January 25

Rose and I planted two Sitka spruce trees (Picea sitchensis). These are ones I uprooted from a nurse log here on the property, and potted up last spring/summer. I put them in high on the bank east on Three Rivers where there's a wedge of property the county owns. The major tree there is a huge spruce further down the bank and leaning towards the river slightly. Maybe by the time the old spruce falls (into the river?), the young ones will take over and stop erosion there.

The county owns this property because the owners must have not paid their property taxes. That would have been years and years ago as there is no sign of habitation here now. There is a flat area where maybe a house stood, and a depression - a garbage or latrine (long ago!) pit - the boys mined for old bottles when those were their fascination. When I dug to plant the trees, I unearthed a chunk of thick white pottery - from a coffee mug?

The photo above is by Charles Weber @ California Academy of Science. It's used with permission form the Manzanita Image Project. These large spruce illustrate the somber green and brown coloration of Sitka spruce. I believe the trees in the photo are all growing in a row like this because they began their growth on a nurse log just as the baby trees I uprooted to pots did. Growing in rotting logs, the seedlings have extensive root systems, less extensive ones in less rotted wood. Lots of associated mosses and some "mold", all of which I try to keep in with the small trees when I pull them and plant them. There must be some benefit to the trees in starting growth on a nurse log, as they are growing there but nowhere around the log, i.e., not in the soil near the nurse log where seeds must have fallen!