Trees

Why trees matter from the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/opinion/why-trees-matter.html

First Day of Spring

I thought I might do a photo journal of spring on my morning walk. Here's what it looked like on March 19th.
 

A walk in the woods on Chuckanut

Nick and I took a hike last Friday afternoon which raised some of my favorite questions:
Are these alders or maples? (See previous post on Vine Maples.) Now I'm leaning again to maples but does that mean vine maples?
The leaf picture, I'm almost sure, is a very young big leaf maple; isn't it? and while I am SURE that the tree in the foreground of the creek is indeed an alder: what kind is it? red or white? This is the Hemlock Trail, btw, or at least the lead-up to it. We started at the northernmost trail head on Chuckanut Drive.

Big Leaf Maple

Stop by the Ranger Station on the way up to Mt. Baker and they have some large and lovely trees, including this Big Leap Maple. I marvel at how these maples make their way among the evergreens. You can pick them out on a hillside, especially in the spring or the fall, with their color change. It was the very first tree I identified here in Washington State, while camping at Silver Lake, not far from here. All of the trees seemed so much alike, so I was looking for something distinctive - and these Big Leaf Maples, with their huge, pancake-size leaves, are certainly that!

Alders or Vines Maples or ? by the Nooksack

We took a hike along the Nooksack last Saturday, along the trail which is just opposite the Douglas Fir camp ground on the left hand side of Mt.Baker highway.  We parked to the right, just after the bridge and walked along a lovely snowy path right next to the Nooksack river, where the blue water came over the rocks and left a sheet of ice like a lace curtain. A little further up the slope are these vine maples. Am I right? Are they vine maples?  (May 7, 2005) I now think , as I observe trees in the  Spring, that they are not , but rather alders, but this will wait until I trek back there sometime this year.

Red Cedar on Mt.Baker

This tree is off the Mt. Baker Highway, around mile 42, I think,  in the Snoqualmie National Forest. I didn't note the location when I took the photo. There is a little pull out with a path wending off it, and we sometimes stop and walk in to see the old growth trees there. This is one.