(Scott Murphy) wrote in message . com...
(Daniel B. Wheeler) wrote in message . com...
(Scott Murphy) wrote in message . com...
Good point! I like "outside the box" forestry, especially when you
start to see it become "inside the box". Refresh my memory, because
its been awhile since my fungi and disease course,

I think that one statement says it all Scott. Dr. James Trappe calls
mycorrhizal fungi essential to healthy trees. He says it is easy to
find a tree in the Pacific Northwest without mycorrhizal fungi: "Look
for trees with no green." And yet even today in England, mycorrhizal
fungi inoculation of trees is considered an "infection."

I thought the same thing as I typed out the course name. Before they
separated entomology and fire into distinct courses, it was simply
called "Pests and Fire". While fungi and disease were taught in the
same course (1/2 semester dedicated to each), it was never implied
that fungi were disease, although I'm sure that was the implication in
the early days of forestry. Attitudes can be hard things to change.


I think you have a good founding in mycorrhizal fungi, Scott. What I'm
not sure you realize is that the field is changing so dramatically
rapidly that what you (and I) learned 10 years ago as Cantharellus
cibarius is now C. formosus; and Boletus chrysenteron is now Xercomus
chrysenteron. DNA analysis of fungi is dramatically affecting both the
variety and the systematics of the fungal world, and few people can
guess what new associations of fungi will turn up in the near future.

As you imply, the foundation is the easy part, continuing education is
a big responsibility that I believe many foresters overlook. Our
professional associations have many ideas on how to keep us learning,
but the responsibility ultimately lies with the individual.


I'm just a simple tree grower who hopes to leave a few live trees
after I'm gone for a future generation to enjoy. When I was young,
trees 6 feet in diameter were commonplace in much of Oregon. Now they
are nearly extinct.

And beautiful trees they are! I was on a fire crew that was exported
from Alberta to the Biscuit Fire this summer. We spent 17 days
wandering through some pretty nice forest along the Chetco River.
Brookings and Gold Beach were home, sweet, home How far down the
road are you from there?

About 300 miles nne as the tundra swan flies, in Portland. Gold Beach
used to have some nice remnant redwood stumps near the coast: most of
them blackened towers overlooking a pitiful forest the last time I saw
them.

I love going to the Cape Lookout area of Tillamook County. Some
beautiful old-growth Sitka spruce there, with the first massive limbs
60-80 feet overhead and supporting huge clumps of Leathery Polypody, a
kind of overgrown Licorice fern. Marbled Murellets love that area to
nest in, mainly because the nearest predators are martins and
tall-tree climbing predators: not too many left in that area any more.
And the constant parade of humans on the steep trail leading out the
peninsula (about 1,000 feet, nearly straight down!) keeps the birds
mostly away from people. Lots of other seabirds on the outer rocks
there and near Cape Meares, just north of Cape Lookout: sometimes
eagles, sometimes pelicans, auks, cormorants, etc. If the day is clear
it's fun to count whales off-shore (but staying away from those
God-awful edges).

Further north is the world's tallest Sitka spruce near Seaside. I
haven't been in to see it yet, but I loved to listen to a barber from
Salem talk about finding big trees in Oregon and Washington: he's
found about 30 world records so far.

Daniel B. Wheeler
www.oregonwhitetruffles.com

snip


Further north is the world's tallest Sitka spruce near Seaside. I
haven't been in to see it yet, but I loved to listen to a barber from
Salem talk about finding big trees in Oregon and Washington: he's
found about 30 world records so far.


Dan,
Do you mean the Rector Ridge Spruce or the Cape Meares Giant? Oregon's
two world class (so far) spruce are respectively, 5th and 10th on the
big tree list [ Bob van Pelt's Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast].

His book is the current bible for big tree hunters. I may have found
another #9 this past summer on the main fork of the Hoh.