DSC00298.jpg
DSC00300.JPG
We took a day and travelled inland and upland into an alpine wilderness area in the Djupadalur region, our destination a waterfall of note, but name since forgotten. Nonetheless, a memorable one, after a fog/cloud shrouded drive.
DSC00313.JPG
DSC00315.jpg
DSC00328.JPG
DSC00333.JPG
With a maximum of twenty images permitted, a second episode to this adventure will follow, later this week.

bbedduhn-
Your moderate approach is appreciated, and fits with a good strategy embraced by Conservation Biologists. Older approaches that essentially would go across an entire forest over a predetermined 'rotation' (say 100 years) made sense only in a short-term economic approach. Our past legislatures, lobbyists, and timber industry saw nothing beyond the dollar sign on the tip of their noses. And that was during the best (we thought then!) of economic times...they could have done so much better.

My question? It's my guess that the area behind the above photo was entirely that of private ownership, and then was liquidated? Much like the Redbird Purchase Unit on the Daniel Boone National Forest, the USFS came in after the fact, and then began the process of reforestation. My point? In these two instances, the USFS were the good guys. In 1965, the USFS purchased lands previously owned, managed for resource extraction by Peabody Coal (strip mined) or Ford (timber). By 1987, I was there with 40 pound sacks of limestone on my back, spreading lime by hand on strip pits, along with grass seed and fertilized in subsequent visits. Locusts were planted where slopes benefited by their soil retentive capacity. We were making a difference.

-Don

Ed-
Thanks for the comprehensive response!
While I have no intention of copy and pasting specifics, I will use this information in support of my website's (akbigtreelist.org) pursuit of tree measuring excellence.
-Don

Jenny-
I'm thinking you made the right decision...as a kid, our family went to Death Valley around Easter for decades. While it was almost always clear, with blue skies right down to the horizon (which is pretty high, with Panamint Peak around 10,000'). But it was almost always cool to cold, which made some of the hotsprings rather nice!
In later years my folks retired to Joshua Tree (the town), and I always added a day on to a trip there, so I could explore Joshua Tree (then a national monument). Since then, it has become a National Park and it's environment has benefitted from it. It is high desert, so it can get cool at night, but warm during the day. Shortly after my parents passing last October and December, friends and family members gathered, and those that were able, made a point of visiting Joshua Tree, with 65 degree days, this the first week of January. It was great. All of us marveled that Dad had gone up with us in an earlier visit just two days before he passed.
Well, that is the spiritual side of the Park to me, but the natural side is what I started out to mention. During a visit to the folks when they were living just a mile outside of the then national monument, I had borrowed their Honda Trail 90 motorcycle, for an 'up close and personal' look. I had ridden to a variety of locations I had wanted to revisit, then started back home. While still in the 'rock jumble' area, I noticed a bobcat, just off the road, behind some grasses almost tall enough to shield him from sight...I shifted the Honda into neutral and coasted to as quiet a stop and dismount as I could, grabbed my camera. Walking very quietly back, the bobcat eyed me closely. I continued to approach, anticipating it's quick departure. I eventually approached it within 10 feet, and took a picture of it's upper body, as it looked up at me through the (knee-high grasses on me) shielding vegetation, it's eyes in sharp focus.

Now, recalling the image, I am faced with the likelihood of a week long search through closets and storage, to see if I can find it again!

Don

James-
A non-issue anymore...she's Arizona's now, having purchased a sumptuous residence there. There's a legendary character in western legends known as Seldom Seen Smith, which accurately describes her presence in Alaska...her character though is more like an Alaska legend known as Soapy Smith...
-Don

First off, I did not post this to start a political debate or hate arguement on this forum!! It fact her politics are hardly brought up on the show at all. Whether you hate her or love her, the show portrays some beautiful imagery of Alaska narrated by the prettiest narrator I have seen in awhile. I have enjoyed watching it over the last couple of Sundays. It just makes me wanna visit that wonderful state. Please folks, let's keep our political thoughts to ourselves and concentrate on what is most important here, a show highlighting the great state of Alaska!

"Sarah Palin's Alaska takes viewers into the country's 'final frontier' through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens - Sarah Palin. Sarah is joined by various family members as she shares the state she knows and loves. Along with Alaska's great wilderness, the Palins encounter Alaska's fascinating residents and share what its takes to thrive in the country's largest state. "

http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/sarah-palin-alaska/

Justin-
Thanksgiving last November, from our balcony at Land's End, Homer Alaska...

James
Joe's post above speaks to a new biomass heating plant, that could utilized 'harvested biomass' for heating of campuses, for that matter businesses, etc.

In the Southwest, specifically in northern Arizona but increasingly elsewhere as we speak, the unnaturally dense, unthinned, fire protected ponderosa pine forests are undergoing similar soft on the land treatments much like Joe's...industries are starting up to utilize the 'harvested biomass'.
The big winners? The public. I lived in Flagstaff from 1996 through 2006, and too many times had wildfires rage through our forests, threatening our community. As a stakeholding member of the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership, we worked collaboratively with environmental organizations, city/county/state/federal agencies, private inholders, Northern Arizona University and others to gain consensus, perform research for effective treatments, and and congressional support. This resulted in what became nationally as the Flagstaff Plan, and is taking place now, as we speak.

The basic premise is that we needed to return the forest to presettlement fire regimes, where densities and age structures where characterized by large yellow-barked ponderosas, and grassy openings. This condition was established and maintained by frequent, low-intensity fires, usually ignited by lightning (northern Arizona has one of the highest lightning downstrike density counts of anywhere in the US). It was the right hearted but wrong-thinking fire suppression policies that gained wide US acceptance (read Smokey the Bear campaign) in the early 1900's).

I've rambled when all you asked was a simple question...sorry, I ended up providing you with a context for 'harvested biomass'...
-Don

You guys have great images of one of my favorite National Parks!
Too add a familial sense to these images, I offer one taken in December 2006, of my 87 year-old Mom, and my better half Rhonda, in a visit to Parker Dam. While the pool was substantial, it wasn't full then.

Ryan-
Very well done!
-Don

Larry
Just a quick aside...when I worked for Grand Canyon NP, I was involved in vegetation mapping...in measuring tree heights, I noticed something metallic at the top, so I investigated further. It seems that the height of 1930's fire lookout technology was the placement of a ladder and small platform on tall ponderosas that were located in spots that wide panoramas.
Many of them survive today, so it's not like the metal platforms/ladders endangered the ponderosas, even though the ladders were grown over by the cambium.
-Don

Ed/NTS members-
Here's a few that 'got away', from a visit there last week...: > }

Life in abundance....jpg
The Sheer Concentration of Volume....jpg
The sense of falling over backwards, while taking this panorama vertically.jpg
Where's my measuring gear!.jpg
Old-growth Coastal redwood community.jpg
Handing off the baton....jpg

I have more coastal redwood forest community members, as well as some of the panoramas of the northern California coastlines and the varied plant communities that populate these gorgeous landscapes.

Sad that we are looking at what is part of what may less than 5% of the original coastal redwood forest ecosystem. Man has at least found the sense to 'have dominion' over this last of the five percent.

-Don