Before 1850, our shrub-steppe plant communities were adapted to frequent disturbance, such as wildfire. The resilient native long-lived shrubs, bunchgrasses, and wildflowers were adapted to either re-sprouting or re-growing from seed, in a decades-long predictable pattern of succession. However, with the introduction of non-native annual grasses, primarily cheatgrass, this pattern was dramatically disrupted. Continue Reading →
Plants are closely attuned to the places they live, their habitat. Plant species differ in their ecological amplitude to respond to changes to their habitat. They grow successfully in places within their tolerance levels for environmental factors such as cold, shade, or drought combined with abiotic factors such as soil type and geographic locale. In addition to usual fluctuations in the growing conditions habitat can be altered, at times dramatically, by disturbances such as fire or flood. Continue Reading →
Next week, plan to attend two dynamic workshops about weeds we want to stop in their tracks before they invade the Wenatchee Foothills. Chelan-Douglas Land Trust (CDLT), Chelan County Weed Continue Reading →
Wildfire ecology of Washington’s east-side Cascade Mountain low-elevation forests Source: The Wildfire Box curriculum created by Susan Ballinger and funded by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Okanogan & Wenatchee National Forests Continue Reading →
Last summer on July 7, 2014, my husband and I landed in Fairbanks, Alaska after a 10-day wilderness river trip. We turned on our cell phones and found text messages Continue Reading →