Field Notes from Plant Explorations has never relayed news; but I think this news is more than blog-worthy for many reasons. The first is that this is an uplifting story about the wild in nature being wild. This wolf has traveled hundreds of miles from his 'homeland' crossing roads, ranches, wilderness and now political borders—and he has done it alone. More importantly, because of the breadth of urban and rural sprawl, people are playing a role in allowing this adventurous soul room to roam. We as a culture are, on a level I don't think we yet understand, developing new found compassion for the previously demonized big-bad-wolf. I think we are learning that wild is important and if we can share 'our' world—without some hollywoodized fear of being eaten—then the world might be a better place. Finally, I think this wakens the primordial howl deep in our souls. Human and dog have evolved together—from wolf origins—for over ten thousand years. Some time ago our ancestors sat around an idealized campfire munching on caribou meat sharing some of the scraps with those at the edge of the fire's glow, whose luminous tapetum lucidum suggested a longing for companionship. While this should ultimately not be about us in some way it needs to be for OR7, and others, to be allowed to wander again.

A primordial relationship has returned to the Klamath Mountains. I can only dream OR7 will be joined by a few friends, howl with joy at the vast wilderness, and dance with the elk for a long time to come. May this visit be more than fleeting...


A gray wolf (not OR7) Photo by John and Karen Hollingsworth-USFWS.

• Read more from the DFG news blog
• OR7's path through 1/11/2012

Why, climb Mount Hilton in the Trinity Alps of course.

As I approached the trailhead the car's outdoor thermometer read 28^oF and, with the windows down, the iPod shuffled Rapper's Delight for my auditory indulgence. I pulled into the large parking lot at Canyon Creek as the lone (semi-domesticated) representative of the human race. Donning hat and gloves, I hoisted my pack and climbed toward what I hoped would be a world-class penthouse suite. With Sugar Hill Gang resonating in my head—as other driftless tunes have on previous trips—the lyrics seemed preposterously apropos as I progressed toward the named summit (hotel, motel, Mount Hilton...). What five-star resort could possibly compare to a perch on glacially polished granite—surrounded by sky, stars, and wilderness—with a forecast of continued high pressure and a hard freeze? None in my mind.


A five-star morning sunrise high in the Trinity Alps Wilderness....

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After walking along the Smith River on the South Kelsey Trail, the Summit Valley Trail climbs to the high country. Here I got a view to the Siskiyou Crest through a multitude of conifers, with the Smith River far below.
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In the late 1960's, after arriving at Humboldt State University as a new professor, John O. Sawyer received a letter in the mail from G. Ledyard Stebbins. Stebbins, widely regarded as one of America's leading evolutionary biologists but also a lover of rare plants, suggested to John that he needed to visit a remote place in the Klamath Mountains known as Blake's Fork. Here, he said, John might help verify a report for one of California's rarest conifers—the Engelmann spruce. Stebbins hoped John could record his findings in a new database called the Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants of California organized by the California Native Plant Society. With conifers calling, John and his friend and co-worker Dale Thornburgh went on a journey that would change our understanding of conifer distributions, plant associations, and wilderness in California.


The heart of the Russian Wilderness and the Miracle Mile, with Russian Peak to the far left. This spiney ridge separates Sugar Creek (left) from Duck Creek (right).

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Conifers possess highly derived adaptations that allow them to flourish on continental land masses north and south of the 45th parallel—to the arctic tree line. They also grow in similar regions with decreasing latitude, like the various cordilleras of western North America. Though they comprise less than 1% of all plant species (~630), they define 30% of the forests on Earth. In order to survive in colder climates conifers must be able ...

The alpine tundra of the Pasayten Wilderness is characterized by small hummocks decorated with diminutive heaths and grasses with the much taller conifers surviving on only the fringes of this landscape.

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As Allison and I began to map our route through the Cascades for our summer vacation I proposed that we visit Mount Saint Helens. Allison quickly agreed but jokingly asked what conifers were there that I wanted to see—I relented that I wanted to familiarize myself with noble fir (Abies procera) outside of California and this was a place recommended by Chris Earle on his epic website. What we found in the Goat Marsh ...


The Goat Marsh Research Natural Area was identified for its mountain wetland communities, xeric lodgepole pine forests, and noble fir forests associated with an active Cascade volcano.

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Box Camp Mountain | Marble Mountain Wilderness

Ecological amplitude is the range of habitats, often dependent on and defined by elevation, within which a certain species has the ability to survive. In the Klamath Mountains there are two species of pines that define the highest elevations—growing at or near the summits of peaks from ~7500' to 9000' (The Klamath Mountains get no higher). Foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana) and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) inhabit our sky islands where they are the crowning jewels of this coniferous wonderland.
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Windswept foxtails dot the ridge of Box Camp Mountain.

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Our adventure began in the heavy rain of late June. We waved farewell to Allison from the Canyon Creek Trailhead to walk the Bigfoot Trail—in search of wild plants and places—for two weeks. As we climbed into the Trinity Alps it was doubtful we would be able to hike very far because of heavy snow and high water. On our second day, as the rain cleared, we approached the dangerously swift Stuarts Fork and were, for a moment, stopped by Mountains and Water. ...

Mount Shasta looms as Jeffrey Kane parts blooms of bear grass (Xerophyllum tenax) along the Boundary Trail in the Red Buttes Wilderness.

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Sequoia National Monument - In search of giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron gigantium)

A slow return north from Mexico found me revisiting old stomping grounds in the southern Sierra Nevada. I first drove from Kernville to Springville to fully enjoy the Giant Sequoia National Monument. When I first ventured out on my own after college I lived near Springville and taught environmental education at SCICON. On weekends I would often attend church in the Freeman Creek grove, disappearing for hours on end in one of ...



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This mountain range had been a place in my dreams for many years. I had heard about its rich conifer forest, that many of the conifers(and other plants of course) common in California reached their southern range extension here, and that a natural fire regime had been maintained. This was an intact a forest—in as natural a state—as we 21^st century explorers might hope to find. The mountains themselves are ...

The dramatic eastern escarpment offered views to the desert and the distant Sea of Cortés framed by sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana).

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