On the far eastern edge of the Northwest, conifers encounter the region's most extreme conditions: biting cold and deep snow on the high peaks, enormous forest fires in the dry lowlands. Conifers are a group of plants with many fascinating evolutionary stories, and the ways in which their structure and physiology have adapted to ice and to fire shows is perhaps the most impressive of these biological sagas. In this episode, we travel to some of the best-known and best-loved national parks on both sides of the US-Canada border to explore how two species of conifer in particular cope with environmental extremes.
The first forests we visit in this series are the lowland forests around the Salish Sea, home of Douglas firs, western hemlocks, and western...
In this long-delayed conclusion of Voyages' hourney down the California Current, we visit Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, and the Big Sur to explore the...
From Crater Lake to Mt. Rainier, the forests of the central Cascades Range are alive with animals, plants, and fungi, all of which are...