Coming to the High Cascades- Golden Week! And 250-year old Ponderosa Pines
I have always loved Ponderosa Pines because the bark looks like puzzle pieces. Love the golden bark color and granduer of Ponderosa Pine trees.
This morning, Karen, Mall and I walked 3.5 miles on mountain bike trails in Squilchuck State Park, Wenatchee. We ran into a park employee who was banding trees with blue plastic tape.
"Are the trees with blue tape going to be logged?" I asked.
"No," he replied. "To prevent tree crown fires, we are removing small trees. I am banding large Ponderosa Pines and Northern Larch trees to be saved. For fire protection, we want the trees to be 40-50 feet apart."
"These large pieces of bark on Ponderosa Pines are called 'plates'", he explained. "When the plates are six inches wide like this (1st photo), the tree is 250 years old."
This amazed me, because the 250 year-old Ponderosa Pine trunk was not very wide, unlike most old growth trees.
Golden Week for Northern Larch is in two weeks in the high eastern Cascade Mountains.
Northern Larch are one of only two conifers in North America that lose their needles each fall. Northern Larch needles turn bright gold before falling.
"The Science of Larches- Washington Trails Association"
9
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6 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.That is a big problem here. Most of the growth is second and third growth. Early pictures of the islands show mostly a barren place. The new growth is very dense as the trees compete for space. This increases the risk of fire. Remember, fire is natures way of thinning the forests.
JackPedigo
Level 9
Oct 4, 2018
1
Very cool and informative.
Thought you were supposed to be resting?
KKGator
Level 9
Oct 3, 2018
1
Oopsie! You're right.
I will see my doctor tomorrow at 8 a.m. He wants to check me for pneumonia again.
I'll find out if I've been pushing myself too much. Probably have been.
@LiterateHiker I hope you get a clean bill of health. If you don't, for fuck's sakes, DO what the doctor tells you to do!!!!!!
You're not going to get all the way better if you don't let your body heal.
Okay, lecture over
Love you, KK! Thanks, Mom.
Love the Ponderosa pine. Folks have a 50 year old in their front yard. Not very large (about 50 feet). I have a similar larger 55 year old pine with the paper bark (your second image) but it is not a Ponderosa as the needles are about 1/2 as long and the cones are only an inch and a half long. It looses about a third of it's needles every fall and every couple of years goes crazy and drops thousands of tiny pine cones. On a bad (good) year I'll fill roughly the area of half a panel van full of pine cones. Usually just a few hundred gallons of pine-cones. When the tree releases it's pollen, wow, the pleasant smelling clouds of yellow that have to be swept from the sidewalk are impressive.
NoMagicCookie
Level 8
Oct 3, 2018
2
I was at a wedding in the mountains west of Reno. The discussion was Jeffrey Pine or Ponderosa Pine.
@ADKSparky My tree has he same bark as the second photo.
@NoMagicCookie Kate used to work for tthe Forest Service and said the way to tell these apart is the one can play with Jeff, the pointy parts are not sticking out like on the Ponderosa.
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