Caring for the Land and Serving People: The trip home through the land of Alternative Energy

Work took me to Eastern Oregon this past week, out to visit La Grande and Starkey Experimental Forest and Range. La Grande is a pretty, wide-open, quintessential western town with wide strrets, tree-lined neighborhoods, bungalows, and a different pace of life. The Oregon Trail followed the Grande Ronde valley and European settlers started coming in numbers in the 1860s. It's currently a rail hub, ranching and farming center, and home to Eastern Oregon University. Boise is about to close the last sawmill in town, but logging and lumber used to be big.

I like the land out there. Big ponderosa pines, meadows, vistas. It's pretty rocky and sometimes building a fence takes more effort than one might be used to. Check out these fence post supports! Of course, the fence is designed to exclude cattle and elk from an experimental area at the forest and that takes some fence.




On the way home I stopped at Boardman to fuel up the car, but I passed on the Bozo Burger available at the C&D DRIVE -IN






North central Oregon and south central Washington have become a haven for wind energy farms. The winds that sweep off the high plains and up the Columbia gorge provide the sort of constant, medium velocity resource that makes wind-farming pay. We spend a bit extra each month on our electricity bill to support these developments. Supposedly that means we are using "green power" but hey, electrons are electrons and who knows where ours were generated at any given time. And "green power" more accurately describes the greenhouse gas emissions associated with generation; I haven't seen a complete analysis of how long it takes to overcome the environmental costs of manufacturing, transportation, installation, and maintenance of a far-flung dispersed generating network. This particular farm was built by Suzlon and everything except the rotor blades is manufactured in India or China and shipped to Oregon. I did see a dozen or more trucks moving pieces of towers east as I drove west. A posting in Wikipedia says the carbon payback time is a matter of months, I suppose compared to coal generation. The Wiki posting did seem pretty pro-wind.

Green is also of variable shade depending on whether you are a bat or not. Wind turbines take a toll on bats and other critters. Bat lungs may explode if they fly through the area of low pressure associated with the blade tip. Birds may also bite the dust at rates of up to 4 birds per turbine per year (again according to the wiki posting). You can get an idea of the size compared to the tractor-trailer on the highway in the picture.


From time-to-time, they take a toll on neighbors and families. The newspapers are full of stories of friends and families torn apart over disagreements stemming from obstructed views and constant noise associated with wind chargers. But, driving along, I have to admit that they seem attractive to me in a sort of 21st Century way.





They pop up on the horizon as I drive east on I-84. I suppose in a few years they will seem no more foreign than the cattle, fences, grain elevators, center-pivot irrigation rigs, hydropower dams, interstate highways, fast food joints, and hybrid poplar plantations that we've lived with for various decades.

They actually seem sort of peaceful to me, turning away out there. I grew up in Ohio in a time when coal was the major source of energy for almost everything. Mr. Boone stoked the boiler at Fairwood School with coal, the power plants burned coal, Ford and Chevy burned coal, people heated their houses with coal, and the towns smelled like coal smoke. I'd rather have these.

Not much further down the river, I passed the John Day dam. It seems a lot more violent with the water coursing through the turbines and spillways, and I'll bet it's loud down there. And those dams are pretty tough on anadramous fish trying to make it up river to spawn. And those dams are large, concentrated pieces of infrastructure. And, it would take more than 1,000 wind chargers to equal the generation capacity of the dam. But, when the wind isn't blowing, the water's still flowing...

An Afternoon at Starkey: I'm Dying Over Here

I visited the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range today to learn about the world-class wildlife research that will be coming my way before long. Starkey is known around the world for their research on elk, deer, and cattle and how they interact. While most of the research focuses on the ecology and behavior of wild elk and deer, they do have a research herd.



Near the corrals, they also had a killdeer and her nest with 4 eggs.
Killdeer build their nests on the surface of the ground, often in open rocky areas like this one. If you approach, the mother will try and lure you away from the nest by feigning a broken wing: "I'm wounded, come and eat me. Hey you, I'm dying over here, come OVER HERE and eat me." Of course, if you go over there, she flys away and leaves you, mouth watering for a delicious killdeer...











Here she is in action:

Hood River Sunrises

I spent the week in Hood River, Oregon, a beautiful spot at the confluence of th Hood, White Salmon, and the Columbia rivers.

Contrary to most of the meetings I blog about, this one was held in a meeting room that looked out over the Columbia, as did my room at the hotel. Now, I'm not saying that led to a particularly productive meeting what with the concentration factor diluted by the chance to watch river traffic of barges headed upstream for more wheat, trains on the far side of the river, a saw mill, and the bridge and its associated activities.



The first few days were beautiful fall ones, before rain started on Thursday. The sunrises were beautiful over the Columbia, looking still and serene, backed up behind the Bonneville Dam.


Kingfishers and herons kept an eye out for a little something to eat, and we could see salmon jumping in the river as they headed up stream after a couple years in the ocean, looking for where they started life to start some new ones and end their own.

Caring for the Land and Serving People IV

I'm at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest for a meeting of scientists from 3 research stations and land managers from several regions of the Forest Service. The purpose of the meeting is to put together a video short course about climate change and how it might affect forests across the western US. The HJ Andrews is a beautiful place with a great meeting facility. The meeting room has windows (!) and when breaks come around I can walk outside and be in old growth forest in a couple minutes.

It's interesting to listen to the talks given at this oasis in the woods. Lots of top notch science. Science that has been going on for a quarter-century sort of sub rosa. Sort of because the world's scientific community knew about it, but it wasn't de rigueur for the government.





Meetings have changed a lot in those 25 years. There's no sound of slides dropping into a Carousel projector. Slides now fly into the screen from the left, dissolve into checkerboards, float in spirals, and do all sorts of other weird things. Half the people today had laptops on the table (Are they really tabletops? Mine is too hot to hold on my lap), taking notes, revising talks, checking emails, surfing the web. The whole Experimental Forest compound is bathed in wireless internet, even though there is no cell phone service. The speakers are recorded with a digital camera directly to a computer. The talks recorded today will be seen around the world tomorrow.

I guess change is global and real.

Caring for the Land and Serving People III

This week found me in a windowed conference room (but not much of a view) talking about the structure of our organization and what we might do in order to deliver the goods more effectively. In slow moments of meetings, I like to set my Coolpix L3 on the table and take pictures of the meeting--the long view. Here are a couple shots of colleagues, the agenda --the colorful paper in the first picture--flip chart sheets (what's a meeting without flip charts), and my Blackberry (serving as my clock in a clock-less room).

From time to time in meetings like these I think about science versus science management. Are we helping or hindering? Should science anarchy prevail? Should it be more tightly controlled? What's the right mix? Does it make any difference?

Sure would be nice to have a view...

From Ashes, Beautiful Flowers Grow

I spent yesterday in the field--another day without glass between nature and me!

I was behind the camera so there aren't any actual pictures of me in nature. But here's one of the hillsides in the fire area.




I visited the School fire site on the Pomeroy Ranger District of the Umatilla National Forest. School started during a storm and spread on to the Umatilla, eventually burning about 35,000 acres of FS managed land and 15,000 acres of private and state land (640 acres per square mile, and 10 square chains per acre for those of you who don't think in acres). I was there to look at some experiments designed to test how best to control erosion on very steep slopes following intense wildfire. Now, controlling erosion is not always what one wants to do--the sediments that wash down hill are critical for stream habitats under many conditions. However, there are times when it's best not to let the soil, or the hillside, slide on down--like when people live down below..







One of the things I like about visiting sites after fires, or for that matter, visiting sites before fires, are the flowers that pop up this time of the year. Yesterday was particularly nice with blue and yellow lupins, gooseberries, and columbine.











After the field visit, I decided to drive on home instead of stopping for the night, in part because the Columbia Gorge is so beautiful as the sun begins to set. I suppose it's beautiful in the morning too--maybe next time I'll try that instead of driving until 10. Of course, to see the equivalent time of day, I'd have to be on the road by 5!

Farming Wheat, Farming Wind

I'm in Walla Walla, Washington tonite, on my way to Pomeroy, Washington tomorrow to have a look at a post-fire management project that's underway on the Umatilla National Forest. Going to work on Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend isn't exactly what I prefer to do, but the drive up the Columbia Gorge today and then heading east in Washington, entering the Palouse wheat growing region is a beautiful drive. Along US 730 you get a great view of the Stateline and Nine Canyon Wind Farms--electrical generating facilities that we support (Nine Canyon) with our Blue Sky surcharge to Pacific Power. Coming around the corner on US 12, just west of Walla Walla was a beautiful view of wheat almost ready to harvest on the rolling hills.

Caring for the Land and Serving People II

It's been a good 10 days with 3 different field trips. Wednesday found me at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, just east of Blue River, Oregon on the McKenzie-Blue River Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest. The Andrews is a flagship forest of the Experimental Forest and Range System and I'm lucky enough to administer it from my program at work.


The other day was the annual open house--this year about 140 people showed up for a day of field tours and talks about the research and land management that goes on in and around the Andrews. Still lots of people talking at people, but in a spectacular old-growth setting.











I've experimented a lot with photos of hardhats in focus and out. Lots of people don't like them, but I think they are colorful and fun and they are a part of our safety program--PPE we call them. Can't do without acronyms or abbreviations, this time Personal Protective Equipment...

Caring for the Land and Serving People...

...the motto of the Forest Service. I spent two days outside this week instead of Caring for the Land and Serving People from Windowless Conference Rooms.





Wednesday was a field trip about Wild and Scenic rivers. We spent some time looking at the Outstanding Remarkable Values (ORV, that's what makes a Wild and Scenic River protected by law) of the White Salmon and Klickitat rivers. Condit dam, not one of the ORVs, is slated for removal next year. An osprey circled overhead at the reservoir behind the dam.











Then a day on the Wallowa Whitman National Forest, north of Enterprise, Oregon. The ponderosa pine stands make a great foreground for the Eagle Cap Wilderness and Wallowa Mountains in the distance. The wildflowers were out in all their glory.

Looking Up Trees

Not on Google, but actually looking up the boles can lead to some pretty neat images I think. First I had to get used to not looking through the viewfinder. Just put the camera on the trunk and fire away.




Focus does cool things too, like catching lichens on the trunk and making the tops look like they have ornaments hanging in them.

A Day in the Woods

The best thing about my job is that I get to work with terrific people. The second best part of my job is spending time in the woods. Today started with a lift at the Canopy Crane--up above the tops of 200 foot, 500 year old Douglas-fir trees. Cones are at the top and in the Crane gondola, you can see them up close. Then a hike through the forest to a beautiful stream. And all this is the second best thing about my job.

Alaska from Above

Here a a few views of Alaska from a different perspective. On a recent trip I had a chance to look at the forest around Juneau from a helicopter. I'm not fond of them--a pilot once told me "There are only two kinds of helicopters: those that have crashed and those that are going to." Ours didn't or, should I say, hasn't yet. We flew over an area under consideration for a new experimental forest. It's quite beautiful and spans glacier to sea in a very short distance. I have to say, it's a great way to see Southeast. The last shot is Juneau set up against the mountains.