Regional Map
Michael's Books
Michael Kauffmann
Exploring and understanding wilderness brings me extreme joy. This blog is intended foster a greater understanding and stewardship for the place that is the Earth. One means to that end is understanding the native biota that have always lived in the regions we choose to visit. Our visits should ultimately be about them -- the other biota -- not us.
This work by Michael Kauffmann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.Goodreads
Wild Divulgences
Download | Duration: 00:18:20
Above is a link to a podcast from a radio "debate" I was asked to engage with in late March 2013. While it was obviously constructed to get people to listen and chime in with community comments, it was a legitimate subject non-the-less. This was the biggest internal struggle for me in writing Conifer Country—do I want to direct folks to fragile places with rare plants? For the most part I avoided this conundrum by describing hikes that are well-used or under-protected with the hope of empowering readers to be stewards as they discover new landscapes. However, this was not always possible—Conifer Country shares some secret places and hidden trees indeed.
A really big and really old Port Orford-cedar, burned by fire but still thriving as part of a larger forest system—somewhere in a Klamath Mountain wilderness area.
In the case of individual trees that are the largest of their species, I am a firm believer that the locations should be ambiguous (case in point, the Golden Spruce). With a general idea of the region these trees grow, explorers and plant lovers should get outside and search for their own mystery. In doing so, I believe greater discoveries can be made—for example, understanding how these incredible individuals fit into the larger forest system. This sort of discovery is much more important that the biggest, tallest, fastest, cheapest, oldest, etc...avoid anthropocentric hyperbole and stick to more exceptional interpretations of the Earth and the holistic systems.
- Read more listener comments at the Lost Coast Outpost
Now for a sales pitch...
Pre-order my new book, Conifers of the Pacific Slope, at 15% off. The books are being printed in the USA on 100% recycled paper. Expect delivery in late May, 2013.
Conifer Endemism along the Central California Coast
Cypress point - one of two native locations for the historically wider-ranging Monterey cypress.
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18th Conifer in the Miracle Mile!
I was within 200 yards (just around this granitic corner) of finding the junipers on my last visit to the miracle mile.
Turns out, in the summer of 2012 his brother bought him a copy of Conifer Country and he was re-inspired to try to get the word out about his discovery. He borrowed his son's camera (which he readily admits to have taken some poor photos), put together a PDF with the pictures and GPS coordinates with the help of his son, and also got that file in an email to me. What we now have is the evidence (minus a specimen) of the newest addition to the botanical legacy of the Klamath Mountains. I plan to meet Richard this summer and collect some specimens for the Humboldt State University Herbarium. Below is the link to the file with photos and GPS coordinates that Richard sent to me.
- 18th Conifer documentation from Richard Moore - Thanks Richard!
- Hiking the Russian Wilderness on Conifer Country:
A list of conifers within the Miracle Mile:
- foxtail pine
- whitebark pine
- western white pine
- Jeffrey pine
- ponderosa pine
- lodgepole pine
- sugar pine
- white fir
- Shasta fir
- subalpine fir
- Engelmann spruce
- Brewer spruce
- mountain hemlock
- Douglas-fir
- Pacific yew
- incense-cedar
- common juniper
- western juniper
Future of the Klamath Mountains
Future
An excerpt from Conifer Country (pages 204-205)
The Klamath Mountains
are a land of charismatic mega-flora. From the coast which holds the
Earth’s tallest trees to the interior sky islands, which are crowned
with ancient, contorted coniferous jewels, botanical wonders abound. The
region is also a land of dynamic evolutionary processes that are
difficult to interpret in the short-term. In order to understand this
complex region and all its wonder one must become part of it—at least
for a time. I challenge you to get out into the field, explore, research
your discoveries, study field guides, and then explore more. We, lovers
of the natural world, need to do this, but the Klamath Mountains and
the biota held within need us more.
A phrase now being used, coined as a reference for what nature has to offer human civilization, is “ecosystem services.” From this perspective, the Earth is evaluated for its material and immaterial goods and the financial benefits each part of the natural system might offer humankind. This perspective helps capitalists revisit a once widespread understanding—where 250 years ago there would have been no need to define these “services.” Basically, keen naturalists and scientists realized that our culture needed a way to put a monetary value on what was losing its traditional, unspoken value....
Serpentines of the Salmon Creek-Mattole River Divide
The mystery was solved when Kyle and Dana Keegan, offered a "visit to the Salmon Creek watershed which is a tributary of the South Fork Eel. We have an especially unique diversity of plants and trees here due to a complex melange of geologic features with what we believe to be the largest, most westerly stand of Jeffrey Pine in the state, as well as vast stands of Incense Cedar. Kinda like an isolated westerly chunk of the Klamath Siskiyous—with it comes a whole host of serpentine endemics."
Yes please...
Kyle and Dana Keegan looking across the headwaters of the Mattole River.
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Fort Complex Fire 2012: Red Buttes Wilderness
Luke Ruediger has called Southwest Oregon home for his entire life and began exploring the region at an early age. He recently sent me an account documenting recent hikes into the Red Buttes. His adventures had a purpose—he was looking for the effects of three fire that began in August. I have included the introduction and a photo in the blog below, but to read the entire document and see all of his photos follow the link below.
Fort Complex Fire: Summary of Outcome and Events
by Luke Ruediger
For those of us that love the Red Buttes Wilderness, this past summer came with some anxiety. On August 5th, 2012 a thunderstorm echoed through the deep canyons, and lightening crashed down upon the rocky ridges. Little-to-no rain fell during this storm encouraging three small fires to ignite within the Red Buttes Wilderness and the Kangaroo Roadless Area. The three fires, the Goff Fire, the Hello Fire, and the Lick Fire became known collectively as the Fort Complex.
Fire affected Brewer spruce (Picea breweriana) habitat on the Siskiyou Crest near Goff Butte. Photo by Luke Ruediger
All summer, as smoke poured over the ridgeline, I was consumed by the fires: Where are the fires burning? How are the fires burning? Are firefighters using Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics (MIST)? At what cost are these fires being suppressed? Where is fire retardant being dropped? How many miles of dozer line are being created? How many old-growth snags are being felled? How many helipads cleared? How many slopes are being backburned, and to what effect? Will the place I know and love recover from this fire naturally, “unsalvaged,” as it has for millennium?
While the fires burned there was little accountability, little way of knowing what may be taking place inside the “closure area” or fire perimeter. It was hard to get questions answered, even when asked directly. It was like having a loved one in the emergency room and you don’t know what is going on inside. Yet now, in the aftermath of this great natural and unnatural disturbance, I can hike the trails as before, through a world of soot and ash, through a landscape forever marked by the fires of 2012. I can now see the wild patterns of fire on the landscape; I can begin to piece together what took place, and try to account for suppression tactics gone awry.
Luke Reudiger is devoted
to the Klamath—focusing on ecologically based forest restoration and land stewardship. He owns and operates Black Oak Forest Restoration LLC in the Rogue, Illinois, Colestein, and Applegate valleys. A bit futher off the grid, he and his wife live at the foot of the Siskiyou Crest where, in his free time, he is working on a book titled The Siskiyou Crest: Hikes, History, and Ecology. Stay tuned for more on this new Klamath hiking guide.
The Ecological Staircases of Mendocino County
Throughout the Pleistocene, as the climate fluctuated, sea levels rose and fell in conjunction with the size of the polar ice caps thus allowing oceanic wave-action to cut coastal terraces around the world. Subsequent tectonic forces then slowly pushed these terraces upward. What we now witness in coastal Mendocino County is, as Jenny states, the best preserved ecological showplace of coastal landscape evolution in the Northern Hemisphere.
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The Cry of the Wilderness (and C. nootkatensis)
—Wilderness and the American Mind, Roderick Nash, third edition; pub. Yale Univ. Press, 1967.
Siskiyou Wilderness | fall 2012
My expectations for wilderness wavers too. As I sit at home with my creature comforts I hope that others are out enjoying the majesty of the wilds—connecting with the natural world and progressing as stewards. When my turn comes to plan a wilderness adventure, destinations are chosen based on where I will find solitude. This was the original, anthropocentric idea behind wilderness—a place that would retain primeval character and guarantee solitude. I am a proponent for more people visiting wilderness (walking in under their own power) so that they might have more authentic experiences in nature, care more, and develop a closer connection to the Earth.<< MORE >>
John O. Sawyer - Kin to the Earth
Dancing with raindrops from car to porch on any number of oft-spectacular Humboldt Bay days, I was hungry for a lunch date. As I shook my hands dry, the push of a bell initiated the shuffle of feet, a crack of the door—and soon after—a long, sincere, chuckle. The opening door revealed a smile to go with the laughter. ...
Hiking on Limestone Ridge in the Trinity Alps Wilderness.
EcoNews Report July 2012
Download | Duration: 00:29:59
The longest-running public affairs show on the North Coast, the NEC's "EcoNews Report" radio show airs at 1:30 p.m. Thursdays on KHSU. You can also stream the show on KHSU live online via iTunes or Windows Media Player.
You can find KHSU on these frequencies:
90.5 FM Arcata-Eureka
91.9 FM Crescent City-Brookings
89.1 FM Ferndale-Fortuna
89.7 FM Garberville
99.7 FM Willow Creek
Northern California Hiking Trails Blog
John Soares also included an interview about the book on his blog—you can read the interview and much more over at his website. John is the co-author of 100 Classic Hikes in Northern California, third edition and author of 75 Hikes in California’s Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park Regions, revised edition.