Alligator Juniper (Juniperus deppeana) @ Ramsey Canyon Arizona

Photo: Mine

On some previous trips to Arizona I always seemed to find something I wanted to take back as a specimen souvenir. Just to see  how it would fare in an Anza high Mountain ecosystem. Many similar climates around Arizona when comparing Anza Valley. This particular trip where the plant was collected was up above Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains above Sierra Vista Arizona. The large tree specimens and signage above were down in the Canyon walk itself. The little tree I found was from driving up Carr Canyon Road just south of Ramsey Canyon Rd which takes you up to higher elevations. As I revisited Anza this year I could see that people are still making the same old blunders purchasing plants from conventional Retail Plant Nurseries only to see their landscape choices fail. But I brought back a tiny 5 or 6 inch high Alligator Juniper seedling from that trip. The time was summer in August. I know, odd time for taking a specimen where most would have collected it in winter or early Spring. But it is possible to collect and transplant if you know what to do and do it quickly. I've done Sycamores and Big Leaf Maples this time of year and with great success as well. 

Credit: Forestryimages.org

Thumb sized PT Mycorhizae Truffle associated with
young Slash Pines

Back in the 1990s, I was still using Plant Health Care Inc's (PHC) mycorrhizal inoculation mixes. This particular mix I used was called Tree Saver Injectable. I never used a high pressure injection system, I simply used to apply the powder which contained natural humic acids for triggering root growth and most importantly Pisolithus tinctorius spores. I also added some wild collected spores from truffles collected off the Dunn Ranch just north of Hamilton Creek Canyon in eastern Anza. The initial response after a month of transplanting the 6 inch high Alligator Juniper was that a thumb sized Truffle appeared at the base of the tree. Truffles will not appear unless they are able to draw off the carbons of their host. The picture above from Forestry Images for which I am a member, is almost as exact as what I have experienced with all pine and oak transplants or new tree inoculation. Only after the next rainy season and Spring growth will you ever notice any improved vigorous grow in both stems and foliage. The odd thing here with the Juniper however, PT Mycorrhizae is host specific and supposedly will NOT colonize with Junipers. Surprise surprise!

Photo Mine

This little tree was planted in 1996. It never struggled, but did get nibbled on by rabbits until I put the chicken wire around it. Babied it the first your with regular weekly water and tapered off with monthly. After that first year I did nothing. As you can see, it is now about one meter high as of June 2013. Also, notice I put it smack in the middle of old growth Redshank or Ribbonwood (Adenostoma sparsifolium) Chaparral High Desert Elfin Forest. I
never do give it another thought to remove what many people usually consider evil competition. I also contacted Dr Donald Marx (PHC Chief Scientist) in Frogmore South Carolina when I discovered that the colonization actually took. He was blown away too. So was I. So I sent him some pics. It's amazing how much there is yet to be discovered, especially in such an arrogant world where the leadership believes it knows it all. Eventually when the root system reaches a maximum point of establishment and the top of the Juniper pushes through the Chaparral tree canopy, it'll really take off. In the mean time, the environmental conditions will allow very few lower tree branches and being supported in early life by the chaparral will have a nice clean trunk for which that characteristic Alligator bark will manifest itself beautifully.

Photo: Mine

Photo: Mine

With Alligator Juniper, it's that characteristic reptilian bark pattern that catches and captures your attention while out on a hike. Some giant twisting individuals look like some prehistorical beast trying to free itself from the Earth's hold on it. Arizona Highways one year had a picture of a long dead Alligator Juniper, but which it's skeletal size still provided an illustrative vision of what it must have looked like when still alive.

Photo: Mine

Some interesting fire ecology facts about Alligator Juniper. While like most other living plants this tree will burn, but it also has the amazing ability to sprout back from it's root system. It's rugged reptilian looking bark is tough enough to withstand fire and has been noted that most canopies and crowns of Alligator Juniper are untouched, although lower limbs may be scorched. The foliage example as referenced in the picture above reveals just how beautiful this tree could be for the landscape and especially in areas where there are water issues.

There were other trees and plants worthy of note in the Huachucas. Apache Pine (Pinus engelmannii) is another one of those interesting pines that doesn't fit the profile of pines in So-Cal. It has a brighter green foliage which is itself much like those long subtropical needles pines. When it is a young sapling, it is often referred to as the "Hippie Pine". I acquired one years before my Alligator Juniper find, from a Native Plant Nursery in Elgin Arizona just south of Sonoita. The Nursery was owned by James (Jim) Koweek of Elgin and he later moved his Diamond JK Nursery to Sonoita Arizona just to the north at the Junctions of Hwy 82 & Hwy 83. He has since sold it and now has a Soil Preparation Services company and website here: http://www.azreveg.com/

Photo: Mine

This particular Apache Pine was up that same Carr Canyon Rd. I planted one of these Apache Pines on my Anza property in the early 1990s. After I sold that property in 2002, in 2003 it was rented out by the new owner to a guy who was a tree trimmer. He had lots of equipment and wanted a place for parking it. Understandable since Anza is known for having plenty of citizens with sticky finger tendencies. But he leveled half a dozen fairly large pines to do this along with Chaparral and the Apache and Arizona White Pines were among these. When I visited a few years later and discovered the loss, it was similar to my shock with the Rattlesnake Mountain Torrey Pine removal. Oh well, it was no longer my place anyway. But that Apache pine was almost 10 foot tall with good branch density when I left. The foliage of course stood out with it's bright green (almost Ponderosa looking) and did also prove that such pines would do well there. For all you off the hill plant shoppers, get a clue.

Photo: Mine

Just by way of location and height reference for the former Apache Pine on my property as of 2002. This photo above is a fortunate Coulter Pine that was not touched by the tree trimmers Ax or Chainsaw. You can see the height and branch circumference here are very very healthy. The Apache Pine was on the other side of this photo angle to the north and this tree was only one and a half foot tall compared to the 10 foot tall Apache when I left. So the Apache would have been more than doubled in it's size today if still alive. Also keep in mind as far as growth and health issues go, none of these trees on my former property are watered and have even endured the low rainfall years (eleven or twelve) since 2001 until this present day. So they still haven't done too bad. Shows what a healthy mycorrhizal grid network will do for a landscape system.

And Finally - 

Photo: Mine

Photo: Mine

Photo: Mine

These last three pictures are of the meadows of grasses and flowers leaving Ramsey Canyon back toward Hwy 91 South. Keep in mind the best time of year to visit is July/August when the summer Monsoons are in full force. Sad to say, from the climate shifting News Reports I am hearing, there may be an abnormal shift from July/August to September/October. This may well screw up many things with regards several ecosystems in the southwest.

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Good Reading References:

U.S. Forest Service & Alligator Jumiper Fire Ecology

What California's San Joaquin Valley Once Was!

Yesterday I wrote about a recent scientific study which appears to have found a link between the vast agricultural infrastructure of the state's Central Valley (San Joaquin & Sacramento Valleys combined), it's voracious appetite for water which feeds the  irrigation needs of it's big business interests and what seemed to be the wonderful climate side effect of Industrial Ag's presence there. In some ways it almost seemed to celebrate and excuse any past abuses by what the land has now become. But on the other hand it also was really  pointing out the effects a source of water evaporation influencing weather hundreds of miles away. What ever the motive behind the article, it never the less was interesting from a mechanisms point of view on how the natural world works and I wrote about it  HERE

The article went on to explain it's effect of increased rainfall patterns in summertime around the Four Corners region of the southwest. In some ways this was odd because this is one of the driest regions in the west, but in other ways it reminded my of what science has revealed about it's wetter climate and vegetation history. Such regions are super-sensitive to recovery as a result of their drier climate and don't heal as quickly as other areas on Earth with abundant seasonal rainfall. Humans in their past ignorance never gave any consideration to this sensitivity and what once was, is now gone and almost impossible under the present system to ever bring it back the way it was originally. That article of course triggered thoughts I've pondered about the influence of the massive ancient Lake Cahuilla, which is now vastly reduced to a puddle called the Salton Sea when you m

Image by Ron Vanderhoff

But today, a couple of other News items triggered my thoughts about  California's Central Valley and what could be said to have been possibly an even much greater influence of weather and climate on many regions far away, than mere irrigation runoff from Farms. The California Native Plant Society of Orange County shared a link to an article from the Orange County Register which told of one last holdout of a last lone California Valley Oak (Quercus lobata) which was first discovered I believe in 1983 in Crystal Cover State Park in El Moro Canyon. This location is a coastal area of southern Orange County and it's truly a miracle that this single lone oak has survived given the human caused fires which occur with some frequency.  Here is the article link: Rediscovering a 'long lost friend' – Orange County's only valley oak  But it got me thinking about the reason it is called Valley Oak in the first place. The Central Valley was once home to thousands upon thousands of these majestic giants, of which there are now only a few remnants left from their once former glory. But again, it made me ponder about the once great bio-diverse richness of what this Valley once was. 

Photo by Phill Stoffer (USGS)

And yet another piece of News today in Yahoo which  was the topic of conversation when Chaparral Biologist Richard Halsey first drew attention to it and that was the creation of a new Pinnacles National Park. Incredibly while he was sharing this information and explaining the habitat's health being put into jeopardy by control burns, when suddenly in the discussion there were some who insisted it was necessary for Condors needing places to land which chaparral scrub didn't provide and also grassland introduction to encourage Condor food like Deer. Of course Condors don't hunt and kill so much as they scavenge already dead carcasses. The heated debate was odd because if people had actually thought about it for a moment, they would have realized that back in history, while Condors may have nested in the Pinnacles' cliffs, they would have scavenged in the Central Valley to the east. Of course things have vastly changed now, but still, just saying . . .  Anyway, without going down the controversy road again, here is the article today.  It's official: The new Pinnacles National Park is America's 59th national park . But that debate about the California Condors Kitchen facilities & their Pantry also reminded me of something else about California's Central Valley and another of the mammal holdouts who are now restricted to a consolation prize patch of land around the Buena Vista Lake area of southwestern San Joaquin Valley which no one wants to live or Farm called Yule Elk State Natural Reserve. There are actually some kool historical statistics & other important information on this animal and the range they once occupied. The Wikipedia has some good info and while Wiki is often manipulated with as far as accurate content devoid of ideology & bias quite often times when dealing with specific emotionally driven subject matter, this page on Tule Elk seems to agree with other facts written elsewhere:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_elk

"When the Europeans first arrived, an estimated 500,000 tule elk roamed these regions, but by 1870 they were thought to be extirpated. However, in 1874-1875 a single breeding pair was discovered in the tule marshes of Buena Vista Lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Conservation measures were taken to protect the species in the 1970s. Today, the wild population exceeds 4,000.

The arrival of the Spanish in the late 18th century caused the release of cattle and horses on the grasslands of the Central Valley. In the 1830s, Americans attracted by the abundance of Spanish cattle sent ships to California to land men who went ashore to kill the cattle for the hide and tallow trade. In a short time, this trade removed many of the cattle from California, so when the first emigrants arrived from the United States, they hunted the abundant elk and other species in the absence of a livestock industry. 

The gold rush of 1849 brought in musket hunters, trappers and cattle barons. Twenty-four years later, in 1873, the once great herds were reduced to a single tiny band. By the time elk hunting was banned by the State Legislature in 1873, the tule elk was believed to be extinct.

 California cattle baron Henry Miller protected tule elk after a pair were discovered on his ranch in the tule marshes near Buena Vista Lake by game warden A. C. Tibbett in 1874. Miller ordered his men to protect the elk and is credited for the survival of the species. After his death, the huge Miller-Lux ranch was subdivided and the hunting of the elk resumed. The population was reduced to 72 head. By 1895, habitat loss and poaching had reduced the elk population to only 28."

Unbelievable, an estimated 500,000 Tule Elk existing throughout a healthy pristine heavily vegetated California Central Valley prior to European arrival and decimated down to 28 individuals be 1895 and all done with weaponry which would be considered primitive by today's sophisticated technological killing standards. Of course it was during this same period that millions of Bison were butchered with the same mentality and weaponry. Never the less, it is the ecology of the native vegetation landscape throughout that Valley from south to north that interests me and the far greater amount of water which once existed throughout the valley. If you drive around today throughout the southern and west end of the valley, it is obvious that there is very little if any water available on the surface. Water there comes from Canals from the eastern part or pumped from deep commercial wells which at present are depleting what vast aquifer reserves there once were. There is simply now not enough moisture any longer falling as rain and filling up the higher elevation reservoirs. One of the keys to the valley's far greater water presence was the link to an area called Buena Vista Lake in Kern County where Bakersfield is the county seat. Here are some stats about this now dried up massive lake bed.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buena_Vista_Lake

"Buena Vista Lake, is a former fresh-water lake now a dry lake in Kern County, California in the Tulare Lake Basin in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California.

Buena Vista Lake was the second largest of several similar lakes in the Tulare Lake basin, and was fed by the waters of the Kern River. The Kern River's flow went into Buena Vista Lake southwest through the site Bakersfield via its maindistributary channels or south through the Kern River Slough distributary into Kern Lake and then into Buena Vista Lake via Connecting Slough. 

In times when Buena Vista Lake overflowed it first backed up into Kern Lake making one large lake. When this larger lake overflowed it flowed out through the Buena Vista Slough and Kern River channel northwest of Buena Vista Lake through tule marshland and Goose Lake, into Tulare Lake.

In the mid 20th century, Buena Vista Lake dried up after its tributary river waters were impounded in Isabella Dam and for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses."

I have actually been to this area. If you drive from Bakersfield along the old abandoned railroad right-of-way which ends up in the oil fields city of Taft CA, it will take you past what is now a vast dried up lake bed. The only way I can described this area to southern Californians is if you've ever seen the large flat flood plain and lake bed called "Mystic Lake". During high rainfall seasons and when the San Jacinto river floods, this lake will actually fill up again, but most often it looks like dry alkali salt flats. Now if for size comparison, Buena Vista Lake bed is as big as the entire San Jacinto/Hemet valleys and may extend a further distance towards Sun City and Moreno Valley. It's huge and as referenced in the above info, was at one time loaded with water from the Kern River. Marshlands and Tule areas extending on and off all the way down stream to the Sacramento Delta. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, there was enough water in the San Joaquin & Kern Rivers to run Steamboat ferries with freight and people at one time all the way to Bakersfield. Cottonwoods, Sycamores, Willows and more would have had extensive forests and great Valley Oak Savannas would have been on higher more elevated locations on the fringes and foothill margins surrounding the valley. Tule Elk and other animals like Pronghorn antelope would have and indeed did maintain such a healthy environment. Given what we know today about the ability of Oaks, Maples and other deciduous trees giving off massive amounts of natural aerosols or VOCs like isoprenes which help create cloud formation (even miles and miles away), we can imagine an even greater influence on all other states climates eastward. With all the vast populations of Tule Elk throughout this wild untouched valley, you can now imagine the vast regular food supply for which the California Condor's soared over from their nesting grounds in the mountains lining both sides of the valley. Sadly, I have the feeling that through the present system, Human intervention will always be needed to provide dead carcasses for these large majestic birds in out of the way isolated protected habitats. There is no real historical precedent from many of these areas that suggest they will ever be truly independent again. Too many negative human stain variables.

 Hopefully I'll be able to photograph and explain what happened to Anza Valley and Santa Rosa Mountains climate change when I get my photographs taken this spring. I wish more of the Non-Profits (eco groups involved in saving whatever around the globe) would or could focus more on natural world mechanisms and practical applications and teach others the same. Looking at nature through the lens of Biomimetics would go further than much of the present stirring up of anger. Nothing wrong with being upset at some injustice and believe me, I know the world is defined by injustice. But I recently read something by controversial author Salman Rushie and I actually saw a CNN News interview of him on Sunday where he said this and it made sense. 

"People today are encourage and have begun to identify themselves by things they hate rather than those things they love and cherish. Should such people be encouraged ? Should such generations-to-come believe that their hatred towards an entity is more important than someone else's opinion of the same ?"

It actually made perfect sense. I follow some of the environmental movements out around the globe along with countless other News Reports on various social movements and there appears no unity or agreement on anything sometimes. The hatred also takes it's toll on otherwise good people who exhaust themselves emotionally when the situation doesn't change for the better or even gets worse. Maybe a different strategy is needed. But unfortunately from my many years of observation and experience, I have seen many a leader or Guru of a group often keeping people stirred up and on edge even if and when there may even be an improvement. This is clear with many of the present social and political movements. If people actually become content and circumstances settle down, the guys like these loose power and they just seem fade away into the background. I find this with many extreme religious leaders with politicians not far behind. I imagine it could also be true of some eco-movements as well.  Anyway, for the moment, to change direction here, I found some pictures and artist's conceptions of what the Central Valley was once like. Maybe for a change, we can view some pleasant pics of Tule Elk in natural habitat followed by some artists conceptions of what wildlife and vegetated habitats may have looked like a long time ago. Look upon the paintings as a positive goal rather than focusing hatred on those responsible for the destruction of these areas.

photo by wikipedia

Tule Elk herd at Lake Pillsbury near Hull Mountain, Mendocino National Forest in Lake County, California. Living in the fringes of Foothill Pine , Oak and chaparral, no doubt for cover when not feeding on natives grasslands.

photos at  San Luis Wildlife Refuge, Los Banos CA

Notice the natural haze in the pictures ? This haze is created by isoprenes given off by trees in combination with the common temperature inversion layer of trapped cold air of winter and springtime. It can become worse when mixed with man made pollution. Ever hear of Tule Fog ? The Central Valley is notorious for it, sometimes from all the way from Bakersfield to Red Bluff. Perhaps you've read about the many car pile ups on the local roads and freeways. It was in this type of habitat that the Tule Elk love to live out their lives.

Now the artists pictures of a Valley way of life long gone.

Picture by Goldtrout

Artwork by Laura Cunninghamd 2010

This scene has both Tule Elk and Pronghorn Antelope grazing together. Pronghorn's are now extinct in most places of California, but there have been some reintroduction projects.

Wow, all of this has got me nostalgic for something else that use to ring through my memory when I use to travel the Valley. Can you guess what this is ?

You probably don't remember there was an original early version of the theme song ? 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3HcxYcbog

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Further Reading on California's Tule Elk and Pronghorn Antelope programs:

http://www.stateparks.com/tule_elk_reserve_state_park_in_california.html

http://www.a-state-of-change.com/Elk.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2010/01/california-volunteers-pitch-in-to-help-pronghorn-antelope-by-removing-fences.html

USGS: "Tracking Pronghorn Antelope in California’s Central Valley"

Further Reading on Valley Oak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_lobata

http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/public_works/ITP_protectedTree_ValleyOak.aspx

Gunnebo House (Castle) & Gardens

Image - dwedishgardens.se

This for me started out as one of those journeys where, "Oh man, not another boring trip to Göteborg and viewing the sites of some ancient historical rich European Aristocrat"  For me, once you've seen one castle you've seen them all and I don't care what country it is located. I learned this the hard way back in 1976 when a friend of mine and I came to Europe and hit almost every famous Castle Landmark to be found on a tourist map. Besides , I hate going to town (Göteborg) or any other city on the planet for that matter. So I would have prefered staying home, but the reality is I'm glad I went. Besides we were going with some good friends we haven't seen in a long while.

For a further read on the actual estate, when built, who built it and so forth, please visit this website. I won't be going into those particulars much here.

http://gunneboslott.se/english/the-house/history-of-the-estate 

Okay, let's get through some of the formal gardens and buildings settings first. This first picture is of an Oak Tree native to Sweden called Quercus robur. It's the most common found all over Europe and goes by many common names. What intrigued me most about this particular tree was the many wildlife features like holes and other cavities for various birds and small animals to live. Something that I find rather lacking in most Swedish woodlands that I've seen since forst moving here. This oak was on the pathway walking up to the Estate. Incredible oak and one that under the right circumstances makes a straight tall trunk which is perfect for lumber, unlike the numerous species of Oak I grew up with throughout California which are always tristed and contorted.

Image - Mine

Then just below this tree was this nature sign explaining a bit of what I already figured out by just looking at the tree.

Image - Mine

Translation: Ek (Oak)

"For a few thousand years, the oak was the most common tree in the western Swedish deciduous forest. An oak can be very old, at least 1,000 years."

"In the dense oak forests oak tree growth habit is a straight trunk and narrow crown. Stand alone out in the open oaks, have a short, rough trunk and very broad crown, with a typical large round appearance."

"The oak harbors very rich insect life. In England it has about 600 species of insects associated with this oak. There are many endangered insects in Sweden, especially beetles living on these ancient oaks. Several common insects are also available in oak, such as 'Ekvecklaren' (oak folding holder = don't ask, just name of insect). It is a small moth whose larvae can almost overwhelm the  trees in some years. The oak trees survives them though to form new leaves anyway."

Okay, now for more of the main estate building and formal gardens.

Image - Mine

Yeah, yeah yeah, that's me. Let's move this along and get it over with. This first shot is of our friends and their young boy below.

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Image Mine

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

The vegetable & Spice/herb garden above is where I was roped into an interview questionaire by a young girl there whose job it was to find out what visitor impression are of the Estate Park. She asked what I thought about these gardens and I replied that I would still have to wait a bit to provide an opinion because most of these gardens, landscapes and woodlands were just beginning to emerge from their winter slumber. Believe it or not total Spring bloom was still beginning for many things. Where I come from Spring starts in February and peaks in March.

Below you can see where they actually cut down and utilized some of the Estate's woodland trees and milled their own lumber from those trees for some of their building projects like this shelter in the photo below.

Image - Mine

Image Mine

Image - Mine

Well, they've got to have something for the kids. Modern kids will only take so much of the hiking trails. This wooden cow was located just behind the horse barn. (BTW, Barn is the Swedish word for Child - don't ask, it just is)

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Now let's take that walk in the woods. What excited me about this part of the adventure, was that it was like going back in time to what Swedish forests use to look like. Most of southern, central and western Swedish forests were historically mainly dominated by old growth Oak and other broadleaf deciduous Forests with a widely varied mixture of other old growth Alder, Aspen, European Mountain Ash, Norway Maple, Willows, etc. But oak was the most prominent.

With this type of biodiverse forest like we visted on this day, you can see first hand how the forest is alive with the sounds of animals and multiple species of birdlife, something saldy lacking in most all Swedish forests which are industrially managed with failed out-dated science-based technology which replaces the already perfect balance of the wild program. Most Swedish forests have been horribly clear cut and replaced by tree planting with monoculture of straight trunked tall pines or firs for lumber or mostly pulp wood production for paper. This will be discussed in a link at the end of this post.

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

The picture above is an example of what a closed forest environment will do to any tree in shaping it throughout it's life for later usage by humans. Unlike the oak found in or on the edge of a meadow which will have a stout truck and multibranched round large crown pattern.

Take a look at these Norway Maple trees. Here's the parent tree followed by hundreds of seedling trees most likely to never make it through the canopy unless they get lucky by various environmental circumstances. Trees like these need a nurse tree. Maples won't amount to much out in the open. Mostly I've seen them stunted and shrubby looking, same with oaks trees. Very rarely do you find them volunteering out in the open. But the excess of seedlings on the forest floor does provide a food source for grazing and browsing animals.

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Okay this photo above is an Oak tree with a tiny hole in it where there was once a branch at one time but now has since rotted out and been bored out to create a nest hole cavity. This tiny hole provides nesting for a slender dainty little forest bird which is called a Nuthatch. In fact I watched it fly in and out. I actually saw this same small birds utilizing small crevices in a rock wall up by the main buildings in a pond feature they had there with slender sandstone rocks in a dry wall design. Here is a post I've done about Nuthatches and attracting them into your landscape.

Nuthatches and Brick Porthole Habitats

These following shots are of a train that past over head, and I love trains, so had to take this shot. Also some shots of my wife and our friends walking through the meadow and some shots of forest floor thinning and then finally the old growth oak forests view at the end in all it's wild glory as we left.

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Image Mine

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

More nature explanations about the local birdlife and while they are not so visable in the pictures, there is a rather large Swedish forest pigeon which is similar to the ones up in the forests of Idyllwild California where I use to live. Like the California pigeons, these are extremely shy as well and hard to get near for taking a photograph, unless you have the right powerful lense to capture from a distance. These birds are nothing like their pesky nusiance domestic city dewelling cousins. They group together scratching around on the ground looking for food and look very much like a large covey of quail foraging the ground with one male as lookout. And finally the old growth Oak Woodland beauty at the end of our hike.

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Now down below all that old growth Oak Woodland habitat is an area around the parking lot down in a river valley with a lake where there are a lot of natural boggy conditions. This environment for the most part is where the pure stands of Björk (Birch) and other wet habitat loving plants also prefer to reside.

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

Image - Mine

This concludes my visit, but at least you folks know what much of Europe was like long before industrialization took over and changed things for good in the late 1800s in all Europe and not just Scandinavia. 

Enjoy! 😸