No trees were deliberately harmed by humans in order to produce this holiday wreath.
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Follow me below the tangle of downed wood for one seasonal role for the wind.
Just after Thanksgiving, I started to think about making my holiday wreath to decorate our front porch. I usually rely on Douglas fir branches that come down during windstorms in late fall to provide the raw materials. So, I walked the trails on our property, but I was disappointed that I didn't find very much fresh greenery.
And then the winds came last Thursday night (Dec 11)! And, boy, did they come!
Douglas fir branches brought down by the windstorm
The wind was literally roaring. The gusts were amazing. The maximum wind speed recorded at the county court house in town that night was 46 mph. The power went out all over the NE corner of the Olympic Peninsula, closing schools the following morning. We lost power at our house for several hours. The power company pulled crews off the job of restoring power for their safety as the wind continued to gust and trees continued to fall across wires.
We heard a crack and then branches coming down, hitting other branches as they fell. It was an unhealthy, old willow that fell. We knew that was going to happen eventually. On the way down, it peeled branches off of adjacent trees.
Douglas firs seem particularly prone to shedding branches in even moderate windstorms. I have always depended on this "feature" for providing my wreath material and it has been pretty reliable that I can pick up enough in early December to make a wreath without cutting anything off of a living tree. This year? The storm arrived a little later than usual, but it was more intense. I could be making wreaths for the rest of the winter with all the fir branches available.
Now there's a new and unique phenology metric: the date on which I have sufficient downed greenery for making my annual holiday wreath.
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