1.0 Northwest forest general
Read More
Map of Area 1, northwest forest
1 Northwest Forest map
Only tree in the area that has this fungus.
Only tree in the area that has this fungus.
This is the tallest and straighest one on the property, in fact that I've ever seen.
In heavy rains, all the leaves in the erosion ditch will wash away, leaving bare earth.
piled a bunch of logs and branches here. Lot of it already rotten. Will have to see how it fares through the spring rains.
The first of the little white flowers to come up on the forest floor. Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
The first of the little white flowers to come up on the forest floor. Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
They didn't notice me at first and were romping around which is how I noticed them. I started taking pictures and the shutter sound decided them to get moving. Could this be the same pair of foxes I saw over on the east border berm a couple years ago?
A few cattails up, but mostly the growth is moderate at this point. The pair of foxes seem to like it.
When I clicked the shutter to take the first picture, they immediately scampered off. This is not fox walking. In fact is was rather noisy runnng, crashing through bushes. But as soon as they were out of sight, no more noise, no idea which way they went.
Moving quickly, but not quite a wild panic, just in a hurry to get out of sight.
Piled a bunch of downed logs and branches on the uphill side of this fallen tree. Not much of a slope, but should give me some good soil here. the flag is op14
Looking east along the fence here there's a lump that looks like a stump covered with vines. It's a bundle of wire, all crumpled up and probably useless.
Looking across the fence to the north, my neighbour is making much larger piles and cutting out a lot of the smaller trees, presumably to encourage deer as well as to see them better. This higher piles will shelter more animals than my log dams, but my log dams will produce good soil quicker, I think. five years instead of ten, maybe.
The thorns certainly look like that, though I couldn't get the phone camera to focus on the narrow branch. Along the north boundary fence.
20160119162101
Looking northwest from OP 17. The western part of the 1.NorthwestForest slopes from the north and northeast down toward the southwest toward 2.ForestCreek and where it flows out to the west. This is a downed tree that is pretty close to on contour, so I've piled branches and pieces of trunk from another tree that had fallen up hill from it. The tree that had fallen must have been one of the dead standing ones because it came down and shattered into many smaller pieces that were small enough for me to haul over and put in place. The concept is that along this line a fairly thick bed of rotting wood will help accumulate more water for the hillside than having is scattered around. Also, runoff will be slowed, though in the direction I'm facing, toward the northwest corner, there is no evidence of runoff erosion ditches, leading me to think this part hasn't had much human activity in the past except for clear cutting maybe 60 or 70 years ago and probably cattle grazing up until maybe 30 or 40 years ago.
Looking south from OP 17 in the western part of 1.NorthwestForest, you can see another fallen tree laying along the contour, sort of. It fell across a fairly major erosion ditch caused by the work on the old road further upslope where it looks like there was dozer work at sometime in the past. Perhaps as little as 20 years ago. I piled lots of dead wood upslope from it last summer. This is not really a dam, it is not intended to stop the water, only to slow it down and catch more of it thatn was being caught before.
Plenty of green things growing in the lagoon, even when mostly covered in frozen slush.
20160226111413
20160226 pano from west of property line
three serviceberry in northwest forest
This south west facing slope becomes quite shaded in the summer. The bush honeysuckle invasion has reached down into here, but so far they are mainly the small easily pulled up ones.
Snapping turtle having difficulties getting through the fence.
I'll have to check again, I'm sure there's a way out under the fence at a couple of places.
