Longtime lurker

[Chris]

hello all,

I signed up like 7 months ago, but I never actually got around to posting. I was also a mostly a lurker back in the day of the old mailing list [pre google group], posting only a few times.

I am Chris and originally from Ohio [Great to see all the action it has been getting...saw almost to 100 ft Ohio Buckeye!]. I have lived in eastern Tennessee, Nevada, and the Ozarks of Missouri. I have also had the pleasure to have spent in total [on a few different occasions] 1.5 years traveling around the US/Canada, backpacking, birding, and seeing lots of different forest and trees... actually currently traveling.

hopefully, someone I will get a chance to post some more. For example, I don't think there have been anything about those very interesting "Mexican" pine - oak woodlands of the southwest US or the odd blending of east and west along the Niobrara River [Paper Birch, Black Walnut, Ponderosa Pine, etc...].


Apache Pine by cm195902, on Flickr


Niobrara River by cm195902, on Flickr

[edfrank]

Chris,

Welcome to the NTS BBS.  I am glad you stopped lurking and have decided to post.  I would love to see some posts about the pine-oak woodlands where you are living.  There are some mixtures of eastern and western forest species across the southwest and into Mexico.  I remember some strange associations in McKitrick Canyon in NM.  That was before I was involved with the organization (actually before ENTS or NTS existed.)  These associations should be documented and written about here on the BBS.  I would encourage you to write what you can about these forests whether or not you have measuring gear.  I am sorry i did not reply sooner.  I read your post, but was in the middle of another project and am just now getting back to commenting on recent posts.  

Ed Frank

[Neil]

agreed, Ed!

Chris - it would be great to hear about and see these interesting forests along the Niobrara River.

neil

[dbhguru]

Chris, Ed, Neil,

  The Niobrara has been a place I have visited over the years. Monica wants to return there. It is a canoe-friendly river (most of the time). When we are in that part of Nebraska, we always visit the Niobrara Wildlife Preserve. Great place. I have lots of old slides taken in the preserve, including one enormous bull bison that blocked our path for a time.

  IMHO, the Great Plains are truly a great place to experience. I use the word experience instead of see, because there are many sensory inputs that make a trek in the high plains a high quality adventure in nature, one that rivals the high one experiences when in mountains, and forests, or on natural lakes.

Bob

[Chris]

Thanks for the welcome [and my very belated reply].

[eliahd24]

Welcome Chris!  Fair warning- this site/community is addictive!  A wealth of knowledge surrounds you as well.  :)