Blitz follows her nose to the prize.
Blitz took me pheasant hunting last week. I think she would drive herself if she had thumbs. Luckily, she needs a gunner tagging along. It’s my joy to watch this girl living her bliss. I captured this hunting moment in watercolor, and pen and ink.
Blitz with her bag.
A lodgepole pine reaches for the sunshine, as we all should.
This week, Forestry Friday is a forestry quiz question. The question is about tree growth. This question appeared on the California Professional Foresters Exam about thirty years ago. Any junior forester or forestry student who missed this question probably failed the test and was definitely teased for it. In California, foresters are required to pass this test in order to become a Registered Professional Forester (RPF). It is illegal to practice forestry in the State without a license. Now to test your forestry knowledge.
You nail a red tag on a Lodgepole pine tree at DBH. DBH stands for Diameter at Breast Height, which is 4 1/2 feet about the ground as measured on the high side of the base or the tree. The tree is growing in height at 2 1/2 feet per year. In 10 years how high will the tag be above the ground?
I look forward to reading your answers Junior Foresters. I will reveal the correct answer next week on the Forestry Friday post.
Blitz answers “who cares! How high to the first stick is the real question.”
Illustrating Buddy wore me out, and Buddy too.
I’m done illustrating Buddy. Now we wait for the official release. I think I’m going to take a nap too.
Mary had her hands full with bunch of happy kids. We know what makes kids happy …FIELD TRIPS!
What a great time! Awesome kids really make for a great presentation. Last week I presented to over 350 third to sixth grade students on what an Electrostatic Precipitator is and what it does. After two hours of talking to seven different groups, 15 minutes at a time, my voice was shot but my spirits high. This year’s students really engaged and participated making it memorable for all. Photos courtesy of Tim Livingston, The Forester Artist. Thank you!
Many brave girls stepped up to assist collecting a static charge.
Student volunteers help demonstrate static electricity.
Dark balloons show the dust best.
Students are surprised by the attractive properties of static electricity.
It’s time, once again for the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference here in Anderson, California. It is an opportunity loggers, foresters, equipment sales folks, school kids, teachers and the public to all come together. It’s like going to the county fair where you can bump into friends that you haven’t seen since last year.
Mary, of Sneaking Bliss, teacher the kids how an electrostatic precipitator cleans the smoke from a wood fired co-generation plant.
Today was the first day of the conference and also Education Day. Over 700 4th and 5th graders tour the exhibits and learn about forestry and the timber industry. Each year Mary teaches a science lesson related to one of our picture books and the kids love it.
There is a lot of big equipment like this feller buncher.
Plenty of little equipment too.
There was even quite a bit of old equipment all shined up.
Who doesn’t love a chainsaw carved bear?
Not to mention funnel cakes!
Mary visits with customers at the Red Tail Publishing booth.
This morning’s sunrise over the otter pond at the sawmill.
This morning, sunrise was quite a treat for the eyes. Even in the middle of a large industrial site you can find a moment to enjoy nature.
Looking east over the mill site toward Lassen Peak.
A red tail hawk perches on a log deck while on a morning hunt.
The big log deck forms a wall of wood.
A great blue heron gets in a bit of morning fishing.
I took this picture of Lassen Peak on January 8th, 2013.
In California we’re in another severe drought. I took these two pictures of Lassen Peak in January, one this year and the other last year. You can see the stark difference. Lassen Peak is the southerly most of the major cascade volcanoes and is 10,463 feet (3,189 M) tall. Last year we had over 20 inches of rain at this time, and this year we have less than 4 inches. The snow pack is almost nonexistent. Cattle ranchers are having a hard time. There’s no new grass and the foothills are as brown as July. The price of hay is going to go through the roof forcing many of the ranchers to sell off their cattle. Our ski resorts are having a terrible winter due to the lack of snow. It’ll be a tough year for these folks and the long term forecast is grim. Expect the California water war to once again rear it’s ugly head.
Lassen Peak taken on January 22nd, 2014.
This summer we are expecting our share of challenges in the woods. Drought stress will cause tree die off. This will create prime conditions for bark beetle infestation as the trees become more and more stressed. Worst of all will be the fire danger. I think red flag fire warnings will be the theme of the this summer.
Blitz rolls in the snow while she still can.
Do you have a favorite spot in the woods that you like to get away to and reconnect with nature? Somewhere that you’ve camped with your family or just a quiet place to escape the everyday bustle. The familiarity of that kind of place has a timeless quality about it. That is part of what makes it happy and comforting. We want it to always be there and never change.
This is where we escape. Blitz gives Mary a snuggle.
As a forester, I work with a changing forest every day. Some changes come quickly like a timber harvest. Some come violently as with a wildfire. Mostly, change comes slowly. The different seasons transform the forest each year. This brings about my favorite yearly change, the Spring burst of growth. The fruits of my labor are on full display, as tree buds elongate and spring forth new needles. Each year the trees that we planted are a little bigger than before.
Hunter in 2002.
This photo was taken of my old buddy, Hunter, in 2002. In the background was a newly planted forest. The trees were harvested from the area directly behind him in 2000 and the seedlings were planted in 2001. If you look closely, you can see the small pine trees growing. Lassen Peak is just visible on the horizon in front of Hunter.
Blitz, Hunter’s daughter, sits on the same stump in 2014.
Jump ahead to 2014 and Blitz sits on the same stump. The trees we planted have now grown for twelve seasons. Many of them are over twenty feet tall. The view of Lassen Peak is gone. Blitz was barely able to sit on Hunter’s stump because decay caused it to crumble under her. The yearly change may seem small, but when viewed over a decade, it’s dramatic. Expecting the forest not to change is like expecting your child not to grow up. Forests are dynamic and never static. Our memories and old photographs may not change, but our forests always will.
What can we say about this?
What a funny sight in the middle of the woods, but I couldn’t come up with a good caption. I need your help people. Throw some clever captions my way and we will see which one sticks.
This is a Ponderosa pine with a tire about eighteen feet up. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t throw it up that high. I don’t know how it got there. However, I have my suspicions. If I were a betting man, I would say it involved a mischievous logger, with too much time on his hands, and a loader. If it wasn’t that, then there must be an airplane flying around with missing landing gear.
Buddy and the Magic Chicken Tree is the second installment about Buddy the wolverine. Here is a sample from the upcoming story. It is written by author illustrator MaryA Livingston and wildlife biologist Amanda Shufelberger. It is illustrated by me, Tim Livingston.
Buddy loves his chicken! Image courtesy of Red Tail Publishing.
Buddy, the Wayward Wolverine, published by Red Tail Publishing in 2013, is a fantastical story of a real wolverine.
Buddy is the subject of Forestry Friday, because he was original discovered during forestry research projects. One carnivore study run by wildlife biologist Amanda Shufelberger inventories carnivores on private forestland. The data is used to ensure that proper forest management techniques are implemented to protect and enhance carnivore habitat.
Buddy presence was first discovered in 2008. His DNA places his roots in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. We can only imagine how Buddy got to California – Buddy, the Wayward Wolverine. These are some of the videos from the wildlife camera taken as part of the carnivore study.
THE FORESTER ARTIST 