A recent photo from Silver Mountain (shown at the top, center of DEM image below). One of my favorite places in the UP. During the summer of 2000 I camped many weekends in the shadow of Silver Mt because my first forest ecology research job as an undergrad only paid for hotels during weekdays.

Here are some of the forests that occur along the Sturgeon river gorge shown in the DEM image below. These pictures were taken at the north edge of the image looking south across the gorge or downslope. These fire-scarred red pines are somewhat uncommon as this area is mostly northern hardwoods.

Across the northern hemisphere stable isotopes in precipitation tend to get more negative at increasing latitudes. However, adjacent to Lake Superior the opposite pattern occurs (see figure) and is particularly pronounced during cold conditions. Does anyone know what is going on here ?

Today on a walk I came across this UP mining cabin from the mid to late 1800s. It would have been just tall enough to stand stooped at the peak. There are some nice local white cedar rings in the logs walls.

NOAA retirees “volunteering” including one who is working as an “unpaid intern” in order to help. I would like to never again hear anyone bitch about civil servants’ work ethic tyvm.

deadtrees.earth — An open-access and interactive database for centimeter-scale aerial imagery to uncover global tree mortality dynamics. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Led by @cmosig.bsky.social

How's your aspen?

A fabulous #postdoc opportunity to work with my colleague Nick Ward at PNNL on forest trace gas cycling, studying a poorly constrained component of the Earth system! Please share widely: careers.pnnl.gov/jobs/10985?l...

I don't know about "gigantism", but these authors suggest CO2 may have caused trees/forests to increase in size. This paper came out just in time for a proposal I am submitting tomorrow on the same topic, but using a different approach in a different system.

Here is something you will only find in this part of the UP. A person on FB selling a 515 lb piece of "float copper" This means it is a piece of nearly pure copper deposited here during the last deglacial. People search for these with metal detectors since anything at the surface has been found.

My department is hiring an assistant professor of forest regeneration. The University of Minnesota department of forest resources is a great place to work, I really really like it here, and hope we end up hiring someone I can collaborate with. hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/370...

Hiker Wandering Through Oregon Forest Enjoying Vibrant Reds And Golds Of Fall https://theonion.com/hiker-wandering-through-oregon-forest-enjoying-vibrant-1845142293/

@democracyforward.org showing how it’s done… We just secured a court order with co-counsel BLOCKING Pres. Trump’s attempts to fire federal workers during the shutdown.

After getting zero firm commitments to this point from the first nine invitees, the Trump administration is extending its proposed compact to all colleges. Expect some red-state publics to say yes.

Excited to share our research on the evolution of fossil forests from the Devonian to Jurassic! By analyzing 38 global fossil forests, we explored key parameters to better understand how these fossil forests developed over time. doi.org/10.1016/j.ea...

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

Two redwood sampling pictures from the archives. This tree cross-dated really well from 1996 to 450 CE. It fell in a storm during the winter of 96/97 in the Rockefeller Forest area of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It was tricky to cut because it was partially buried in the soil from when it fell.

From beginning to end: the synecology of tree‐killing bark beetles, fungi, and trees - Six - Biological Reviews - Wiley Online Library 😁WE HAVE A NEW ONE OUT. Two years in the making. Give it a look! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Good reporting on widespread Douglas-fir mortality in SW Oregon. I lived on the edge of the Ashland watershed mentioned in the article ca. 2012-2014. Even then I was seeing patchy mortality from crowding/drought that I knew would get much worse as temps warmed.

Went to the Huron Mt Club this weekend for a small conference and caught up with my M.S. advisor for the first time in 16 years.

This is very cool. Ornithological archaeology 🕺🏻🧪

Walking in the deep UP woods recently I came across two of the biggest trees I have seen a beaver go after -- two ~20 inch dbh aspen. It felled the first tree (that had some decay) but gave up most of the way through the second -- which is still alive and mostly well.

New PhD position in tree ecophysiology at BiFoR-FACE (Uni of Birmingham) 🌳 Looking at tree carbon and water dynamics under elevated CO2 and warming 🌡️ Start Jan 2026. See more info here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/376950

Electricity now costs 267% more (!!) for 1 month vs. what it cost 5 years ago near data center hotspots. Awesome reporting from Josh Saul @dinabass.bsky.social Leonardo Nicoletti @naurtorious.bsky.social Demetrios Pogkas (gift link) www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Trump officials shut off funding for climate adaptation centers - Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

I love that this particular bristlecone looks like a dragon

Tree inside tree.

I am pretty sure most people who follow my posts more or less know what bristlecone pine trees look like. There are so many iconic images from high elevation. But at low elevation in the Rockies their form can get crazy. Here is a pic from one site I sampled a while back when I lived in Utah.

We are searching for a Forest Ecophysiologist (tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry. Please share! Details are here: ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs

Just SE of Grand Marais Airport-Y98, MI, USA. maps.app.goo.gl/XbSx3onyVynp...

Today on a bushwacking treck to find remote stands of red pines in the western UP I found this abandoned Forest Service cabin. If everything goes to hell, this could be a viable option -- with a little work.

Here are three images of the same wetland/pond surrounded by intensively managed UP red pine forest that transition from dry to wet conditions (2012, 2014, 2019). The linear features -- ecological legacies of old growth pine trees that fell into the pond 10s to 100s of yrs ago are really cool!

Three regional CASCs - the Northeast, South Central and Pacific Islands - will cease operations in coming weeks because Dept of the Interior won’t approve their next 5-year agreements. Other CASCs have had projects cancelled and funds reprogrammed in violation of Congressional appropriations.

You think you know oak trees by their bark? Here are two >200 year old bur oaks I sampled in Northern Wisconsin, a St Croix River flood plain/terrace.

14,000 yr-old in situ stumps sampled today! 🥰 Wood that old cannot be found in the Alps, but in the Prealps! In Southern Alps, some torrential systems feature Lateglacial Pinus sylvestris outcrops! So BEAUTIFUL! (Rooted stumps+paleosol+alluvial sediments) 📷 L. Francon PI: C. Miramont (both IMBE)

Tree ring 14C and 13C content reveal reliance on fast cycling carbon for pine growth in semiarid montane forests

The NW Climate Adaptation Science Center recently convened 100 scientists & managers to synthesize what's known and unknown about the ecological impacts of the 2021 PNW heat wave, and what can be done to manage risks from extreme heat events. Products now available! 👇 nwcasc.uw.edu/programs/act...

Today a former student dropped off this white cedar cross section that clocks in at exactly 300 rings. It is from an area we have been developing a chronology, so it will be a nice addition. The dead tree was felled as a hazard. The sample was from halfway up the stem due to extensive basal decay.

Living hemlock stump due to root grafting (i.e., the real wood-wide web).

I, owner of many saws, apparently now own an ice saw too.

✨ Paper spotlight ✨ (🧵 1/5) Distal to proximal: a continuum of drivers shaping tree growth and carbon partitioning doi.org/10.1111/nph....

The MSU Plant Resilience Institute is excited to launch an open rank tenure-track faculty search! We're seeking creative, collaborative researchers to join the PRI faculty to investigate plant responses to environmental challenges. 🌱 Apply now: careers.msu.edu/jobs/assista... #PlantSciJobs

I don't know how many people have asked whether Lake Superior has been anomalously warm during recent years, but my lab has been on the job! Preliminary data indicate that it has been warming very fast of late (at least it's surface temps). Peer-reviewed results will have to wait a few months.

The Garnet Fire has burned through a place I have worked since 2002. A place I hold dear. We knew this wasn't a matter of if, but when. Unfortunately the leadership on the Sierra National Forest didn't have the same urgency that we did. My eulogy for Teakettle. www.hurteaulab.org/blog/a-eulog...

I am down to the bottom of the barrel for sunken hemlocks to measure. Only samples with few rings (<100) after this one that saw some things. I didnt have a lot of hope for this sample, but it still cross-dated reasonably well except for one section of micro-rings w/ 4 missing rings

Forest treatments work to reduce wildfire risk to carbon storage, and also to hot drought mortality. We need more treatments, and we need them now, but also, we need them to be ongoing into the future.🧪🔥 www.frontiersin.org/journals/for...

COMMENTARY: If this was happening in another nation, we'd call it by name. It's authoritarianism.

New paper alert (thread)! "Whitebark pine [WBP] in the United States projected to experience an 80% reduction in climatically suitable area by the mid-21st century" In this paper, we modeled WBP climatic suitability under reference period (1961-1990) and mid-21st century climate 1/6

Yesterday was a Lake Superior beach day. Not many people for Labor Day weekend. The colors of rocks are always so varied and pleasing. I have never been anywhere else with such great rocks on the beach.