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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Youngest has been doing animal husbandry for science this year and it has
become one of those follow that thread kinda thing which has resulted in us
exploring the different types of habitats for native critters in California.

Along with all the other types of areas, we've learned about some that we
didn't realise we had.  Some of which are Alpine fell-fields and Sub-alpine
forests.  She also did some studies on the Joshua trees and Bristle-cone
pines.

And it is interesting how the definitions differ from coast to coast.  Out 
here riparian forests are frequently huge tracks of land numbering in the 
thousands of acres.  Here's a picture of Putah Creek :
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_landscape_index&enlarge=6121+1611+1703+0023

Here's the Arcata Marsh which is being restored and used for water 
treatment. 
http://www.cityofarcata.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=177&g2_itemId=182

And then there are "woods" and there are "woods" <g>  I live in the woods, 
although some folks might say I live in a forest.  However, having spent a 
good portion of my life in redwood forests, where I live now doesn't really 
a forest make.  Here's a link to an ariel of Humboldt County and, as you can 
see from the photo, the forests are so thick it looks like a green carpet. 
http://www.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=CAHUMBANR&CU_ID=1  If you 
stand in one of the forests, you can't see anything but trees and to see the 
sky you have to bend over backwards and look up. 
http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.redw10163.html 
http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.redw10164.html There is an 
actual canopy formed by the trees.  Up here, we have those spindly Ponderosa 
pines, Gray pine, white pine, cedar, Doug Fir and oaks.  Lots of sky. <g>

BTW, there are old growth forests all the way to Southern California and 
there aren't many left in Oregon.  A few stands are left in Washington, 
particularly up by the Canadian border.

Speaking of volcanos, here's a pictures from the high desert up at Lassen 
http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.lavo1496.html  and one that 
shows the desert, the alpine forest and Lassen in the background 
http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np-image.lavo1497.html

Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
> (I love this thread!)
> Yeah, okay, you win on the ice caves...and you've got active volcanoes
> as your ace in the hole..
> We've got plenty of caves, but no ice caves that I am aware of..
> And you may have "real" trees, but we have a fair amount of smaller
> trees.  Remember, it ain't Georgia-Pacific for nothing. :)
> As for the volcanoes, well, California is geologically young, and
> Georgia is geologically old.  The only thing left of our volcanoes are
> the granite plutons like Stone Mountain.  You have the Half-Dome at
> Yosemite formed from a similar process.  If you are interested, you can
> see a picture of them side by side on this page:
> http://www.earthscienceworld.org/images/search/results.html?Keyword=Magma
>
> The word forest has always amazed me...it means different things to
> different people.  I recall traveling north of Phoenix and seeing a sign
> touting Prescott National Forest..I look around and start laughing
> because all I see are saguaros and chaparral with a few pinons or what I
> call baby pines..  In the mind of a Georgian, if there's sand and cacti,
> it's not a forest.  I have spent my life thinking of Appalachian forests
> as forests..lots of deciduous hardwoods mixed with pines, cedars, and
> hemlocks for the evergreen nature.  On my trip out west, in Kansas, you
> drive across the plains and suddenly there is a small gorge/gully with a
> stream and a riparian "forest" below the mean surface of the surrounding
> land.  That's like a trapped, isolated forest..lol...And then all that
> is totally different from the forests of Washington state and Oregon,
> where you have true rainforests on Mt. Olympus, and old growth forests
> that extend down into California in places.  Sure there are some old
> growth stands of trees in the Appalachian chain, but those out west
> wouldn't call our forests true forests either.  It's all relative.  I
> went to one of my coworkers homes south of Atlanta.  He had said that he
> had one acre that backs ups to the woods. (BTW, in the south, woods
> means a stand of trees not large even to technically be a forest, but
> you can fantasize about forests if you are in the woods.  When you
> actually live in a forested area, people still say "in the woods" even
> if the woods really are forests.  In my mind, riparian forests are more
> akin to woods than forests).  Anyway, when I got to his house, his
> 'woods' amounted to about 100 trees that was nothing more than a
> greenbuffer for an adjacent part of his subdivision....lol..it's all
> relative.
>
> Oh, and by the way...I was watching a rerun of 'Millionaire' last night
> and got a question right.  The question was something like this..
> Which state allegedly got its name from a mythical paradise in a 1590's
> novel?  The answer, of course, was California. (The wrong answers were
> Arizona, Florida, and Texas)
>
> Bev
>
> --
> Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the
> ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.
>
>
>
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