Well, I left the Coast and headed inland over the Cascades. In doing so I left the rain shadow of the Olympics to live in the rainshadow of the Cascades. While the Olympic rain shadow receives about 50 inches of precipitation annually-enough for it to be a lush dense forest with trees tops plastered in lichens peaking out above the fog, the land in the shadow of the Cascades receives only about 10 inches annually- enough to support low growing xeric shrubs, forbs, and grasses, while the ravines and canyons might have ponderosa pine, and some common Pacific Northwest shrubs (Physocarpus capitatus, Amerlanchier alnifolia). The change in vegetation has been astonishing, and very exciting.
I started working on April 20th, which this year was about 3 weeks behind the typical phenology. Because of this I’ve had to play a bit of catch up learning the Sagesteppe plants. Keying species of Eriogonum, Lomatium, and Erigeron, has become my main after work activity-although I’m starting to get a decent grasp of these taxa. Currently I’ve just been scouting the steppe looking for populations large enough for to support collections. With this comes a lot of anaylsis of species distribution due to slope, aspect, soil type, and a variety of other factors. Two particularly fun experiences so far have been: monitoring Astragalus sinuatis, (well, actually bitter sweet emotionally), and checking out sand dune plants!
Anyways, I must confess I’m terrified of talking (or typing to people!) so this is about all I can bear to share. In my spare time (well that time which isn’t eaten by Lomatiums!) I have been hiking the Wenatchee Mountains- and reflecting upon how geology drives speciation. My stimulus for this has been been reading Art Kruckebergs “Geology and Plant life”-and yes, I’ve already seen the infamous endemic Lewisiopsis tweedyi (amongst a few others!). Another project I’ve been having fun doing is qualitatively making notes on the differences in species composition along different troughs in hills (mountains?) along a canyon leading out from the Wenatchee Mountains into the sagesteppe.
