Blog · Backcountry Press

Magnificent Five-needle Pines of Western North America

December 5, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann 2 Comments

How well do you know them? Take a “quiz” to test your knowledge about this amazing group of pines!

Our upcoming 2-part webinar will explore the natural history of six closely related five-needle pines of western North America, and dive into the amazing factoids mentioned below in the “quiz.” Here’s what we have in store for you:

Part 1 on 12/9: Intro to conifers, intro to pines, sugar pine, and whitebark pine

Part 2 on 12/16: Limber pine, bristlecone pine, foxtail pines, and 5-needle pine conservation

Giving Back: 50% of your $15 class registration fee is being donated to the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, a science-based non-profit dedicated to counteracting the widespread decline of all 5-needle pines throughout the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, and Northern Sierra Nevada.

Are you ready? Here’s your quiz…

Forest Mushroom Class Pairings

October 17, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann 2 Comments

Part 1: Kombucha In The Mist

We’re kicking it off by pairing Part 1 with a beverage that you can watch develop with a culture of your very own — or just pick up a bottle from your neighborhood market: Kombucha! For best effect, pour yourself a sparkling glass and sit outside on a misty autumnal evening listening to the trees drip, the moss plump, and the fungi fruit.

The Vivid View of Ken Jarvela

September 17, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann 1 Comment

Once you get on a roll with a painting, its like you have free license to be part of the mountains. It’s an odd feeling.

Ken Jarvela is one of our favorite local artists. His work captures the wildest plants, rocks, sky and these are the subjects we love.

He grew up in Bayside, California alongside Humboldt Bay and, today, is one of the region’s premier landscape painters. His ability to capture light with vivid brushstrokes using subtle color palettes is, in our opinion, unparalleled. He loves the challenges of tough subjects including majestic redwoods, mountains with low winter sun, and wild rivers weaving through boulder fields.

Forest Mushrooms of the Pacific Coast

August 28, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann 1 Comment

A five-part fall webinar series

Join Maria Morrow and Christian Schwarz for a comprehensive introduction to the forest mushrooms of California and the Pacific Northwest. Over the course of this series we’ll cover foundational topics ranging from the fundamentals of mushroom identification to basic fungal biology. We’ll also discuss the fascinating complexities of the bigger picture: Patterns of ecology, evolution, and biogeography. The series will close with opportunities for field excursions with the instructors and community-science challenges to participate in over the course of the upcoming years!

Part 1: Introduction to Mushrooms – October 19th
Part 2: Mushroom Ecology along the Pacific Coast – October 26th
Part 3: Forest Pathogens of the Pacific Coast – November 2nd
Part 4: Mushroom Explorations – November 9th
Part 5: Gaps in our understanding / Future Directions / Threats and Changes in the coming decades – November 16th

All webinars will be recorded and available for viewing for three months after purchase.

Franklin’s Bumble Bee

August 24, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann Leave a Comment

Bumble bees (Bombus spp.) are an important group of North American wild pollinators. However, in the latter half of the 20th century, concern has arisen because of a noticeable declines in many species’ populations—due to a variety of factors including pesticides and diseases from managed bees.

Decline of the world’s rarest bumble bee

The Klamath Mountain endemic Franklin’s bumble bee (Bombus franklini) was named in 1921 for Henry J. Franklin, who authored the bumble bees of North and South America (1913). The Franklin’s is even more vulnerable than other Bombus species due to its restricted range—confined to Siskiyou and Trinity counties in California; and Jackson, Douglas and Josephine counties in Oregon. This is considered the smallest range of any Bombus species in the world.

With ‘intentional forests,’ hope grows on trees

August 15, 2021 by Marie Antoine 12 Comments

Prioritizing long-lived giant trees could maximize the carbon sequestration and biodiversity of city parks and other green spaces.

By Marie E. Antoine and Stephen C. Sillett

Current environmental crises can seem overwhelming in scale. Confronting climate change and conserving biodiversity will require huge changes in how humans manage the landscape and in our use of fossil fuels. But one part of the solution is growing all around us, we call them intentional forests.

Our team studies trees and forests. Coast redwood, giant sequoia, Douglas-fir, Sitka spruce — the four tallest conifers have been our main focus for over two decades. This work has helped us understand how, though trees alone can’t save the world, they can help.

Cryptic Carnivores

August 9, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann Leave a Comment

Sticky trap carnivory discovered in western false asphodel (Triantha occidentalis)

The botanical world is being rocked by a new lineage of carnivorous plants described by Qianshi Lin et al. (August 2021)! Previous to this discovery scientists have recognized only 11 independent origins of plant carnivory—and now there is a 12th. This cryptic carnivore secretes a digestive enzyme from its annual flower stalk to supplement upwards of 2/3 of its diet.

western false asphodel (*Triantha occidentalis*) in the Klamath Mountains of northwest California.

Carnivorous plants have adapted to grow in places where nutrients are deficient. In western North America this often means peatland bogs. While carnivorous plants generate some energy from photosynthesis they supplement by trapping and consuming animals like insects and other arthropods.

Wildflowers of California’s Klamath Mountains

May 9, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann Leave a Comment

AVAILABLE NOW!

Including the Marble Mountain, Russian, and Trinity Alps Wilderness areas

Wildflowers of California’s Klamath Mountains features flowering plants found within one of the most biodiverse temperate mountain ranges on Earth. This photographic collection is representative of the most common, beautiful, and unique plants across this amazing region.
• 629 species, subspecies, and varieties of wildflowers
• Over 800 full color images organized by flower color
• Localized, detailed species descriptions
• Destinations to find flowers throughout the year

The Klamath Mountains are a fascinating and botanically diverse area situated at the the crossroads of the Coast Range, Modoc Plateau, Sacramento Valley, Cascade Range, and Sierra Nevada the Klamath Mountains and hold representative species from each. Combine that with their attendant geology, topography, and climate, and the floristic diversity is second to none for a temperate region.

Wildflowers of California’s Klamath Mountains eBook

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Wildflowers of California’s Klamath Mountains

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Wildflowers of California’s Klamath Mountains paperback + eBook

$34.95

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Botanical Tales of the Pacific Crest Trail

February 9, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann 1 Comment

The Making of a “Super-Naturalist”

by Matt Berger

Over two PCT thru hikes I took tens of thousands of plant photos, figured out each plants’ identity, and uploaded these observations to citizen science websites. Getting to this point was a process that I took one step a time. Now, I’m ready to share what I’ve learned with others who walk in these same steps along the PCT and are wondering what all the plants are along the way – the tall and the small, the showy and the “wallflowers,” the commonplace and the rare. Let me share a bit with you about how I got here…

Perfect Pairings For Klamath Natural History

January 5, 2021 by Michael Kauffmann 4 Comments

Since we could certainly all use a bit more fun in our lives, it was recommended to us that each session in the Klamath Mountains Natural History winter webinar series feature its own pairing — food and/or bev.

Brilliant. And why not.

So what pairs well with endemic salamanders, limestone caverns, or the last glacier in the Klamath Mountains?

I don’t know either, and that’s why I asked our presenters for their expert recommendations.

Part 1: Intro to the Klamath Mountains + The Last Glacier

The Glaciertini (Photo credit: Mike van Hattem)

I present to you the Glaciertini: a fine drink to accompany the first session in this 10-part series where Justin Garwood tells the story of the Klamath Mountains’ Last “tini” Glacier. It also happens to be the signature cocktail of his research team. Per his and colleague Mike van Hattem’s instructions:

Where are the Klamath Mountains?

December 5, 2020 by Michael Kauffmann 1 Comment

I thought it was just the Klamath River?
or…
Are they in Klamath Falls?

Where are the Klamath Mountains — Klamath Mountain Geomorphic Province

These are common questions we hear and we understand the confusion. The name “Klamath Mountains” may not be part of your everyday speak, but if you love all those spectacular mountains and rivers between Ashland and Crescent City, Redding and Eureka, Mount Shasta and Brookings, then it turns out you LOVE the The Klamath Mountains.

The Klamath Mountains are one of the Earth’s most important temperate mountain ranges. These mountains are a hotspot for biodiversity due to the complex interactions, across millions of years, of biotic and abiotic factors. The area has a central location and continuity with other mountain ranges along the Pacific Slope of western North America. Across this landscape, a mosaic of habitats mix at a crossroads of five biotic regions including the Cascades, Coast Ranges, Great Basin, Central Valley, and Sierra Nevada. Many major rivers of the region also connect the ranges aquatic ecosystems to the productive Pacific Ocean.

Humboldt’s flying squirrel

October 22, 2020 by Michael Kauffmann 2 Comments

Glaucomys oregonensis

Until recently, mammalogists classified two species of flying squirrels in North America. But, in 2017, a third was added with the formal description of the Humboldt’s flying squirrel (Glaucomys oregonensis). Though slightly smaller and darker, this cryptic species was once considered to be part of the northern flying squirrel (G. sabrinus) group but genetic studies and an in depth look at the penis bone changed that. Northern flying squirrels inhabit the boreal coniferous forests of the northeastern U.S., Canada, and Alaska as well as relictual habitat in the higher elevations of the Appalachian and Rocky mountains. The Humboldt’s flying squirrel is a specialist of the Pacific Slope’s coastal forests from southern California’s sky islands, north through the Sierra Nevada, Klamath Mountains, Coast Ranges, and Cascades in conifer and mixed-conifer forests.

Range of the North American flying squirrel species from National Geographic.

Late Summer Wildflowers

August 23, 2020 by Michael Kauffmann Leave a Comment

Of The Klamath Mountains

The Klamath Mountains are vast and encompass many ecological zones and elevations. Geology, ranges in altitude, and variable weather conditions make the region variable for wildflower blooms depending on species and region. Wildflower season can begin as early as mid-December in the lower elevations and continue into late October or even November in the high country.

Klamath National Forest restricts wilderness usage

July 30, 2020 by Michael Kauffmann 5 Comments

New backcountry restrictions have been put in place to limit environmental impacts in the wilderness, including two high-use, sensitive areas in the Siskiyou and Trinity Alps wilderness areas.

Photo-documentation of the regionally rare yellow-cedar (*Callitropsis nootkatensis*) being cut for firewood in the Devil’s Punchbowl in the Klamath National Forest.

In a move that has been a long time in the making, the Klamath National forest has enacted restrictions in two of the most visited backcountry destinations on the forest. This action could not have been more timely, as more people are visiting the backcountry this year than ever before. Signs are going to be posted immediately — though in a recent informal survey few visitors to the Siskiyou Wilderness even read the signs at the trailhead.

There have been numerous reports of people behaving poorly in the wilderness this summer including graffiti on mountain summits, beer bottles being smashed on rocks riverside, and groups of over 25 people gathering to play Frisbee on sensitive meadow systems. We need to continue to work with the forest service to provide outreach and education about Leave No Trace in these places we love.

Backpacking in Conifer Country

July 5, 2020 by Michael Kauffmann 1 Comment

‘Tis the summer for backpacking. We have seen more people in the backcountry this year than ever before. We have also had more requests from friends and family as to where they should go backpacking that ever before. In this post we explore some epic destinations to get out, walk, and learn about ancient conifers.

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