A Winter Day in Eastern Okanogan County

Went exploring in eastern Okanogan County a couple of days ago. A beautiful landscape and one hard to reconcile with Washington's tag line-"the Evergreen State".

Arid valley south of the town of Conconully.

Abandoned building close to the former town of Nighthawk on the Similkameen River.

Conconully Cemetery

Tattered flag flying in the Conconully Cemetery

Blue Lake, Sinlahekin Wildlife Area.

Sinlahekin Valley, Sinlahekin Wildlife Area.

Valley north of the town of Loomis, Washington.

Palmer Lake

Palmer Lake

Similkameen River and Chopaka Mountains.

Similkameen River.

Entertainment in the Similkameen River Valley.

Abandoned mine rigging and tailings pile close to the former town of Nighthawk, Washington.

Day 4: Quiet day on the water

Calm morning water on an inlet north of Bella Bella

Jumping chum salmon are a common sight in the still waters close to fresh water streams at the moment

Great Bear Rainforest Day 1-2

View from the flight into Bella Bella-a maze of rainforest clad islands
and wandering ocean inlets bounded by the Coast Range to the east

View from the water on my first day out in the field.

Doug Brown, the field station manager for Raincoast Conservation Foundation,
and my guide, spotted this wolf along the shore of a small island northeast of Bella Bella

Sunshine and wolves greeted me on my first day in the field here on the central coast of British Columbia. The salmon are gathering at the mouths of the creeks and rivers here.

Learn more about my current project on Wolves in the Pacific Northwest!

Clayoquot Sound Revisited

 A week of journeying by land and sea has yielded some great results as I continue to collect material for my forthcoming book on Wolves of the Pacific Northwest. I am tremendously grateful to Steve and Susanne Lawson for their invaluable assistance in my fieldwork here in Clayoquot Sound thus far! Stay tuned for more photos and stories to come!

Sea Otter patrolling coastal waters north of Ucluelet.

The return of extensive bull kelp forests along the northern Pacific coast has been associated with rebounding Sea otter populations, a classic example of a trophic cascade. Bull kelp was released from heavy browsing pressure by sea urchins with the return of otters which love to eat urchins.

Rocky coastline close to Wye Point, north of the town of Ucluelet

Guess the beach brings out the playful side of more than just juvenial people. Here two yearling wolves play with washed up seaweed  on an island in Clayoquot Sound.

Wolf crossing a lead of water at first light.

We watched this randy male black bear following a smaller female bear earnestly, stopping only to rub vigorous on a large drift wood log, a behavior which increases during the breeding season.

Oystercatchers are one of the most common shorebirds in the Sound this time of year.

Bears, for a change of pace

A few images from a recent trip to the 7 Lakes Basin in Olympic National Park.

Black Bear feeding on huckleberries. East of Heart Lake, Olympic National Park

Black bear, Olympic National Park

Black bear, Olympic National Park.

Darcy Ottey with the Hoh River Valley and Mt. Olympus in the background.

 

Darcy Ottey watching a bear feed in the meadow beyond her. An Olympic marmot was also watching the bear with much scrutiny. West of Swimming Bear Lake, Olympic National Park.

Western Heather Vole (Phenacomys intermedius). Lunch Lake, Olympic National Park.

Stream in the Sol Duc River Valley, Olympic National Park.

Black bear, feeding on huckleberries. Olympic National Park.

Clayoquot Sound, B.C.

Wolf tracks along west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Bald eagle above a foggy forest.

Carcass of juvenile humpback whale on beach of island in Clayoquot Sound

Racoon foraging for sand flees on beach of island in Sound

Black-tailed deer feeding on seaweed on island in Clayoquot Sound.

River otter scent marking on seaweed as tide goes out.

Black bear foraging for invertebrates in the intertidal zone by rolling rocks.

Large Sitka spruce in ancient forest on island in the Sound.

 A gray wolf trots along the beach early in the morning with ravens in the background.
West Coast, Vancouver Island

Tofino Inlet, Clayoquot Sound.

Harbor seals lounging at low tide.

Despite decades of conservation efforts, Clayoquot Sound, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve,  faces numerous severe threats to its ecological integrity including clear cut logging of roadless old growth forests, industrial Atlantic salmon fish farms, and proposed open-pit copper mining. Learn more about the region and how you can support conservation in the region at the following websites:

Friends of Clayoquot Sound

Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve

First Nations Environmental Network

Atlantic salmon fish farm in Clayoquot Sound with uncut forest in background. Several rivers with no clearcuts or roads in them are seeing massive declines in salmon numbers due to sea lice and other issues associated with fish farming in the Sound. The smell is overwhelming, far worse than a dairy farm and totally shocking in such a wild setting.

Active clearcut logging in Clayquot Sound. Top of the photo is uncut oldgrowth. Bottom is regrowth from a previous clearcut.

Growth rings: over 200. Destination: ?

Huge western red ceder stump set amidst second growth forest of planted Douglas firs. Note that the original nurse log that the ceder tree started growing on in still under the stump, attesting to the volume of biomass in the previous ancient forest and the literally centuries it took to create the structural diversity so important to many Old growth obligate species.