Aspen in Winter

All is white but the buds, getting ready for spring leafing -- good reason quaking aspen are a favorite landscape plant in northern Arizona. It helps that the trees are native to the higher elevations here and further north. Before writing, I consulted The Google and discovered not only that this tree is more widespread than any other in North America but also that there is a Eurasian quaking aspen.

For the record, two aspen groves grow in the Prescott National forest locally at elevations above 6000 ft.. One is far up Copper Basin Road, along Aspen Creek. The other follows the Hassayampa upstream from the lake south of Mount Union. Unfortunately, aspen is not a climax tree (except on some ranges in Nevada) and is gradually being edged out by taller pines. The only way we will get new aspen groves is for our forest to open up, meaning fire or other destruction of the pines (beetles?)

An aspen grove is a single plant, which is why all the trees leaf or turn color at the same time -- a spectacular performance. Wikipedia explains:

All the aspens typically grow in large colonies derived from a single seedling, and spreading by means of root suckers; new stems in the colony may appear at up to 30–40 m from the parent tree. Each tree only lives for 40–150 years above ground, but the root system of the colony is long-lived, in some cases for many thousands of years, sending up new trunks as the older trunks die off above ground. For this reason it is considered to be an indicator of ancient woodlands. One such colony in Utah, given the nickname of "Pando", is claimed to be 80,000 years old, making it possibly the oldest living colony. Some aspen colonies become very large with time, spreading about a metre per year, eventually covering many hectares. They are able to survive intense forest fires as the roots are below the heat of the fire, with new sprouts growing after the fire is out. However, aspens do not thrive very well in the shade, and it is difficult for aspen seedlings to grow in an already mature aspen stand. Fire indirectly benefits aspen trees, as it allows the saplings to flourish in open sunlight on account of the burned landscape. Lately aspen has increased its popularity in forestry, mostly because of its fast growth rate and ability to regenerate from sprouts, which makes the regeneration of the forest after harvesting much cheaper, as no planting or sowing is required.

The article concludes with a video of quaking aspen doing just that -- quaking. To see the video directly, go here.

The face in the bark

What can I say. I saw this pristine quaking aspen tree trunk over on Park Avenue one day. Did a double take and took this picture of the "cubist" drawing. Note the rakish eyebrow over one of the lady's eyes.

Up in the high country in the Coconino, unmarked trunks are rare. Most of the aspens are covered with a particular kind of graffiti, carved in the past by Basque shepherds. In checking out the subject with The Google, I discovered, among other things, that the U of Nevada/Reno has, can you believe, a Basque Studies Center. One of its newsletters stated that tree carvings represent roughly a one-hundred period in the story of Basque immigration to the American West, from the last decades of the nineteenth century until the 1970s. The Basque sheepherders inscribed thousands of messages on aspens in ten states from California to Montana. (I suspect the reason that Nevada would have the Basque Center is that on many of its isolated mountain ranges, aspen comprise the climax forest, unlike most western ranges where conifers take over from the aspen.) According to another reference, the aspens in New Mexico and Colorado were carved primarily by Hispanic sheepherders. There is something about the smooth white bark that just invites sign making! Oh, yes. The academics have a name for all this: arborglyphs.

Water Hauling: Local readers in particular should find a new post at FreshWaterFootprint of interest. The subject: areas in Yavapai County where residents must haul water -- and why. Probably a subject most of us don't know much about. Another link: the Daily Yonder, the blog about rural America, looks at where the prosperous rural counties are located.