Welcome to the Woods!

Greetings, Readers!

This is Abner writing to you from deep in the Cascade Mountains. I have recently accepted a position here assisting with research, and I hope that as well as paying my bills, it will provide inspiration and insight into this small, yet vast, facet of the incredible ecosystem that we call Earth.



The Cascade Mountains reach from southern Canada to Northern California. As part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which here consists of the Juan de Fuca plate subducting underneath the North American Plate, the range includes such notables as Lassen, Mt. Rainer, the Three Sisters, and Mt. Saint Helens, which last erupted (albeit, in a minor way) in 2006. My work, however, is not in these high eastern mountains, which are well-known for their dramatic size and incredible views. Instead, I am on the western slope of the Cascades, surrounded by a different sort of size scale that defies attempts to see much further than even 50 yards away. Here, watered by coastal rainstorms and fed by an intensely interconnected flow of nutrients, 500-year old forests boast 300-foot tall trees living intimately with an amazing diversity of life. Yet while it is the hemlock, Douglas fir, and redcedar that dominate the initial perspective and limit the view to what is immediately reachable, all it takes is a second glance to guess at the discoveries that might await an astute observer. And that often involves an even closer view - from, for example, 5 inches away.

Trientalis latifolia

At this scale, we may begin to understand what it is that has kept researchers from all the natural sciences studying this particular watershed for over 60 years. In seeking to understand the whole ecosystem, they must understand each part of it - and there are very many parts. If "the devil is in the details", then what a delightful devil must animate these deep, dark woods! Here there are over 500 species of vascular plants, matched by 500 species of non-vascular plants (mosses, lichens, and algaes), 180 different species of birds, 50 mammal species, 20 amphibians and reptiles, and over 3,200 invertebrates - a grand total of over 4,450 details! And yet, identifying them is only one step; understanding their ecology, their interactions, and the changes associated therewith, is another.

Leucanthemum vulgare with bee pollinator

Not only do we seek to know the interactions among living organisms. It is the non-biotic factors that make up all of life - adenine and thymine, nitrogen and carbon, water, sunlight, and oxygen. How are living creatures influenced by genes, nutrients, and climate? The work I am participating in is phenological in nature: it is concerned with the timing of changes in development and behavior. And as I write, Schmuel is booking tickets for a conference which will augment understanding of how climate drives soil arthropod communities. Neither of us can photograph primary productivity, DNA, or photons, but we recognize that each organism we observe is a product, expression, and active participant in its ecosystem. I look forward to exploring this place. Welcome to the woods! <>