Western Red Cedar

Weather: Rain Friday sank down half an inch in the driest land; 14:34 hours of daylight today.

Smoke from the north (Colorado’s West Fork fires), smoke from the south (Silver fire), smoke from the east (Jaroso fire), smoke from the west (Thompson Ridge fire). Whenever the wind blows, the air gets worse. They gusted to 47 mph in Los Alamos yesterday.

What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid roses, daylilies, silver lace vine, bouncing Bess, purple salvia, blue flax, alfalfa, brome grass. Some grape vines finally putting out leaves.

Beyond the walls and fences: Trumpet creeper, tamarix, cholla cactus, scurf, scarlet and sweet peas, showy milkweed, buffalo gourd, purple mat flower, leather-leafed globe mallow, bindweed, greenleaf five-eyes, scarlet bee blossom, velvetweed, goat’s beard, Hopi tea, Tahoka daisy, strap-leaf and golden hairy asters, horsetail, rice grass; some catalpa leaves already whitening from dry soil.

In my yard, looking east: Baby’s breath, coral bells, pink evening primrose, winecup mallow.

Looking south: Rugosa, floribunda and miniature roses.

Looking west: Lilies, Johnson Blue geranium, catmints, sea lavender, ladybells, white mullein, white spurge, Shasta daisy peaked.

Looking north: Golden spur columbine, coral beardtongue, Hartweig primrose, butterfly weed, chocolate flowers, anthemis, yellow yarrow.

In the open, along the drive: Dutch clover, hollyhock, Shirley and California poppies, larkspur, white yarrow, blanket flower, coreopsis, yellow, red and mixed Mexican hats; buds on black-eyed Susans; pods forming on catalpa.

Bedding plants: Wax begonias, pansies, snapdragons, French marigolds, gazanias.

What’s blooming inside: Zonal geraniums, aptenia.

Animal sightings: Rabbit, hummingbird, goldfinches and other small brown birds, disoriented bumble bee, small bees, cricket, grasshoppers, harvester and smaller ants.

Weekly update: My wooden fence wouldn’t provide much protection against a wild fire. But, then, with the temperatures generated by forest fires, no fencing would: steel softens, mortar crumbles.

Western red cedar isn’t the worst choice. It’s flame spread index is 70. For most domestic woods used in construction, the score’s 90 to 160. The lower the better. Red cedar’s permitted for exit corridors.

Of course, fire resistence isn’t in its DNA. The cousin of the arborvitae grows in British Columbia and adjacent wet parts of the northwest where fires occur every 50 to 350 years.

Surface roots scorch, canopies vanish. Young trees often die. Surprisingly, older dead trees don’t decay. The bark persists for at least five years, protecting the interior. Some can still be used for lumber a hundred years later.

The reason you use red cedar, or any solid fencing material, is privacy. My neighbor installed the first part of my fence nearly 20 years ago, when he erected a metal building.

He’s from the north where cedar fences turn silvery gray. Ultraviolet light from the sun interacts with humidity in the air to alter the lignin in the wood, leaving the cellulose.

In New Mexico, we have stronger light, and very little humidity. His fence and my additions have not grayed. Instead, some boards are brown, some darker. Fungus of some kind is exploiting the surfaces.

Fungus shouldn’t be touching the boards. The reason you buy Thuja plicata, instead of pine, is the presence of anti-fungal chemicals that prevent decay. It not supposed to rot.

Thujaplicins are members of a chemical class with rings of seven carbon atoms. Tropolones were discovered in the 1940s by scientists doing research with penicillins. Last year, a team at the University of Bristol demonstrated the biochemical steps used by fungi to create one of them, stipitatic acid.

Earlier, Lehong Jin discovered one fungus, a Sporothrix, neutralizes the antibacterial chemical in red cedar. Later, another species, a Poriarivulosa, attacks. Many of the oldest specimens in old growth forests are hollow. One located near Quinault Lake in Washington is thought to be at least 2,000 years old.

Trees, as I learned, but didn’t comprehend as a child, are composed of a living exterior and an abandoned interior. The first is the sapwood where nutrients flow between the roots and leaves through the xylem and the phloem. These are created every year, resulting in tree rings.

The interior heartwood no longer has a biological function: it’s not even needed to support the leaves and branches. Yet, trees expend the energy every year to create it.

Dan Peng and Xiao-Quan Wang believe the Thuja genus evolved during or before the Paleocene. The era was warmer and wetter than ours. Following the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species, fungi flourished for a brief period, feasting on decaying plant matter. The first rain forests came later.

It may be, the chemical dynamics within red cedar wood were more important to species survival then than they are today.

Jason Ray Nault showed, in 1988, that thujaplicins aren’t equally distributed across the trunk. The amount increases from the center pith outward. However, the outmost edges have none. He suggested younger trees would be less resistant to decay than older ones.

Others since have found variations within trees on the coast and those growing inland. Applied botanists are hoping to select the best for propagating in plantations that might replace the natural forests where commercial red cedar is now harvested.

The variations are obvious in my fence. Lumbermen tell you the wood is straight grained, knot free, and doesn’t warp.

Mine has knots.

Mine warps.

Some say that’s because not enough horizontal wood was used.

Others attribute it to differences in environments between where the wood was processed and where it’s used. Wood moved from one area to another always absorbs or releases water until it matches its new atmosphere.

I suspect mine warps where there are moisture differences between two parts of a board. The worst are the boards facing the western sun with Virginia creeper growing on the other side.

It’s nearly impossible to find someone to install a fence in this area. You can’t suggest how they do it. If they propose different sized boards and different fence posts you say, yes, of course, you’re right.

You certainly don’t suggest they use screws instead of nails, or request they use non-rusting materials. They always know more than the experts. Discoloration is supposed to be part of the aesthetic appeal.

Twenty years ago, my neighbor used ordinary nails. The iron interacted with the wood’s chemicals. Within a year, holes developed around them.

Spring winds push against them. Every year, some nails pull out and my neighbor replaces them with screws. The boards are usually those nearest the uprights where the differences in wind velocities are the greatest.

Last summer, my backhoe operator ran into it. The man he hired to fix it only replaced the boards that were completely gone. If there were broken, but still attached, he said they were good enough. This year, my neighbor replaced them.

He left me with the broken boards. They were too long for a trash bag.

If I had a wood stove, I could have burned them. They aren’t the best fire wood, but they work as kindling. A cord of dried wood produces 15.4 to 17.4 million BTUs of heat. Live oak can generate 36.6, black locust 31.4 million, and ash 26 million. Cottonwood is only marginally better at 16.8.

Even though the boards were old and dry, they wouldn’t break. I finally drove my car over them. The wood has good tensile strength. They bent. Its ability to withstand bending increases when it dries, as does its ability to compress.

It takes nearly 5,000 pounds to destroy a board by bending it. 4,900 to compress it. My car weighs about 2,500 pounds, and that’s distributed over four tires. The backhoe, of course, weighed considerably more.

You can burn it, bend it, but not break it. The sun can change its composition, but not destroy it. Fungus can colonize its surface, but not rot it. It can last for centuries hidden deep inside trees, after it’s technically dead. Western red cedar wood can even survive New Mexico handymen and Virginia creeper. Only a wild fire could decimate it.

Notes:
California Energy Commission. Consumer Energy Center. Website on "Firewood" has information on BTUs of heat generated.

Davison, Jack, Ahmed al Fahad, Menghao Cai, Zhongshu Song, Samar Y. Yehia, Colin M. Lazarus, Andrew M. Bailey, Thomas J. Simpson, and Russell J. Cox. "Genetic, Molecular, and Biochemical Basis of Fungal Tropolone Biosynthesis," National Academy of Sciences Proceedings 109:7642-7647:2012.

Gonzalez, Josefina S. Growth, Properties and Uses of Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata Donn ex D. Don.), 1997 edition; on mechanical properties.

Jin, Lehong, Bart J. Van Der Kamp, Jack Wilson, and Eric P. Swan. "Biodegradation of Thujaplicins in Living Western Red Cedar," Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 18:784-788:1988.

Nault, J. "Radial Distribution of Thujaplicins in Old Growth and Second Growth Western Red Cedar (Thuja Plicata Donn)," Wood Science and Technology 22:73-80:1988.

Peng, Dan and Xiao-Quan Wang. "Reticulate Evolution in Thuja Inferred from Multiple Gene Sequences: Implications for the Study of Biogeographical Disjunction Between Eastern Asia and North America," Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47:1190-202:2008.

Taylor, Adam M., Barbara L. Gartner, and Jeffrey J. Morrell. "Western Redcedar Extractives: Is There a Role for the Silviculturist?" Forest Products Journal 56:58-63:2006.

Tesky, Julie L. "Thuja plicata," 1992, in United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System, available on-line.

White, Robert H. and Mark A. Dietenberger. "Fire Safety of Wood Construction" in USDA, Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook, 2010; the flame spread index.

Photographs:
1. Back fence, 28 June 2013. The beige line above the fence is the far arroyo. The dark band is the bad lands on the other side of the Río Grande. Behind them are the Jémez. The sky is a mix of smoke and rain. Rugosa roses and four-winged salt bushes in front.

2. Side fence, 28 June 2013, with sweet peas and Saint John’s wort.

3. Side fence, 5 February 2008.

4. Close up of side fence, 29 June 2013.

5. Back fence, 28 June 2013. Badlands to the south and smoke mixed with rain.

6. Knot in back fence, 26 June 2013.

7. Warping base of wide board in side fence, 28 June 2013.

8. Back side of side fence built by neighbor with Virginia creeper, 26 June 2013. He notched 4 x 4 treated wood posts to hold 3.5" dog-eared boards with nails.

9. Back side of drive fence built by a good fence builder, 26 June 2013. He used metal posts in concrete and clamps with 5.5" dog-eared boards with nails. He didn’t cap the posts. What possible harm can come of water accumulating in a hollow steel tube?

10. Discoloration from screw in back fence, 26 June 2013.

11. Deterioration and discoloration from nail in drive fence, 26 June 2013.

12. Repaired fence. The backhoe hit the most vulnerable place, the point where the construction methods changed. The differences in color in the new wood are because the ones on the left are 3.5" one from store, and the others 5.5" from another.

13. Broken board with gray surface in original side fence, 28 June 2013. Broken when my neighbor was removing the Virginia creeper.  Not replaced; after all, dogs and rabbits won’t get in because it’s broken.

14. After I drove over the boards a few times, sections compressed. I was able to break them where they had bent.

15. Back side of back fence, 29 March 2013. This was built after some utility made a rough road near the property line that was being colonized by winterfat and Russian thistles. The journeyman fence builder was told to match the work of the good fence builder, only to use screws and not nails. I had to supply the post caps.

Wind in the Willow

Weather: Sun, wind, less smoke as fires smolder; last rain 6/17/2013; 14:37 hours of daylight today.

Local ditch now only has water available two days a week.

What’s blooming in the area: Dr. Huey and hybrid roses, lilies, daylilies, silver lace vine, Jupiter’s beard, bouncing Bess, purple salvia, blue flax, alfalfa, brome grass.

Beyond the walls and fences: Trumpet creeper, tamarix, cholla cactus, scurf and sweet peas, wild licorice peaked, showy milkweed, buffalo gourd, purple mat flower, leather-leafed globe mallow, bindweed, greenleaf five-eyes, prairie white evening primrose, scarlet bee blossom, velvetweed, common dandelion, goat’s beard, Hopi tea, Tahoka daisy, horsetail, rice grass.

In my yard, looking east: Snow-in-summer peaked, baby’s breath, coral bells, pink evening primrose, winecup mallow.

Looking south: Rugosa, floribunda and miniature roses.

Looking west: Johnson Blue geranium, Rumanian sage, catmints, purple and Husker’s red beardstongues, sea lavender, Shasta daisy; buds on ladybells.

Looking north: Golden spur columbine, coral beardtongue, Hartweig primrose, butterfly weed, chocolate flowers, anthemis, yellow yarrow.

In the open, along the drive: Dutch clover, hollyhock, Shirley and California poppies, white yarrow, blanket flower, coreopsis, yellow, red and mixed Mexican hats; buds of black-eyed Susans.

Bedding plants: Wax begonias, pansies, snapdragons, French marigolds, gazanias.

What’s blooming inside: Zonal geraniums, aptenia.

Animal sightings: Rabbit, hummingbird, goldfinches and other small brown birds, small bees, grasshoppers, harvester and smaller ants.

Weekly update: Some trees are drama queens. At the first hint of wind, they throw out their flexible branches to shoo it away.

Most stand with their leaves inverted. A few refuse to notice, and rock from their roots.

Forest managers have learned more is happening. Deciduous trees that constantly are blown from one direction, develop extra strength on that side, then are damaged when a severe wind comes from another direction. Those blown from every direction develop wind firmness on all sides.

Here, the winds generally come from the south or southwest. The tamarix are constantly bombarded from that direction. However, when they blow along the house, they swirl around the corners. The black locust gets tossed about the most.

Some species have narrow leaves that let the wind pass, while others like those of the catalpa are wide. They shred.

The drama queens do more to use their leaves as protective armor. The leaves on the globe willow lay flat along the branch when the winds blow. The ones closer to the tree are different heights. The impacts of the wind are slowed by the wing flaps.

The ones on the black locust are spaced along their branches.

When the winds pick up, they fold like butterfly wings.

My new cherries haven’t been in the ground long enough to adapt. They came from some kind of nursery plantation where they were grown close together.  Now they're isolated along the drive where winds come from the south.

Forest managers have learned trees in close stands vary by their location. The ones on the edges that get the most wind are shorter and shaped more like pyramids. The ones in the center grow tall and thin. The outer ones have greater wind firmness. The mass of the inner ones deflects the wind.

It’s been a tough year for the cherries. The winds have shocked them. The leaves have not expanded from their initial tight clusters.

 

Spaces have opened in the soil around the trunks where they have rocked from the roots. I suspect if I kept filling the holes, the grafting joints would take the stress, and they probably are less strong than the roots. Also, those openings may channel water downward.

Wind worthiness is in the eyes of the beholder. Homeowners are warned, cottonwoods are brittle.

Cherries and red maples are among the least wind resistant. They say gingkos are among the most wind resistant. Have they ever been around a ginkgo when its fruiting?  They may have medicinal virtues, but cherries are edible.

My locust has been invaded by borers. Every year, some trunk snaps in the wind.

They definitely are not something to have near a building. Every year, when the tree cutting service comes out, they wonder why I don’t just have them cut it down completely. I remember the winds, and can’t imagine anything else surviving the twisting. Besides, I know, even if they cut it to the ground, it would be back the next week. Copsing is another wind strategy.

Photographs:
1. Globe willow in the wind, 21 June 2013.

2. Tamarix in the wind, 19 June 2013.

3. Bing cherry in the wind, 22 June 2013.

4. Black locust in the wind, 15 June 2013.

5. Catalpa leaf shredded by the wind, 22 June 2013.

6. Globe willow leaves, 25 May 2013.

7. Black locust leaves after wind has died down, 22 June 2013 at 7:45 pm.

8. Black locust leaves in the wind, 22 June 2013 at 1:30 pm.

9. Bing cherry leaves still clustered around the trunk, 20 June 2013. The needle grass exaggerates the wind the leaves are ignoring.

10. Base of same Bing cherry, 22 June 2013. It’s worked itself loose from rocking in the wind.

11. Downed cottonwood branch, 29 June 2012. The men who cut it down though there might have been insect damage.  My neighbor got a bit hysterical.  The fence broke the fall, so it wouldn’t have damaged my car if I had parked a bit more forward.

12. Downed black locust trunk, 9 August 2011.  My neighbor continually warns about this tree and the power lines. Whenever its branches even begin to get that tall, the borers attack. So far, it is only a threat to my drive.

13. Fragrant black locust flower, 25 May 2013.

14. Fragrant catalpa flowers, 12 June 2013.

Forests

Weather: More heat, more winds; some sprinkles Friday; 14:37 hours of daylight today.

What’s blooming in the area: Dr. Huey and hybrid roses, daylilies, silver lace vine, Jupiter’s beard, bouncing Bess, purple salvia, blue flax, alfalfa, brome grass. First hay cut.

Beyond the walls and fences: Catalpa, trumpet creeper, tamarix, cholla cactus, scurf and sweet peas, wild licorice peaked, showy milkweed, purple mat flower, leather-leafed globe mallow, bindweed, greenleaf five-eyes, prairie white evening primrose, scarlet bee blossom, velvetweed, common dandelion, goat’s beard, Hopi tea, horsetail, rice grass.

In my yard, looking east: Snow-in-summer peaked, Bath pinks peaked, baby’s breath, pink evening primrose, winecup mallow.

Looking south: Rugosa, floribunda and miniature roses, oxalis.

Looking west: Johnson Blue geranium, Rumanian sage, catmints, purple and Husker’s red beardstongues, sea lavender, Shasta daisy; buds on ladybells.

Looking north: Golden spur columbine, Hartweig primrose, coreopsis, chocolate flowers, anthemis, yellow yarrow.

In the open, along the drive: Dutch clover, hollyhock, coral beardstongue, white yarrow, blanket flower, yellow, red and mixed Mexican hats.

Bedding plants: Wax begonias, periwinkle, pansies, snapdragons, French marigolds.

Known unknowns: Native dandelion.

What’s blooming inside: Zonal geraniums, aptenia.

Animal sightings: Rabbit still eating morning glory seedlings, hummingbird, small brown birds, ladybug on squash leaf, small bees on alfalfa, catmint and chollas, cricket, grasshoppers, harvester and smaller ants.

Weekly update: Earlier this year, a friend recommended Sara Maitland’s From the Forest. Her starting point is the fairy tales of northern Europe and the British Isles usually are set in forests. Those forests weren’t primeval stands like the ones discovered on this continent. They were safe refuges that were extensions of civilized life where men like Snow White’s dwarfs could mine. Men cut wood for fuel and heat for a living.

The difference between the two kinds of forests, those shaped by humans and those essentially untouched, has been clear this week with men fighting fires in the Jémez and Sangre de Cristo. The Thompson Ridge and Tres Lagunas fires are burning in man-made environments. The Jaroso fire is not just in the Pecos Wilderness reserve; it is wilderness.

Thompson Ridge is easily described by the Forest Service. Once you knew the fire moved into the Valles Caldera National Preserve you knew where it was. Once you know the fuels are "grass, Ponderosa pine, brush, mixed conifer," you know the landscape. The land around the caldera is not primeval. It was logged, and grazed in the early twentieth century. A major road goes through. You’ve been there.

Similarly, Tres Lagunas is always described as being close to summer settlements around Holy Ghost Canyon. The woods are "ponderosa pine and mixed conifer." The area is like Maitland’s, logged and colonized by humans.

Both fires were started by lines carrying electricity to settlements. Both are in areas where fires have burned recently. Valles Caldera was singed by Las Conchas of 2011 and Cerro Grande in 2000. Tres Lagunas has been limited in one direction by the remains of the Viveash Fire of 2000. The first was caused by a power line, the second by a badly-timed controlled burn, the last had some human cause. These are human forests.

Cañon Jaroso is different. The Fire Service can’t quite tell you where it is. It either says "approximately six miles southeast of Borrego Mesa," or "T19N, R11E, Sec 1." Wednesday it noted it had "made runs towards the Rio Medio, Pecos Baldy and Trailriders Wall" and was eight to ten miles from places like "Ojo Sarco, Trampas, Peñasco, and El Valle." Friday the fire was "near Frijoles Canyon."

I finally found the canyon on the USGS map for the Pecos Falls quadrant. The stream feeds into the Pecos, and runs close to the watershed between the Rio Grande and the Pecos.  Frijoles and Medio are two of the three feeders of the Santa Cruz river that runs west. Apparently the fire’s burning along the divide, threatening the upper watercourses on both sides.

The fuels for this fire are described as: "mixed conifer, heavy dead and down fuels with pockets of bug-killed trees and 1,300 acres of downed timber caused by a wind event six years ago." That "wind event" since has been described as swirling winds that touched down or came through at 10,000'. I assume the bugs are bark beetles, though they haven’t said.

This is not a domesticated woodland. You can only get there by foot, or some off-road vehicle. Hikers and fishermen keep the trails clear. It may not be primeval: loggers and sheepmen went everywhere. One doesn’t expect to find trees 6' in diameter. But, it is wilder than the more easily accessible areas. It was started by lightening.

It will be harder to fight. Firefighter’s tools were made for protecting human settlements on comparatively moderate terrain. On a mountain divide, there are no areas where a dozer can create fire breaks. The canyons are too narrow for the larger water tankers. The heat is so intense, they can’t get infrared readings on its extent. So far, the firefighters have been forced by winds and high temperatures to watch knowing, as we learned in the Las Conchas fire, a blaze can easily cover ten miles when it’s out of control.

The effects of the Thompson Ridge Fire are immediate. Early, when the smoke still was white and the winds came from the southwest, it blew this way.

When the fire fighters were active with suppressants and controlled burns, the smoke rose and lingered over head. At sunset, the sky turned pink with light reflected from the sun.

Now, while everyone waits for a drenching rain, it’s settled into a daily routine. Low bands of smoke in the morning rise and diffuse in the afternoon. Storms may pass through, after winds and heat have interacted with the fires as far away as Silver City. If nothing disperses it, the smoke traps the day’s heat in the night.

When it finally burns itself out, the ash and chemicals will finally settle. That’s good for those native plants that need smoke, and less good for those of us with lungs.

The Tres Lagunas fire only affects me when its smoke joins the general canopy. While I can see it in town, it’s just visible on the horizon where I live. It’s too far away to reach me. It’s no different than the annual fires in eastern Arizona.

The Jaroso fire may be farther away, but it has the greatest potential for damage. Right now, they’re waiting for the fire to leave the wilderness and enter land where they know what to do. In the meantime, they’re identifying the available sources of water. If they tap the headwaters of the Santa Cruz dam, they may do a favor for the people who depend on it for irrigation. The rivers will be contaminated by ash and may eventually contain fire suppressants. Better to have it fight the fires than come downstream, even if it exacerbates the effects of the drought.

The real problem is what will happen with the monsoons when water washes over heat-glazed soil, or next winter when snow accumulation and melting is altered. If the terrain is too difficult for fire fighters, one wonders how humans can get there to remediate it.

From a tame forest you can draw morals about the sagacity of controlled burns to manage underbrush, and wonder why Valles Grande and woodsmen in the Sangre didn’t take more proactive steps to protect their land.

Cañon Jaroso reminds you of the insignificance of human action when the natural elements are active. It never was the land of Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, or Hansel and Gretel. It’s become the world of Mediterranean artists who painted scenes of damnation with skies colored by volcanic ash. It could be Dante’s Inferno.

Notes: Maitland’s 2012 book is interesting. Unfortunately for me, she spends more time describing her reactions to the forests she visits than she does to actually saying anything about the woodlands. Likewise, instead of analyzing the Grimm brother’s tales, she publishes her own versions. She finally concludes, "you cannot learn about stories or woods by reading books about stories or woods" (p317).

Comments on the fires from an interagency web site, New Mexico Fire Information, at nmfireinfo.com.

Photographs:
1. Rio Frijoles before the Santa Cruz dam, 16 February 2012. It still is in the juniper belt, not the mixed conifers where the fire is burning. Higher mountains are just visible at the back right. The river is marked by the red of the sandbar willows snaking through the fields.

The Daily Routine
2. Jémez, yesterday, 15 June 2013, at 5:45 am. Smoke lies on the western horizon at dawn. Electric lines run everywhere.

3. Jémez, yesterday, 15 June 2013, at 10:00 am. The first clouds appear on the western horizon in mid-morning.

4. Jémez, yesterday, 15 June 2013, at 12:30 pm. By noon, clouds increase over the western horizon.

5. Jémez, yesterday, 15 June 2013, at 6:15 pm. Late in the afternoon, clouds cover the sinking sun, the white space the camera can’t capture. Rain may be falling somewhere.

6. Jémez, yesterday, 15 June 2013, at 6:50 pm. The winds begin in Los Alamos at 6:30 pm and gust to 32 mph by 7 pm, when they begin here. No rain falls.

7. Jémez, yesterday, 15 June 2013, at 7:40 pm. The sun sinks with heavy clouds that will trap the heat and smoke of the day.

History of the Fire
8. Jémez, the day the Thompson Ridge fire began, 31 May 2013, at 6:50 pm.

9. Jémez, 3 June 2013, at 6:15 pm. This was described as a day with "unstable conditions" and "extreme fire behavior." Conditions still weren’t safe for the firefighters to work.

10. Sangre de Cristo in background, 13 June 2013 at 4:40 pm. Tres Lagunas is still burning and Jaroso began a few days before on June 10.

11. Rio Medio just before it joins the Rio Frijoles, 24 February 2012.

12. Jémez, 4 June 2013, at 6:45 pm. Another day of high winds and "extreme fire behavior." The weather improved the next day. Hurricane Andrea developed on the sixth. The fire became tamable.

13. Jémez, yesterday, 15 June 2013, at 8:20 pm. It’s in black-and-white, because the camera’s infrared filter distorts the colors too much at this time of day.  The grays become blues, and things really are shades of gray in the dying light.

Tree Buds

Weather: Winds and humidity were influenced by the fires and, possibly, hurricane Andrea; last rain 4/5/2013; 14:33 hours of daylight today.

A little rain fell Wednesday, the first in six weeks (last was 4/19). It wasn’t much, but it may have been enough to save some grasses in places where water collects. No doubt, it contained ash and whatever else was in the smoke-filled clouds.

What’s blooming in the area: Dr. Huey and hybrid roses, daylilies, silver lace vine, oriental poppies, Jupiter’s beard, purple salvia, blue flax, alfalfa, brome grass.

Beyond the walls and fences: Catalpa, tamarix, prickly pear, alfilerillo, yellow sweet clover, scurf, bush and sweet peas, tumble mustard, wild licorice, purple mat flower, fern-leaved and leather-leafed globe mallows, bindweed, greenleaf five-eyes, prairie white evening primrose, scarlet bee blossom, velvetweed, English plantain, common dandelion, goat’s beard, cream tips, Hopi tea, horsetail, needle and rice grasses.

In my yard, looking east: Persian rose, snow-in-summer, Bath pinks, sea pink, baby’s breath, pink evening primrose, winecup mallow, pink salvia; reseeding morning glories germinated.

Looking south: Rugosa, floribunda and miniature roses, oxalis.

Looking west: Johnson Blue geranium, Rumanian sage, catmints, purple and Husker’s red beardstongues, sea lavender, vinca, Shasta daisy.

Looking north: Golden spur columbine, Hartweig primrose, coreopsis, chocolate flowers, anthemia; buds on yellow yarrow.

In the open, along the drive: Dutch clover, first hollyhock, white yarrow, blanket flower, yellow Mexican hat; buds on coral beardstongues.

Bedding plants: Wax begonias, periwinkle, pansies, sweet alyssum, snapdragons, French marigolds.

Known unknowns: Native dandelion.

What’s blooming inside: Zonal geraniums, petunias.

Animal sightings: Rabbit, hummingbird, small brown birds, geckos, ladybug, cabbage butterfly and small bees on alfalfa, hornets, cricket, grasshoppers, harvester and smaller ants.

Weekly update: Trees, as we know them evolved some 60 to 100 million years ago. They emerged at a time when swamps were dominant, then adapted to glacial conditions. At some time they developed ways to cope with drought and unexpected frosts and fire, and all the other climatic variations that can occur.

Their common strategy seems to be overproduce, then ruthlessly prune if conditions are favorable. Each year, more leaf buds are created than are needed. Once the first buds successfully have turned into leaves, they produce chemicals which inhibit the continued growth of other buds. Some atrophy, some go dormant and are absorbed into the bark. When conditions change, the bud bank is activated.

Every year catalpas navigate a precarious path to bud burst. The weather warms, they start to leaf. Temperatures fall, the leaves die.

Time passes, while the tree adjusts its internal chemistry and reactivates the suppressed buds.

I’ve gotten used to their annual cycles, but never thought much about the universality of the underlying processes until this year.

Siberian elms bloomed the end of March, then halted their cycle. The leaves were late, and often sparse.

The mature trees of heaven didn’t even put out their canopies until this week. On the females, the leaves perched atop last year’s seed clusters.

I don’t know what role our three frosts played in changing their leafing schedules, but I suspect it was a factor.

When times get bad, some trees, like the cottonwood in the second picture, simply activate the buds nearest the canopy that can maintain the nutrient flow between the leaves and the roots.

The last two dry summers, and the current drought have rendered that strategy useless for many. The cottonwood in the top picture shed all its leaves and left the top to die. It’s found the resources to try again from the base.

Siberian elms and trees of heaven also are suckering, perhaps indicating problems not yet visible.

When all else fails, trees still are falling back on their oldest plan, produce more seeds.

Photographs:
1. Cottonwood down the road, 8 June 2013, sucker at base.

2. Two cottonwoods and a catalpa, 6 June 2013. All must have died back. The catalpa was cropped. The cottonwood on the left is struggling to survive. The one in the center is barren.

3. Buds sprouting from the stump of a recently cut down Russian olive, 8 June 2011.

4. Catalpa leaves in the late snow two years ago, 2 May 2011.

5. Catalpa second leaves ten days later, 12 May 2011.

6. Volunteer elm with sparse leaves, 8 June 2011.

7. Tree of heaven that’s just leaved out, 6 June 2011.

8. Close up of canopy in #2, 6 June 2013.

9. Close up of sucker in #1, 8 June 2013.

10. Mature elm down the road with suckers, 6 June 2013.

11. Seedling from same catalpa, 8 June 2011.

12. Tree of heaven down the road, with bare patches and suckers, 6 June 2011. You can see a hose they are using to keep the tree going.