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We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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Let me take you on my little trip in my backyard. On Monday I took a 41 mile drive to hangout in a hammock some place cool.
Here in Central Arizona, elevation rules all. It dictates temperature, moisture and vegetation. I live in a town that sits at the bottom of a valley at 3400 feet above sea level. On Monday our high was 106 degrees. That’s our average high of the year I’d say. The vegetation around here when not next to the river is native grass, invasive mesquite, varieties of Ephedra, Creosote, and Juniper. It’s in the Biome called Desert grassland, plant zone 8b. There’s not many chances to hang up a hammock in that.
So, off I went with my cousin to hit the high country. Driving across the valley to the east edge is a small roller coaster. The highest point is only 3700 feet and there’s not much difference in the vegetation. But that’s when things change. The best way to get to where I like to go on these quick trips is to jump on the freeway and tackle the 6% uphill grade. It’s always interesting with cars wanting to go the speed limit of 75 and the semi trailers can only do 40 MPH at best. Two exits up the hill and the elevation is 5400 feet. The temperature is 10 degrees cooler than when we got on the freeway, thirteen miles and 12 minutes away.
Here the Biome here is a mixture of Interior Chaparral and Juniper/Pinion Woodlands. From the above photo, you can tell that going for a hike resembles more of a spastic dance than a leisurely stroll. Manzanita and scrub oak choke out all but Juniper trees.
8.7 miles of frost heaved pavement later we come to arguably Arizona’s only natural lake, Stoneman.
There’s a good deal of disagreement whether Stoneman is the only natural lake or not; whether it sits in a volcanic crater or sinkhole; or if it’s a lake or not.
Being very shallow, the lake comes and goes. With the years of dry weather, it’s mostly gone.
But we are on the edge of another biome and plant zone. It’s even cooler here, around 80 degrees. Gambel Oaks are now trees, One Seed and Alligator Junipers abound.
Hoping back in the truck, we head up hill and notice the changes. First, I’m seeing flowers blooming that normally require the monsoon rains to really put on a show. This tells me that there has been sufficient soil moisture left over from our late winter. Hooray!
The first bunch of flowers I see, I pull over. The forest has changed just in the last mile. Pondersosa Pines now dominate. This is the largest Ponderosa forest in the world. For the sake of simplicity, imagine an unending forest stretching from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to almost the Rio Grande River in New Mexico. That’s over 450 miles!
Notice the density of the trees in the above picture. Most are small and growing close together. When the Southwest Lumber Company logged the state until the 80’s, they changed the forest from mid density stands of pines with lots of grass to dense thickets where the trees compete against each other for food and sun. Thicket blankets of fuel cover the ground, discouraging most ground plants from growing. Add in the fact that the Forest Service put out any and all fires for the last hundred years, and the effects can be devastating. Of course, now we have the Camp Fire to compare everything against. So ours are just big, not too deadly. But don’t forget the 19 hot shots that died a couple years ago. But that was not in the forest and the result of different factors. Our largest fire was the Wallow Fire that consumed 538,049 acres of some of my favorite places in eastern Arizona. I will be an old man before those areas have recovered.
The above photo shows one of my favorite things about living in this state. Forget hugging a tree. Try doing what dogs do and walk right up to one and stick your nose in its crack. Some people think butterscotch, but it totally smells like vanilla extract to me. And when the rains come, and the lightning created Ozone starts mixing with the vanilla, well that’s what heaven better smell like or I’m gonna be pissed.
Thanks to Obama, The Healthy Forest Initiative died the much needed toilet flush it deserved. Here in Arizona even elephants hated the idea of turning over our biggest and best treasure into a logging free for all. During the Obama years, the focus turned to thinning and spacing trees so our natural wildfires would do their thing and no one would suffer. They took the White Mountain Apaches methods and used them to great success. Every year, more and more of our high country looks like the above photo. Now that’s hammock territory.
At 7400 feet, the temperature was a lovely 75 in the sun. The gusts of wind through the trees sound like a waterfalls ebbing and flowing. With no summer rains yet, there’s no mosquitoes. Just a few horse flies. This is the Petran Montane Conifer Forest Biome, plant zone 6a. That means this area has a shorter growing season than Minnesota. It averages 106 days for the growing season. So I make it up here as often as I can in the summer. Like this weekend, the Scottish Highland Games are in Flagstaff. Hanging out in the pines, rocking my kilt? There’s no other place on earth that I’d rather be.
I hope you enjoyed this little trip.
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