Pinus longaeva: The Bristlecone Pine

Pinus longaeva. This is the photo that most impresses me among all the others I've taken since coming here. Take a moment to click on the picture or view it in my Flickr photostream to observe the posture of this tree in a larger format. This growth habit for the Bristlecone Pine exists when growing along an exposed ridge line, where it is constantly exposed to the sculpting hands of the environment. The high winds prevented this tree from growing more than five feet tall, effectively dwarfing its stature. The smooth twists twists in it's bark come from the extremely slow growth. All trees grow with a sort of twist in their trunk, the slower it grows, the more defined the twist can be. You can get an idea for the age of a certain tree by contemplating the relationship between height and amount of contortion. This individual is awful short and quite twisted, I happen to know that this tree is likely well over 3,500 years old. How amazing it is that this tree was a seedling well before the birth of christ. Being in its presence for hours of my day was simply a fraction of a moment in the life of this ancient LIVING being.

It is hard to describe the feeling of walking amongst these elders of the natural world, I've never felt more like I was stepping on sacred ground than I did at that moment.

Photo courtesy of Chris Hoffman

To Make a Didgeridoo (My Message Stick)

So this past fall I was strolling through the streets of San Francisco on my way to the airport when I spotted the most beautiful dried agave flower stalk. With this being my first time face-to-foliage with this plant, I instantly thought of the possible crafting opportunities, a didgeridoo in particular.

I began playing the didgeridoo in the fall of 2008. It is a very simple instrument that consists of a long hollow tube shape that you blow into. I had heard it used in many songs byXavier Rudd and found it quite enticing. I went online and purchased a hand made bamboo didgeridoo from LA Outback, I figured that if I made the investment it would push me to master the instrument. It turned out to be a challenging task at first, making the drone sound and then eventually figuring out the circular breath. So as my interest in didgeridoos was growing I was continuously looking into how to create my own. First it was the PVC pipe didgeridoo which yielded a simple tone but I wanted something more substantial, I wanted an agave stalk. With agave being native to the western united states I decided to put these ideas on the back burner.

I returned to Frisco after an amazing visit with Miley in Texas, to see him and his platoon off to the middle east. Before I hit the road once again, leaving town, I made one last stop. I paid a visit to the dead agave stalk. It was dark and there was little traffic so I pulled up beside the plant and fetched my machete from the back of the car. When agave flowers, it puts all of its available energy into the production of this long stalk so it can ensure reproductive success. The plant will input so much energy that it dies soon after the fruiting period. This individual had already flowered and was growing more as a weed so I knew I was doing the city a favor by cutting it down. Plus I had creative plans for this particular plant. After hacking down the stalk to a suitable 6ft length I tossed it into my car where it sat for the remainder of my trip across the country, constantly sliding around hitting me in the head and obstructing my views.

After finally returning home to Vermont after my month long trip, living out of my car, I was ready to get started on this project. luckily my father had an abundance of hand tools to make the whole process a bit easier. The first step was to hollow out the interior of the stalk. This was possible because the flower stalk has a very soft pith that can be easily cleaned out. I began by clamping the stalk to the work bench and taking the 4 ft auger with 1 inch drill bit and slowly drilling a channel through the length of the stalk, carefully entering from both ends to make the connection. One end of the stalk was about 5 inches wide so my next step was to clear out the rest of the pith. To do this my father gave me the idea to construct a sharp scraping tool. After grinding a piece of metal into a suitable shape and fixing it to the end of the stick, I was able to complete the hollowing process.

With the center hollowed out and complete I was ready to cut it to the final dimensions and to prepare the exterior surface. By using a pull scraping tool I was able to achieve a beautiful smooth exterior.

My next step was to decorate and seal the didgeridoo. Without being able to play the instrument until I fixed the mouth piece I became very anxious to hear its sound. I found it important to seal the didgeridoo inorder to protect it from cracking and to give a crisp sound since the soft pithy interior wouldn't resonate very well. I sealed the didgeridoo with food safe epoxy, first by slowly dripping it down through all 70 inches of the interior length. Next I sealed the exterior by

rubbing it down with gloved hands to ensure full coverage. After letting it sit for a day after each coat I purchased some beeswax to shape into a mouth piece so that I could start playing.

After days of anticipation and easily over 15 hours of work, the didgeridoo was complete and I gave it a toot and oh what a sound it produced. The sound is very distinct from that of my bamboo didgeridoo and with it being much longer, it enables me to make new sounds and vocalizations with ease. It has been an amazing process and I am happy to continue along the long road to mastery with my new message stick

.

Prison Hill by Night

(shutter click!)

Oh! the wine.

In my scramble to pull the camera gear and tripod together I forgot to slip the wine bottle under my arm. In addition to forgetting my comfort beverage on this coldish night I left my clock back in the car so here I am counting each second of light exposure. 120 seconds.

(shutter release)

hmmm. A bit over exposed but I'm already one exposure deep and I aught not waste my batteries repeating the same exposure. When shooting a night panoramic one must expose each sequential picture in the same way to ensure continuity. After adjusting my camera for the next frame I start the next one. 1.....2.....3.....man that wine sounds nice about now....4.....5.....Silence on the outskirts of town is an odd mixture of engines, suburban coughing, children's screams, domestic dogs barking to one another causing a chain reaction until the entire neighborhood is laced with canine cries. Then the coyotes chime in. Continuing what the puppies had started, the the night yields to the wild dogs and their yelping, whining, barking, the neigh of a horse?? hmmm.....119......120. Click!

I begin the next photo and turn toward my car....1.....2.....scrambling down the rocky summit I carefully step on what seem to be good footholds in the half moon light....39......40.....I've made it to the car realizing I am without a bottle opener.....50.....quick thinking....55....I search through my tool bag and find a 2 inch screw.....65.....66.....phone clock......67......racing back up the large rock pile I make it to my camera, set down the bottle and close the shutter.....120.

(click)

By inserting the screw into the cork and using my Leatherman pliers I am able to de-cork the bottle and take my victory swig. Two minutes on the clock. About five more pictures to go.

The clouds are no where to be seen and the stars are out. Orion, Gemini, Ursa Minora, Draco, Ursa Majora, Polaris. Over time I can track the movement of the sky around the north star. This is what I have needed this past month, I needed to get back outside and spend some much needed time with the world.

The owl hoots then pauses. His response is heard across the sagebrush meadow.

What a perfect night to sleep out.

(shutter release)

BLM Projects: Endemic Buckwheat Preservation

A Glimpse of the Landscape

As some of you may know, I am working for the BLM these days and for those of you who don't know what the BLM is (since i had know idea previous to getting out west), the Bureau of Land Management is one of the agencies with the Department of the Interior. The others include the Forest Service, National Park Service and so fourth. We, the BLM, specifically deal with the management of public lands and since those are hard to come by back East its no wonder why I found out about this branch of the government so recently. I'm working closely with the Carson City District Botanist in addition to four other interns to manage botanical resources in our area.

Since I started my internship about a month ago we have done much training and discussion about upcoming projects for this seasons efforts. Just to highlight the topic of most recent deliberation I want to bring up the conservation of rare plants. My supervisor, the botanist, Dean, has brought attention to a small population of endemic buckwheat plants. Endemic means that they only exist in a very specific location within the entire world (like the giant tortoises of the Galapagos), this location happens to be within our district and therefore is a species of interest to us. When a species is endemic it often means that this organism is taking advantage of certain environmental factors allow it to live in specific space. This zone of "comfort" is referred to as a "niche". Now this rare and endemic buckwheat (polygonaceae family) happens to occupy a niche so specific that it only survives by utilizing the soil made up from the silica carcasses of prehistoric aquatic microorganisms (diatoms) that settled onto the bottom of the ancient oceans and are presently exposed sections of earth. This would not be a big issue if the soils weren't of economic interest, but they are. These diatenacious soils are used not only as a highly effective component to filters of all types but more so for the main ingredient in most cat litters.

Here at the Sierra Front Office we have acknowledged this small population of buckwheat and are making efforts to preserve this plot of land from the interest of local miners. Last years interns went out and set up monitoring plots and GPS marked each individual in this population as a means to quantify the situation. Just last week we had a miner come into the BLM district office to inquire about that plot of land that is so precious to us. This man has millions of investment dollars to set up a new "cat litter" mine but since the land is not yet officially preserved we have to wait for the higher ups to make their decision. Sadly in Nevada there are some very powerful laws backing up the miners to stake their claim, these laws pre-date the endangered species act and take no such consideration. With little preventing the miners form taking over we can only continue to monitor the area and hope the land is preserved in time to save our precious buckwheat who will have nowhere to go outside his niche.
Oh my... Each day I see how managing natural resources on the public lands is so difficult. We must conserve but also meet the needs of the People!

It is their land you know.

For the Love of Film

After two weeks of waiting for my roll of black and white film to be developed, I have results! I first loaded the film on the day before I made the long and somewhat lonesome journey across the country to Carson City Nevada, my new home for the next 10 months. Since it has been nearly a month since I left home, I have been long awaiting these exposures. Unfortunately it took so long because the camera shop I chose (likely the only one in town) sends its film all the way to Los Angeles for development, I was trying to keep it local but film seems to be on it's way out. Below are a few of my exposures, more can be found through my Flickr link on the right. Sadly my 35mm has been acting up (as elderly cameras often do) so I won't be exposing more film anytime soon, until I can get it cleaned and lubricated. I still have my digital so dry those tears, its OK.

A shot of the intern crew working out in the field

Our storage cage. There are some great toys in here!

Biking my way home, this was taken before my tire blew out...

Winter Ascent

We dropped our tools and decided to go for a hike the next day.

We hit the summit of Camels Hump in the Green Mountains of Vermont this week and were fortunate enough to receive fresh tracks in the snow during our hike. It makes the going a bit tougher but being first to break trail sparked an interesting feeling of adventure. we trudged through the snow in what appeared to be untouched wilderness. The summit was windy and freezing but I managed to snap a few pictures before my hand completely froze. after my 2 weeks of sickness, it was nice to finally get outside. For some reason I overlooked the option of venturing out of doors, forgetting the healing power of natural exposure.

I love hiking in the winter for many reasons:

The views: Although most of the time the summit is clouded in a snow squall yielding no view, just harsh winds and low temperatures, those days when you do end up having a clear summit the snow dusted landscape to behold is like no other.

Temperature control: When hiking in sub freezing temperatures you will find that if you have sufficient layers, the simple shedding and addition of them can keep you quite comfortable. When hiking in the summer you have to deal with both the insects and temperatures beyond your control.

Hiking down: This is often the best part as long as your knees, hips and back are in good shape. With the trails covered in snow and being quite slick you can often slide down the mountain in many ways: on snowshoes, rain pants, sleds, or skis. These are all great ways to make the descent more enjoyable.

I'm not a fan of the self oriented head shot but I don't think anyone else was about to risk their fingers in that cold.

Diptychs

Ice and Stone


Summer and Fall


Day 1 and 2