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Dexenthes

Aristoloingulamata
Yesterday I went on a seven hour hike through some interesting Southeast Alaskan rainforest.
The following pictures will show you a bit about the area that I live and the forests and sphagnum bogs that I've grown up in and have come to love.

The trail head is a an old stretch of boardwalk that is pretty unnerving to walk at dusk or night time!
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The board walk ends and some dilapidated water tanks make a good....
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Vantage point to scan the horizon. I'm headed somewhere I have never gone before so I need to get my sense of direction oriented.
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Having set my sights to the direction I want to head, I plunge into my "trail"
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After a scraping and intensive bit of warm-up bushwhacking I stumbled across the first section of true sphagnum bog.
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I find the micro-flora of the sphagnum bog (or Muskeg as we call it) very charming and fascinating, here we have some sort of clubmoss with a very small form of Ground Juniper in the background.
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And an interesting Lichen formation with more ground juniper.
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These muskegs are not tennis shoe friendly, and walking amongst the deep sphagnum moss is one of the best feelings in bare feet (I'm wearing sandals). These types of bogs can be home to Drosera rotundifolia, Drosera intermedia, Pinguicula vulgaris, and some Utricularia, however this particular bog was not rich in any of those.
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However, whatever kind of bog it is, there is bound to be some beautiful forms of decay
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And this patch of Muskeg did contain the somewhat common Bog Blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) which strangely rarely produces fruit and when it does has very few, though they are of a most desirable and interesting flavor.
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And there was no shortage of the charming, very petite, yet bountiful Bog Cranberry (Oxycoccus oxycoccus) and vibrant orange Sphagnum moss.
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The bog ended and I plunged back into thick forest still dominated by bull pine and yellow and red cedars. Here the much more common and more widely known blueberries preside, the Oval-leafed Blueberry (Vaccinium ovalifolium) on the left, and the Alaskan Blueberry (Vaccinium alaskanense) on the right, both of which have very delicious berries with their own distinct taste.
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Despite the feeling that I was the first and only person to go through these woods there is always a reminder that someone has passed by before. I'm just glad it wasn't a beer can. Watch your toes!
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Dozens of blueberries later, a few eerie rustlings of the bushes nearby and I came to a break in the woods, not what I was looking for...
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But beautiful nonetheless.
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And the rotundifolia grow right up to the shore.
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Unmistakable paw prints tell me that now is no time to stop making the clanging noise with the piece of iron that I had brought with me.
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Along the shore there were some interesting plants growing.
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And also the Dwarf Blueberry, the fourth of our four species of Blueberry that grow on the island and perhaps the rarest, although the plants are not hard to find, finding a berry on the plant can be almost impossible, this was a rare shot. On the whole four mile hike I went on, I found maybe ten of these berries. The worst part is that they are so delicious! (Vaccinium caespitosum)
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And there was a cranberry patch worthy of stopping and picking. (I'm munching on these right now :D)
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Just nearby there were some Red Huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium), a very common, extremely tasty and high yielding berry bush that all the locals are familiar with.
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And why not add some interesting cotton grass that was growing on the shore.
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But the truth is I've already been to this small lake before so no time to stop, I plunged back up into the woods on the opposite side and kept going until I entered the magical Yellow Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) forest. Whether living or dead, these trees are majestic.
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Yellow Cedars are the oldest living tree in the region and I once counted the rings on a tree that was maybe eight inches in diameter, it was roughly 150 years old.
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So a tree like this one, has most likely been here a good long while since before Columbus.
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Through this forest and over a crest I encountered a small stream, I paused before leaping across to the other side to eat a blueberry.
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The rest of the surrounding area is dominated by bull pines and yellow cedars which can endure the low nutrient environment, this small stream, however, provides just enough nutrients to nurture a long Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis), the largest tree in the region, this one is quite small.
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Though the stream was pleasant and ripe berries were abound, I wouldn't be tempted by the urge to follow it.
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So on my ascent on the other side of the stream I ran into a couple of larger Red Cedars. (Thuja plicata)
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Red cedars, like Spruce, need more nutrients to thrive, this small stream provided just enough for these trees. Note the quarter for size.
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Much of the next mile was not documented, and was mostly dominated by my own swear words as I plunged through leg scraping brush, small serene brooks lined with Skunk Cabbage like this one, were not uncommon.
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But it was mostly back into the Yellow Cedar forest. Not only are these trees the oldest but I find them to have some of the most peculiar growth habits. In this picture you can see that not only are they full-sized trees, but they can be moderate sized shrubs, and even smaller brush like plants just barely poking out of the sphagnum.
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And their extremely rot-resistant wood never fails to form some interesting decomposition.
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Along the way I found an example of a Huckleberry bush which was exhibiting tear drop shaped berries, a phenomena that can be witnessed in nearly all the Vaccinium species, I wonder what causes it....
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Finally after three grueling hours of thrashing through berry bushes and destroying spider webs with my face, I came across the Muskeg that I had been searching for.
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The sphagnum islands are something that never cease to amaze me.
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And the trees that manage to grow in these bogs are extremely stunted. I can't say for sure but if I had to guess, I would say that this Yellow Cedar is easily over a hundred years old.
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The ponds were beautiful and the lily pads were a nice touch. I tried to get a picture but it's not hard to believe that I couldn't, of the mating dragonflies.
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But there really wasn't much in CP department. This cute little D. rotundifolia was one of the few examples.
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This Muskeg turned out to be not as exciting as I had hoped for, perhaps that could be because of how late it is in the season. But I did managed to find something new, evidence of Pond lilies being eaten by something, that's something I've never witnessed before.
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Along the margins of this Muskeg some of the most touching struggles to cling to life were found amongst the Yellow Cedars.
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So having reached my destination, I decided that it was much to rigorous of a hike to repeat twice in one day so I decided to follow my cardinal rule: Never go the same way twice. So I veered off and went perpendicular of my first path with the intent to run into whatever settlements I could find. But I had to stop and take a picture of this vivid red sphagnum (for all you CPr's :p)
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On my new path was an excellent example of Bear bread fungus eating away at a dead tree.
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And gradually I re-entered more Yellow Cedar forest, who's canopy was ideal to see all the way to the ocean, almost making the climb worth it.
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Then another example of perhaps the most endearing struggle I have seen by a tree to maintain life by another yellow cedar. Look closely you can see it has a branch still living and turned towards the sun.
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And of course, my new path lead me to new muskeg, with a new view of the ocean on such a rare sunny day.
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Finally the terrain started going down hill again and the forest became larger. Here is one of the largest Yellow Cedars I have seen. I would not be surprised if this tree was a thousand years old.
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Then again, another relatively massive Yellow Cedar with Salal berries in front.
 
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Yellow Cedar forests like these are becoming increasingly rare. Yellow Cedars need cold winters to grow correctly and a lot of the trees I have posted today show evidence of rot, death, and struggle. Climate change has affected them greatly in our region. And they are not a common tree to begin with.
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That doesn't stop people though, of course. Yellow Cedar's rot resistant wood is some of the most valuable and desirable timber in the world. Bittersweet as this photo now means I am close to home.
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Believe it or not, a Native American corporation is responsible for this particular clear cut.
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It's not the largest clear cut around, that's for sure.
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But Yellow Cedars are the slowest growing trees in the Tongass.
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And hundreds or thousands of years worth of logs lay to rot, of the most valuable and traditionally sacred wood.
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But don't worry! "It Grows Back"
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Just before the highway I ran into a Sitka Spruce that was in its prime.
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I hope someone enjoys these pictures, and I'm sorry for the length. I hope you found it informative. :)
 
Wow! An extraordinary journey you had! Glad you found some Rotunds, atleast.
This was incredible, and your commentary was most informative.

The clearcutting was so...disappointing. So tragic and heart wrenching to see scenes like that.
 
Wow, I super extra want to go to Alaska now! That was both very beautiful, and very sad.
 
Sorry as naive as this sounds, I though Alaska was majority snow. It is very beautiful terrain there as you've shown in the pics. Thank you for sharing and enlightening me.
 
dude that looks incredible. i too want to go up there now!
 
Great photo-log of Southeast - Way to make folks in the Lower 48 envious!

Mike
 
Rotund!!!!!!
I love the Red Spaghnum, too!
 
  • #10
Alaska isnt all frozen tundra, actually where i am in Montana averages significantly colder than southeast Alaska....

as for the stunted ceders in the bog being over 100 years old.....they are likely 500 years old or more, we have junipers around here that were likely good sized when Lewis and Clark went through....

as for hating the clear cutting, where do you think you toilet paper comes from? the cardboard boxes that we ship plants back and forth in? the books we by? if you like using any of these products dont complain........
 
  • #11
Having counted the rings on other trees of similar size I'd say 500 years might be a stretch for that one, but 100 years was a humble estimate.

As far as the clear cutting goes, these sorts of trees are not turned into toilet paper, or cardboard. You can see the truth in that they are actually mostly still just laying on the ground where they fell, only the largest have been taken. Clear-cutting is completely non-sustainable.

I'm not opposed to logging, because of course, we do all use paper products and nobody is innocent. But there are better ways to do it. Clear-cutting absolutely destroys an ecosystem. In temperate regions like here, it takes over a thousand or more years to restore back to the forest that you would recognize.

There are many logs laying on beaches, already laying in clear cuts like these, or drifting in the ocean, ENOUGH logs, this I know. I don't condone clear cutting on any level. Selective logging is the only way to do it remotely sustainably and it's the only we had been doing it for hundreds of years until now.

That being said, I don't condone the logging of Yellow Cedar at all. I find these trees much too powerful and ancient to cut down. I don't think I would be able to have that resting on my psyche. Now a hemlock is a different story...
 
  • #12
actually many areas in the PNW has shown clear cutting to be sustainable as some tracts have been cut, replanted and clear cut again several times.....

and if the trees in that bog are only 150 years old than that aint a very old bog as it takes a good amount of nutrients for a tree to grow to good size in that short of time....we have junipers around here out in the badlands that stand 8 foot tall that are 300 years old due to them growing in clay soil with lil nuits and less than a foot of precip in a year.....would be curious to see how old the 12 footers are.....
 
  • #13
Well maybe you can't tell but that tree was only about three feet tall, not really a big guy. Could 200 years though or so, I wouldn't be surprised.

Ok, sure though, trees can be replanted, and harvested again and turned into toilet paper. But that is a totally different concept than clear cutting an old growth forest composed of trees like Yellow and Red Cedars. Even a replanted clear cut or one that has grown back "naturally" (like the one I showed in the end) there is no understory, there are no berry bushes and wild life rarely utilize these areas. Basically what you speak of could just be considered a tree farm. It's not a true forest and the trees are nowhere near the size of the originals and those size trees wont reoccur for many many of our lifetimes.

Areas that have already been clear cut, should obviously be the subject of clear cuts again, as the ecosystem has already been destroyed. But when you see areas like the one I have pictured, those yellow cedars and the forest they are in had been functioning for thousands of years, and now will not probably ever grow back into a similar forest. It would be one thing if every single log and branch was taken, but as it stands, there are four or five hundred year old yellow cedars just sinking into the mud.

I actually went up there and filled my VW Rabbit with logs for firewood, I couldn't bear seeing the trees go to waste.
 
  • #14
well ofcourse they dont have the biodiversity of normal growth forests but by allowing some areas to be clear cut and replanted and harvested again natural growth forests can be left alone....or you dont get your TP and such......

nothing wrong with cutting down red cedar which does have a moderate growth rate and is extremely useful and limited logging of yellow cedar is fine aswell....it aint endangered by any stretch of the imagination.....slow growing? yes its one of the slowest but limited logging means there is an interest in preserving it as ppl that use the wood want it to be around for a long time.....if a living thing has amonetary value there is alot more interest in keeping it around long term........
 
  • #15
Incredible pics!

Stupid Question...
I am from the midwest and we don't have to deal with animals like bears. Do you have to do anything special for bears? Do you normally pack heat when going into the forests?
 
  • #16
"Due to the frequency of human-bear encounters, the B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field.

We advise the outdoorsman to wear little noisy bells on clothing so as to give advanced warning to any bears that might be close by so you don’t take them by surprise.

We also advise anyone using the out-f-doors to carry “Pepper Spray” with him is case of an encounter with a bear.

Outdoorsmen should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between black bear feces and grizzly bear feces. Black bear feces is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear feces has bells in it and smells like pepper."

:D
 
  • #17
Awesome pictorial!

How hard would it be for you to do the same trip for us in winter? It would help take the edge off the envy. :-O
 
  • #18
"Due to the frequency of human-bear encounters, the B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field.

We advise the outdoorsman to wear little noisy bells on clothing so as to give advanced warning to any bears that might be close by so you don’t take them by surprise.

We also advise anyone using the out-f-doors to carry “Pepper Spray” with him is case of an encounter with a bear.

Outdoorsmen should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between black bear feces and grizzly bear feces. Black bear feces is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear feces has bells in it and smells like pepper."

:D

LOL.
 
  • #19

my wife says the easiest way to tell the difference between a black bear and a griz is if once you have gotten your rear up in the tree, if the bear climbs the tree after you its a black bear.....if the bear pushes the tree over and picks yah up off the ground its a griz......


in all seriousness the response depends on the bear.....pepper spray works, most the time.....a gun works if you hit them right, if you hit them wrong you just torque them off.....basically you just need to be vigilant, bears have good ears and nose but pretty poor eyes, making sure the bear knows your there well ahead of time is good, if you see it first and your to close, back away quietly cause startling the dang thing at close range aint the best plan.....NEVER, EVER get between a sow and her cubs.....

the play dead thing is if your attacked by a black bear cause black bear are rarely interested in eating a person and as soon as they think you are no longer a threat they tend to back off....if your attacked by a griz, your odds are slightly better fighting back, try and gouge the eyes and the like, odds arent alot better but a griz has no problem chewing on yah for a snack so you might aswell fight before the blood loss hits yah......
 
  • #20
@ IronTom - It would be sufficiently difficult and cold. :D I most likely wont go to that place again, at least not through that route, it was pretty brutally in even the nicest weather. I could get some winter shots though, not much to look at.

@ dashman - On this island there are only Black bear, so it's not really that dangerous. Like I mentioned, I carry with me a large metal bolt that's about sixteen inches long and has two loose half inch thick metal washers that swing along its shaft, the whole thing probably weighs 7-9 lbs. By swing it about at random times, it makes a very loud metal clanging noise which is unmistakably human. Also I would whack a tree to make my presence known to any wildlife. There were a few times during the hike that I heard some bushes near by moving about, but I think all in all the metal device works pretty good at scaring bears or deer away. I feel safe carrying just that, as it is quite loud, and if worst came to worst, it would make a potentially deadly club.

I'm more worried about hunters shooting you though, it's happened before! All the more reason to make a lot of noise.
 
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