You're Welcome, Dinosaurs

Photo: fiberglass dinosaurs outside Petrified Forest National Park


Earlier this month the National Park Service acquired 26,500 acres of new land for Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, a project that's been part of my scope of work.

Twenty-six-thousand-five-hundred-acres is a LOT OF LAND.

Here's the map of the Park before the acquisition. Notice the skinny strip going down the middle.

Here's the Park's ownership after the purchase, with the addition of the large block to the east. The large block to the west is the expanded boundary, but that land remains mainly in private ownership. Visitors probably used to think the view-shed to the east was part of the Park, but it was at threat because it was in private ownership. Owners in the past had attempted to sell some of the artifacts. Now, the land to the east is protected and the National Park Service will be able to survey the land better.

Photo: dinosaur fossils at Rainbow Forest Museum in Petrified Forest National Park

The new land has "long been the envy of archeologists and paleontologists and will increase opportunities for both researchers and visitors to peer back into the Late Triassic period, which preceded the Jurassic period, during which giant dinosaurs thrived." reports the New York Times, one of the many national papers that wrote about the deal. Exciting to see this project receive so much coverage!

Photo: John Muir surveying Petrified Forest National Park, 1905

President Theodore Roosevelt established the Petrified Forest National Park in 1906, after a bit of lobbying from John Muir. Muir is famous for his work in California and Yosemite and starting the Sierra Club, but he also helped create Petrified Forest National Park, too.

More about Petrified Forest National Park at this link.

Who wants to go with me to Arizona to see some more dinosaurs! (fossils)

Photo: Rainbow at Pedestal Log, Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park

Five Boys Three & Under

Photo: Grant Cotter, son of Chris and Cathy Cotter. Best looking man with a blanket award

I'll post a few more wedding photos soon, but I don't think there are many weddings with five nephews ages three and under. Here's the line-up of the babes-in-black.

Photo: Owen Cotter, son of Chris and Cathy Cotter

Photo: Paul Cotter, son of Kevin and Lisa Cotter

Photo: Paul smiles, too


Photo: Alexander Ingebritson, son of Aaron and Yvonne


Photo: Samuel Ingebritson, son of John and Susan. I'll find his suit photo...

What a handsome line-up!

Wedding Week!

Photo: Posted on Awkward Family Photos

It's wedding week! I am in KC and Tom is in Virginia. Hope he can make it to the Midwest after Hurricane Irene hits the East so we don't have to marry via Skype!

Falling and Flying in the Forest

Photo: Helicopter for forest survey

This week I worked in a 24,000 acre northern California redwood forest.

Photo: Garcia River Forest, Mendocino County, California

I helped with "falling a tree," which is different than just "a tree falling." We cut down selected trees - already marked for harvest - to measure their growth rate and other factors.

Photo: Tree cookie and me

Falling a tree includes COOKIE cutting! The forester cuts a small slice out of different sections of the tree - a "cookie" - and we would count the rings to determine the tree's age at that height. By examining a batch of cookies, we could determine how fast the tree grew at different stages. ("Batch of cookies" is my term that I think the foresters should now use.)


By chance, I happened to visit the forest on the day where work included flying in a helicopter to search for certain invasive species.

I had been terrified of the idea of riding in a helicopter, but I could not pass up this chance. I hopped in and spent a few hours gliding above redwoods and weaving between mountains ridges. I pretended that my view was like a video screen - virtual reality rather than reality - and this helped calm my nerves.

Photo: Riding in the helicopter! An exciting and beautiful trip.

To learn more about what's going on at Garcia River Forest, click on this recent NPR story, "Scientists Turn Trees Into Carbon Banks" or San Francisco Chronicle's "Forests Break Ground by Selling Offsets." The second story has cool photos and graphics and explains how forests reduce carbon.

Pony Espresso

West coast tour top 5 shop names:

1. Pony Espresso, Jacksonville, Oregon
2. Consigning Women, Grants Pass, Oregon
3. Krop, Paper, Scissors (scrap booking), Grants Pass, Oregon
4. Shady Lady (window blinds), Eureka, California
5. Fiddles and Cameras, Fort Bragg, California





Photo: Fiddles and Cameras store, Fort Bragg, California. Because, why not.

The Egghead restaurant in Fort Bragg receives an honorable mention for randomly having a Kansas theme. I never thought I would wind up in coastal California dining beside a Wizard of Oz mural with my feet on the yellow brick road and drinking a tornado shaped latte.

Tree-hugging

Photo: Alone in the redwoods on my birthday. Tree-hugging while touring Redwood National and State Parks. Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

Bagpiper Sunset - Oregon

Sunset in Brookings, Oregon. My tranquil, cool-weathered walk after a long afternoon's drive became even more sublime when a bagpiper's tunes accompanied the view. Wonderful stop in between my tour of Oregon and California forests.

Give a Hoot

Photo: Woodsy the Owl

Has anyone noticed that Woodsy the Owl is not around anymore? The U.S. Forest Service still has Smokey the Bear on patrol, but Woodsy has been missing for a while.

Photo: Old Smokey the Bear poster

Well, it turns out that the Forest Service has phased out Woodsy, maybe because he's "too controversial" because of the 1980's spotted owl saga. Below is a photo from an internal U.S. Forest Service website, explaining to staff how to burn their Woodsy costume!


Sooo sad! I think I have a photo with Woodsy from a National Fishing Week event from 2006. I'll have to dig that up.

I find it most strange, since I think that Woodsy's mantra of "GIVE A HOOT, DON'T POLLUTE!" is still needed! Smokey just tells us to prevent forest fires.

Smokey went through a make-over last year, and now he has these tough looking posters and his own website.


In other related odd forestry news, Betty White became an honorary Forest Ranger last year. One of my favorite forestry factoids from 2010.

This blog is in remembrance of Woodsy. Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute!



Old Woodsy video



Modern Smokey video, somewhat creepy.

Glamping

My favorite term I've learned this month is "glamping." It stands for "glamorous camping." It's a trend for high-end camping. I can't stop saying this word. Glamping.

It's also pretty ridiculous, but fun to examine. Try putting in "glamping" in Google images and you'll be smiling.

There are also several websites dedicated to glamping, such as "Glamping Girl" and "Go Glamping." This has also led to using the term "happy glampers."

This glamping example seems to cross the line. Isn't this a house?

Adventure Park at Sandy Spring

If you're in the D.C. area, I highly recommend the Adventure Park at Sandy Spring - the nation's largest aerial forest adventure park.

One of my favorite features was that we had our own zipline device we carried with us the whole way. About every third element required ziplining between trees, sometimes a combo zipline/trapeze or snowboard feature.


Photo: Start of courses

Photo: Adventure Park course, view from the trees.

Other elements usually included balancing on logs and barrels or climbing higher in the tree-tops. The Adventure Park had 5+ courses to choose from, up to a "double black diamond" level that had a 70% fail rate. A ticket allows three hours at the Park, so we were able to complete three different courses.


Video: Tom snowboard zip-lining

During a hot summer, zip-lining through the trees was mighty fun.

Germany in Minnesota

Photo: Homemade quilt from Tom's mom, a wedding gift. They really know how to greet family in Minnesota!

Last weekend I visited Tom's hometown for the first time. He grew up in New Ulm, Minnesota, about 2 hours southwest of the Twin Cities.


Tom doesn't read my blog, so he won't mind me posting this photo of him in the New Ulm paper about his Eagle Scout award.

New Ulm is a very German town, with "Herman the German" presiding. He is the third largest copper statue in the U.S., after the Statue of Liberty and a Portland, Oregon, statue.

New Ulm is home to America's second oldest family-owned brewery, Schell's (oldest is Yuengling). The family opened the brewery in the 1860's and chose New Ulm because it looks like Germany. The above photo is on the grounds of the family's estate, next to the brewery that we toured on Saturday.

Photo: Tom, his Dad, and his uncle, at Schell's Brewery

New Ulm even has its own glockenspiel! We watched the noon chimes.

Tom's Dad took me for a tour of New Ulm on his red Harley. We even went to the other side of the tracks, by the butter factory. Last month I met Al Franken and we talked about Tom growing up in New Ulm. Senator Franken said, "They make butter there." That's right. Every time you have a lil' wrapped piece of butter, it's probably from New Ulm. A few years ago, the butter factory caught on fire and butter melted all over the streets. Everything was fine for the motorcycle ride, though. Beautiful day.

No trip to the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" is complete without a lake-house weekend. We spent Fourth of July on Lake Mine Belle.

Fourth of July is also Tom's Mom's birthday. She went tubing on her 65th birthday!

Tom and I rode a paddleboat into the sunset. Romantic Minnesota :)

A wonderful weekend in Minnesota, land of the Germans, the Norwegian "Ingebritsons" and a whole lot of fun.

Did I mention Tom is an Eagle Scout!? So trustworthy.