Not much of a cone crop this year, except for Ponderosa pine and incense cedar. Everything is advanced and the IC is already beginning to open, so my son Max and I had to hustle today and climb some trees before all the seed flutters away. We work really hard to keep this place going, but climbing remains one of my favorite parts of the job. I’ve always enjoyed climbing trees, and now I get to enjoy this work with my son, who is an expert climber, both on rocky crags and in mossy trees. Max has scrambled up hundreds of trees to secure much of the conifer and hardwood tree seed that has kept us in grand fir, western redcedar, bigleaf maple and all the rest for many years now. He has his own seed company – Northwest Select Seed – so let me know if you need seed and I’ll hook you up.
And I still scramble up a few when I get the chance.
It’s always interesting to see the tops of trees and to experience the world from that perspective. I almost always notice the nuthatches when I am climbing conifer trees in August. Their distinct call is a part of the audio that I have come to expect after 40 years of collecting cones. I’ll never be tired of it.
And it’s always interesting to note the differences from tree to tree and from bottom to top in the same tree. Needles are always shaped differently in the top of on old tree than the needles on the lower branches. Stouter, waxier, generally more terete in cross section. And usually there are more cones up top. In true firs, the cones are exclusively on top. I love climbing conifers, even when they are pitchy. The scent of pine, fir and cedar – each distinct and yet unmistakably coniferous, all related by their Permian ancestors.
No matter the species, every climb and every tree is unique. I learn more by putting my hands on the material, and in the case of trees, by putting myself into the canopy, than any paper or book could teach me. Both the study and the physical contact are necessary if you really want to know trees.