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.
On this episode we continue our journey along the path of the Missoula Floods. Having encountered the giant lake that caused them, we now...
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 delayed episode (sorry; neither scheduling nor technology were playing well with me this week) I'm joined by fellow GU faculty member Emily...