Old Growth

As in "old" Growth

The Ohanapecosh River, pure of glacier sediment

Old Growth trees at Mt Rainier

A nurse log has done a good job  here...

An uprooted tree showing it's  large base, this is huge:

A nurse log provides life giving nutrients for seedlings

and these aren't nearly the largest...see Nurse logs that have fallen, huge trees that others grow from, some of these have large trees growing out of them..

Bio Toto, at Mt Rainier National Park

It has a warm seat...ahhh, on a cold morning, I raced to the toto!
I must get a heated seat for home.. you simply can't imagine!

In Japan I was familiar with toto, the toilet room is in fact called the toto.
In large department stores there the seats automatically flush, and cover the seat with a new plastic sterile liner. It's on a tube that shifts it's way over the toilet seat..

I think it's a nice feature.

This is one, I am not sure how many the park has of the Bio Toto, but this was at Cougar Mountain Campsite.

Steller Jays at Mt Rainier

Be sure to check in tomorrow for the ToTo at Mt Rainier. (from Japan)

Mt Rainier National Park, Big Trees

(click to enlarge and get full effect)
For anyone who doesn't know Mt Rainier is a volcano, one of many here along the Pacific Coast...


Returned now from Mt Rainier National Park. I went to see the Grove of The Patriarchs, a small grove of old growth trees standing since 1000 years ago when a fire went through the valley killing off all the the older trees that came before them.
( thanks for the suggestion Linda) I had not been to this part of Rainier yet.

I'm not showing the Patriarchs here, just some other large trees in the area. The reason is the Patriarchs are guarded by unsightly wooden pathways and porches and rails to keep people from damaging the trees. It is so sad we can't even manage these days to leave them alone, and just look at them without making a man made environment for them to survive in, just to protect them from people who touch and climb until they are worn smooth and damaged by roughness.
I apologized for us all. The old trees are huge and beautiful, yet unsightly due to the 'fenced in look' surrounding them.

Mostly I took photos of these other Cedars and Douglas Firs. Very large too, and beautiful.
The first one is a Douglas blocking the trail. It's texture is so deep and it is so amazing.

The other two photos are one Cedar ( Western Red, Thuja Plicata). Too large for one photo.
Please look at the posts below this one to get an idea of what we are doing to our environment and what has been done in old growth and how it affects us.



I'll be visiting some more "big trees" to show soon..until then, here is a Steller Jay from the park, Michelle. I could almost sprinkle salt on it's tail I was so close.

Big trees harvested in Washington and PNW area early 1900's, Old Grown Timber

Imagine, 100 truckloads per an estimated average 5000 cubic metres of the rare and endangered ancient Douglas firs.



site here
Some people never see this, but I see it every time I hike, huge stumps left of these giants, red in color, like they have bled to death.

Every back woods cafe has photos on the wall of these BIG trees that were all over this area up until the white man migrated here, (Weyerhauser in particular) and took them all down. As I understand we have some pockets that might not be known about, a few stands, and of course stands we know of, but in Seattle, for instance, not one was left standing.

Maybe no one can really understand 'tree huggers' who haven't seen the majesty of these big trees. They were literally all over this area, and I have to wonder what these numbered, in truck loads ...all these trucks toting trees out of the forest. It is simply unimaginable. ( not only the trees , but the loggers and the trucks). Every valley here, BIG trees, all the way to Puget Sound, and all over NW Canada, too. Try for a minute to picture this, imagine you could come here now and see this portion of the NW, a park, spared for your wonder.



Maybe it's too late, but it isn't too late to save the bees, and water, and fresh air, the oxygen levels, the oceans, and the seas. Not to mention ...us. Remember, the largest Sequoia known:
The large Sequoia on that site gives these stats..
"Ecosystem Services:
It would cost $3589.32 to replace the storm water control service provided by this tree, based on the engineering standards used in the building industry. The same tree removes 20.32 lbs. of nitrogen, sulfur, ozone and particulate matter every year."

Now imagine what millions of these trees did for our environment. ( times 1 million = 20,320,000 lbs of nitrogen, sulfur, ozone, and particulate matter per year). Hope I got my zeros right.

There was more oxygen on the planet in the early 1900's as I understand it, and I have read that lack of oxygen contributes to cancer and disease, obesity, etc. many of our modern day ailments.

I've heard of a stand that might be unknown, (shh don't let the loggers know) and I need a special vehicle to go there, I can't take my car there because the road would ruin my car. I'd like to go photograph it, and measure the trees. Maybe I'll name the place Sherrywood. grin

You'd be the first to see the photos!

Does this make you sad or what? Parading the bounty down Main Street.

More photos and information









see more here

The ancient forests of North America have almost completely disappeared due to robber barons such as Weyerhaeuser. The company first grabbed lands held in public trust in 1900 and continues its pillage today: in May 2008 Weyerhaeuser cut a dirty deal with Plum Creek Timber in Montana which netted the two forest liquidators a total of almost $700 million in tax breaks. We continue to give legitimacy to the annihilation of nature by making loggers into folk heros and by accepting ruthless capitalists as cultural patrons. The Forest History Society proudly proclaims that its existance is largely due to German immigrant Frederick ("Timber King") Weyerhaeuser, and his "personal dedication to preserving the history of the industry that built his family's fortune." The Society goes even further and pretentiously claims to be "unique as the only organization on the planet solely dedicated to preserving forest and conservation history." Back in 1944, Weyerhaeuser's logging propaganda was more directly shown in a series of murals (right).(see link)





Trees as curiosities

In British Columbia..Cathedral Canyon
On 3 May 2006 a group of forest activists and members of the Friends of Cathedral Grove (FROG) set off on an exploratory expedition up the Cameron River into the poorly known and inaccessible Cathedral Canyon (right). They made the shocking discovery that ancient trees in the primaeval and steep elevation forest are being clandestinely high graded for their commercial value and helicopter logged by the Island Timberlands contractors of Brookfield (formerly Brascan, Weyerhaeuser, MacMillan Bloedel). The pristine Cathedral Canyon is the centrepiece of the proposed protection plan to expand Cathedral Grove to a total of 2000 hectares and the destruction of its rare and irreplaceable big trees by the multinational logging industry is yet another assault on BC's endangered ancient fir forest ecosystem.

This site has links to tree sites in Europe
European Tree Sites

Dedicated to The Pollinators, also Kiva revisited, this next week, please pass this info on will you?

Although I planted late, and I have only tiny squash now (in Sept for all practical purposes), I am so happy to see the pollinators. These little guys make our food possible,and are at risk worldwide.
It is so scary to think we'd have to try to pollinate by hand as some cultures now do, because the bees all died out.
My goodness what we take for granted.

Without bees to pollinate, we would only have grain and oats to eat I believe. (unless we pollinated each flower by hand), can you imagine pollinating a cherry tree? A blackberry bush? Ouch!

And these little guys work work work, never ask for a penny, just a life.

Here are my photos, I dedicate them to the pollinators



Click to enlarge photos please:












Maybe you'd like to blog this?
KIVA


If you have never heard of Kiva, let me introduce you, Kiva is a non profit organization that allows me to loan money to people who are in need to support their families around the world. You can loan as little as $25.00.
I have loaned to several families worldwide, in 3rd world countries, and been paid back. I suppose I even make a little, but I loan it out again. I think if it were me living in such poverty, I would feel so grateful some one cared about me and my family, and was willing to loan me money to start or increase my farming or fishing or weaving, etc. business.
I would feel warmth coming from what might otherwise feel like a very cold world.
For me I feel I might bring hope for a future for another person, family or group of people.
You can decide who you want to loan to and how much, and you can lift others out of the cycle of poverty.

So if you are interested in using your coffee money, or setting aside a little entertainment money to help folks in another land, please take a look at Kiva, and if you sign up, please sign as my guest, because so far, none I have invited has joined KIVA.
Here is the form I usually send out with email addresses on it, and if you want an invitation form me, just let me know, ok?

I wanted to let you know about Kiva (www.kiva.org), a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.

You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

I loaned to Maniga Gondo, Maniga is 44 years old.


She is married and has 5 children. Maniga lives with her family in Abobo, a township in the north of Abidjan. She sells fruits and legumes in the Abobo open market. She is a dynamic woman who strongly contributes to her family's revenue generation. She heard about AE&I in June 2004 and got her first loan one month later. She is a good performer. She will use the loan to purchase goods in bulk and improve her revenues. Her 4th child (a boy) will attend grammar school in September, and she wants to be ready to pay his school fees. She borrowed a total of 800.00 and paid it back in less than the year she borrowed it for. I would love to meet her. It would be so wonderful to meet her. I wish her well.

I have loaned to a Vietnamese fisherman and his wife for a boat, and this loan is paid back 67%. I have a new loan out to a group in Tanzania who are raising poultry. Surely you have $25.00 to spare to begin a loan to someone in need to have a better life! Thank you!




Kiva is an organization that is very special, please support KIVA!
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=13772

Bus coming... Mt Baker, Kiva Loans

This is a photo I took out my sun roof. Green City limit signs flank the sides of the photo where the bus is crossing over a bridge from Everett into Mukilteo.

Mt Baker view from a neighborhood not far from where I live..


Impatience on a road nearby, Forest park area, of Mukilteo Blvd. ( From a community planting every year), and about now, the impatiens are very large, a few feet high, so beautiful, and the trees are large, too, giant ferns abound. I love this drive. My windshield doesn't offer the best view...


KIVA


If you have never heard of Kiva, let me introduce you, Kiva is a non profit organization that allows me to loan money to people who are in need to support their families around the world. You can loan as little as $25.00.
I have loaned to several families worldwide, in 3rd world countries, and been paid back. I suppose I even make a little, but I loan it out again. I think if it were me living in such poverty, I would feel so grateful some one cared about me and my family, and was willing to loan me money to start or increase my farming or fishing or weaving, etc. business.
I would feel warmth coming from what might otherwise feel like a very cold world.
For me I feel I might bring hope for a future for another person, family or group of people.
You can decide who you want to loan to and how much, and you can lift others out of the cycle of poverty.

So if you are interested in using your coffee money, or setting aside a little entertainment money to help folks in another land, please take a look at Kiva, and if you sign up, please sign as my guest, because so far, none I have invited has joined KIVA.
Here is the form I usually send out with email addresses on it, and if you want an invitation form me, just let me know, ok?

I wanted to let you know about Kiva (www.kiva.org), a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.

You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

I loaned to Maniga Gondo, Maniga is 44 years old.


She is married and has 5 children. Maniga lives with her family in Abobo, a township in the north of Abidjan. She sells fruits and legumes in the Abobo open market. She is a dynamic woman who strongly contributes to her family's revenue generation. She heard about AE&I in June 2004 and got her first loan one month later. She is a good performer. She will use the loan to purchase goods in bulk and improve her revenues. Her 4th child (a boy) will attend grammar school in September, and she wants to be ready to pay his school fees. She borrowed a total of 800.00 and paid it back in less than the year she borrowed it for. I would love to meet her. It would be so wonderful to meet her. I wish her well.

I have loaned to a Vietnamese fisherman and his wife for a boat, and this loan is paid back 67%. I have a new loan out to a group in Tanzania who are raising poultry. Surely you have $25.00 to spare to begin a loan to someone in need to have a better life! Thank you!




Kiva is an organization that is very special, please support KIVA!
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=13772

Coast-guard warns a boater

This boat went in front of the ferry I was on. It is illegal to pass in front of a ferry, so the coast guard seemed to have fun giving chase and slowing him down. Mt Rainier in background.