Over memorial day weekend a road trip to Helena, MT with my family took me out of the Puget Sound basin into the pine forests of the East, where totally new ecosystems abound!
For description of the landscape change and a few stops along the way, please refer to my physical journal.
Coordinates: lat. 47.58944
lon. -120.67466
Weather: 63 degrees F, but feels hotter under the full sun.
1:50pm-- The sun at its height and we feel it beat down on this new, dry environment. The area is technically a "woodland," populated by Ponderosa Pine (Pinus Ponderosa) and low brushy shrubs. We climb over lichen-crusted rocks and through the dry grass dispersed with individual flowers every 10ft. or so. The plants are open to the hot sun, with no canopy to protect them. Almost like a meadow, but rocky and hilly, moving upward. These exposed regions are a living host of dusty plants that are totally foreign to me! The plants here are dusty colored-browns and sage-greens, nothing like the lush evergreens west of the mountains. The plants seem hardy--accustomed to the harsh heats and cold winters. There are other growing in the shadows beneath boulders, perhaps a bit more water is preserved in these shadowy spots.
Sitting on the warm rocks I see a few small lizards scurry by, seeking protection under the rocks, just like some of the plants. In the dense Western forests, reaching the sun is in high demand, whereas here shade is the more precious and rare commodity.
Despite the muted colors of the plants--their flowers are aglow with brilliant colors! In lower-slightly protected areas we find stunning chocolate lilies, or as someone informed me, checkered lilies (Fritillaria affinis). Also dispersed through the grasses were many balsamroot, I believe Carey's Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza careyana) and Arrowhead Balsamroot, (Balsamorhiza sagittata).
In the more protected area slightly higher up, where a number of tall douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) provide more shade, larger, leafier shrubs were present. Western service berry (Amelanchier alnifolia) was in bloom all over and snowberry (symphoricarpos albus).
Certain trees here are scarred with black as if effected by fires. I wonder how frequently fires scar this region? I imagine being so close to Leavenworth it would be in the peoples' interest to make sure fires did not occur here, but I wonder if small ones could still occur?
It is amazing what a contrast exists just a few miles over a mountain pass. It is a completely different world here. Still rich with life, but in such a different, crunchier way.
Species List
Trees:
Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Shrubs:
Western Service berry (Amelanchier alnifolia)
Common Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana)
Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor)
Rocky Mtn Maple (Acer glabrum)
Forbs:
Carey's Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza careyana)
Showy Phlox (Phlox speciosa)
Hooked Spur violet (Viola adunca)
Death Camas (Zigadenus paniculatus)
Columbia puccoon (Lithospermum ruderale)
Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Mock Orange (Philadelphus lewisii)
Prairie Star (Lithophragma parviflorum)
Checkered Lily (Fritallaria affinis)
Harsh Indian Paint brush (Castilleja hispada)
Paeonia Brownii
Vertebrates:
Western Fence Lizard (Scloporus occidentalis)
Coordinates: lat. 47.8547625
lon. -121.6773553
Weather: 65 degrees F and sunny
--The first stop on our field trip today is on the banks of the Skykomish River, just east of Goldbar. First off I learn that this area is known as a riparian zone, i.e. the area surrounding a river, effected by and in relation to the flowing river. We identify the area as second growth (having been clearcut in 1999) but the trees are already quite tall. Deciduous trees predominate the landscape, particularly black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa). Some small conifers are beginning to grow, but none as large as the cottonwoods and maples. The under-story is quite thick, perhaps a result of there being plenty of light filtered through the deciduous trees. There seems to be a greater diversity of trees and mid-story plants here. A few delicate vine maples fill the mid-story with low swooping branches. Also beaked hazelnut trees (Corylus cornuta) branch out into the road. The leaves of the hazelnut look remarkably similar to those of alders, but are much fuzzier. While alder leaves are smooth and waxy, hazelnut leaves are very soft. The flowers of the hazel are also similar to alder- catkins that form in the fall to be pollinated in spring. The tree is of course named for its fruit: a nut enclosed in a husk. The nuts aren't produced until summer, so none were present during our visit.
Some of the plants that have leafed out since winter are almost more difficult to identify now than they were a few months ago when everything was so bare and the leaved plants so distinct. Common snowberry for example, really stood out in the winter, but now so surrounded by other leaves and shades of green it is more difficult to pick out.
There are large stands of Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) growing in open areas--especially near to the water. This plant is native to Eastern Asia, but has moved here and become very very invasive. I have seen much larger and taller stands of it elsewhere in Seattle choking out many other plants. There were no flowers present, but many tall stems with enormous leaves.
Down by the water a number of cottonwoods have rings of roots exposed above the water- known as "adventitious rooting." When the river rises and trees or branches are torn down stream, these oddly placed roots will take root where ever they land down the river, sprouting a new tree. Basically, the adventitious rooting is flood protection, using the unpredictability of the river to the tree's advantage.
Many robins are singing and we hear but do not see a hermit warbler (Setophaga occidentalis), high up in the canopy. A pacific flowering crab apple leans into the road as well--completely covered in blossoms. I wonder if these trees are totally wild? Why would there be only one of them in this entire area?
Species List
Trees:
Vine Maple (Acer circinatum)
Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)
Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii)
Pacific Crab apple (Mallus Fusca)
Beaked Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta)
Black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa)
Shrubs:
Trailing Blackberry (Rubus ursinus)
Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica)
Common Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
Scotch Brooom (Cytisus scoparius)
Forbs/Grasses:
Sheep's Sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
Sweet Vernal Grass
Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)
Birds:
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Hermit Warbler (Setophaga occidentalis)