The ability of redwoods to heal themselves is almost as remarkable as how incredibly tall they grow. Amazingly, coast redwoods can heal over a wound when they are injured from fire, are damaged by the wind, or even are cut down by the ax. A living tissue layer underneath the bark is responsibly for growing … Continue reading
Not many people know this, but I can trace my career as a redwood conservation scientist back to Strybing Botanical Garden in San Francisco. It was during a field trip to Strybing in 1998 that I sat and sketched plants for hours with my fellow introductory biology students and decided I wanted to study plants … Continue reading
It’s really been the best of times and the worst of times…. I’ve spent the last few days visiting my Fern Watch weather stations that are collecting temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and leaf wetness data in 10 forests in Northern California. On the “worst of times” side of things, half of the weather stations had … Continue reading
We often think of roads being a barrier to walking wildlife because animals can get run over, but new research shows that even the sounds of traffic is bad. Near the Idaho Bird Observatory, scientists put in a “phantom road” and played traffic sounds over speakers along a stretch of habitat that was otherwise undisturbed. … Continue reading
During my graduate school years, this news clipping was proudly pasted to the wall in the laboratory where I worked. The thin newsprint was yellowed, curling, and hastily cut out, but that didn’t deter from the message: SCIENCE IS HARD. Sometimes, when I am mired in the complexity of the work I do, it feels … Continue reading
You may be interested to know that our Nation’s Capitol goes through an extensive process to select the National Christmas tree and this year’s has already been selected. This year, an 88-foot Englemann spruce was selected out of a panel of 40 candidate trees from Collville National Forest in Washington state. The selection process included … Continue reading
