#the book is Pacific Northwest Insects

[jurassicqueer]

I got a cool bug book and was not disappointed.

[fatehbaz]

Hey I thought you might appreciate a heads up that the yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) has been spotted in Savannah, Georgia. 😞

Nice. Well, not nice news. But glad that you thought of me. Thank you.

(For other people who have yet to fully embrace and explore their innate love of hornets, this Vespa velutina hornet is originally from Southeast Asia. This creature is closely related to Vespa mandarinia, the creature derisively referred to in the US as "murder hornet" or "Asian giant hornet", originally from South/East Asia, which is now apparently established near in the Salish Sea region near Bellingham, Vancouver, and Nanaimo.)

Here's a look at where the giant hornets now live in North America, along with the distribution of some other large hornets which might be mistaken as Vespa manadrinia/velutina:

The map was originally published in 2022 in American Entomologist, displaying distribution range of (non-native) giant hornet; (non-native) European hornet; (native) southern yellowjacket; and (native) eastern cicada killer. The article also identifies a few few other species which might be mistaken for "murder hornets": great golden digger wasp, bald-faced hornet, German yellowjacket, red-legged cannibal fly, and pigeon horntail. (Available to read for free online; article title in the source/caption beneath the map.)

I've had many memorable encounters with large (native) bald-faced hornets in dense cedar-hemlock rainforest-y places. And coincidentally, the Pacific Northwest is also now apparently the North American home/homebase of Vespa mandarinia. So here are some other PNW wasps/hornets in comparison, from Oregon State University Extension Catalog (2022):

From 2020 research on potential dispersal of Vespa mandarinia over a couple of decades (not necessarily a good or realistic representation, not inevitable, kinda just "potential"):

Apparently Vespa mandarinia haven't yet been encountered outside of the general Vancouver area during targeted samples:

I know that you too are fond of wasps/hornets, and are aware of their popular demonization, the way that they're feared, etc. In July 2022, the Entomological Society of America put out an online resource thing that explains why they don't like the name "Asian giant hornet" for Vespa mandarinia and Vespa velutina, instead adopting "northern giant hornet" and "yellow-legged hornet" (which you called the creature, too!) because of the racialized/xenophobic implications. ("Northern Giant Hornet Common Name Toolkit" available at: entsoc.org/publications/common-names/northern-giant-hornet) They say: '"Murder hornet" unnecessarily invokes fear and violence, which impede accurate public understanding of the insect and its biology and behavior. While "Asian" on its own is a neutral descriptor, its association with a pest insect that inspires fear and is targeted for eradication may bolster anti-Asian sentiment in some people - at a time when hate crimes and discrimination against people of Asian descent in the United States are on the rise.'

Which, for me, brings to mind this recent book from Jeannie Shinozuka:

From the publisher's blurb: 'In the late nineteenth century, increasing traffic of transpacific plants, insects, and peoples raised fears of a “biological yellow peril” [...]. Over the next fifty years, these crossings transformed conceptions of race and migration, played a central role in the establishment of the US empire and its government agencies, and shaped the fields of horticulture, invasion biology, entomology, and plant pathology. [...] Shinozuka uncovers the emergence of biological nativism that fueled American imperialism and spurred anti-Asian racism that remains with us today. [...] She shows how the [...] panic about foreign species created a linguistic and conceptual arsenal for anti-immigration movements that flourished in the early twentieth century [...] that defined groups as bio-invasions to be regulated—or annihilated.'

A lot going on at that time with insects, empire, and xenophobia. In the 1890s, the British Empire was desperately searching for a way to halt malaria, and mosquitoes had just been discovered as vectors of malaria. And from Nobel prize podium lectures to popular media newspapers and academic journals, there was all kinds of talk about how "bacteria/viruses/insects are the greatest enemy of the Empire" and whatever. The US was also expanding in the Caribbean, Central America, Pacific islands towards East Asia, etc. Tropical plantations were proliferating, not just in Dutch Java or British India, but also in US administered Central America. And so insects were perceived not just as a threat to the human body of the British soldier or American administrator; insects were also a threat to profits, as insect pests threatened monoculture plantations and agriculture.

That same time period saw the US invasion of the Philippines and exports of products from the islands; the US annexation of Hawai'i, and elevating rivalry with Japan; the 1882 passage of the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act; US control of Cuba and Puerto Rico; expansion of US fruit corporations in Central America and US sugarcane plantations in Cuba/Hawai'i, where insect pests threatened plantation profits; the advent of "Yellow Peril" tropes and fear of invasion in science fiction literature; the detaining of half a million (mostly Chinese) people at the medical quarantine processing center that the US Public Health Service operated at Angel Island in San Francisco; and US insect extermination projects, mosquito control campaigns, and medical policing of local people in Cuba and the Panama Canal Zone (where US authorities detained local people for medical testing).

A lot to consider.

[corner-stories]

jk 14

July Prompts 🌴

14. Childhood posted on my ao3 as well!

Victoria is a long way from Montreal. Gone are the towering buildings, the St. Lawrence River, and the Kirschtein's apartment in Pointe-aux-Trembles. Nowadays he’s living at his Uncle Stephane’s house in Esquimalt, a building that’s bigger than the one he used to live in, yet the actual space he’s been allotted is small. The cot placed in his Cousin Geoffrey’s bed leaves him barely any wiggle room, and he may only be nine but he feels like he's getting bigger every day. His mother promises that this will only be temporary, that the cramped feeling of his Uncle’s home is a necessity they both must bear until they truly get settled. 

In the meantime there are more important things to tackle regarding their cross-country move, so on a day in late summer his mother takes him to a library. She says it’s to both escape the heat and have him pick up more books to practice his English, something she's been gently encouraging him to do before school starts. Deep down Jean wonders if it's to spare him from being teased and tormented by Cousin Geoff for an afternoon — and if that ends up being the case, then he is quite thankful. 

The branch they are visiting is in a part of Victoria that Jean hasn’t seen before, near James Bay where all the tourist pictures are taken. His mother promises that once the temperature goes down they’ll take a walk near the water and visit one of the parks, maybe even get some ice cream to cap off the day. But for now Arielle Kirschtein sits at a computer, where she browses postings for apartments and other resources that newcomers to the city can take advantage of. 

Jean is left to his own devices. Unsurprisingly he soon finds himself in the kids section, the part of the building that’s decorated with large posters of local insects, coniferous trees, and rocky mountains, little details that paint a picture of the Pacific Northwest. As tempting as it is to browse the French-language section, since this particular branch has every single Adventures of Tintin volume, the little Quebecer follows his mother’s request and finds something in English. 

Jean settles into a beanbag chair near a window, his bottom sinking into the material as he balances an open Geronimo Stilton book on his knee. Surrounding him are other library patrons — parents reading illustrated tales to their toddlers, other kids sprawled on the floor with collections of comic books, and older tweens chatting a little too loudly before getting politely scolded by the elderly librarian. 

The ambiance helps Jean relax as he slowly takes in the adventures of an anthropomorphic mouse reporter. His English is getting better, though reading it proves to be slightly harder than speaking it. As he flips through the pages he wonders how he’ll fare once school starts, even if his mother did find a French-immersion program for him to attend. 

He goes between taking in the text and glancing aside, where he is always greeted to the sight of the new city and the various citizens moving about — most are walking, but many are cycling both on the streets and sidewalks. Despite that, he can't help but note that the city feels slower than the one he was onced raised in. Montreal always felt like a place where people had somewhere to be and only a few moments to get there — in contrast, everyone in Victoria goes at a more leisurely pace, like the goal is not the destination but the journey. Jean's unsure if prefers this way of living or not.

Once Jean has read through a third of the tale, he finds himself slipping a bookmark between the pages and standing up to stretch his legs. With the novel tucked under his arm, he wanders through the kid area of the library again, moving away from the storybooks and to the array of tomes with fewer pictures. He eventually finds himself walking through the French-language section again, wondering just how many Adventures of Tintin volumes his mother will let him haul on the bus ride back home. The space between the shelves is empty, even more so than the rest of the library. He wonders if it’s because there really aren’t many Francophones on this side of the country or because most people in the building are more keen on escaping the heat or using the workspaces. 

As Jean takes The Secret of the Unicorn and Destination Moon into his arms, he hears footsteps against the carpeted floor. He glances up and sees no one in his aisle, but through the gaps in the bookshelves he spots a person on the other side. 

It’s a girl just about his age with a pair of dark eyes and a head of dark hair, something that is tied back with a red ribbon. She dons a floral patterned dress and a wide-brimmed sun hat, a very summery get up for the mere act of browsing the French section. 

For a reason Jean doesn’t entirely know, his heart begins to beat just a little bit faster. Suddenly the books in his arms slip out of his grasp. When they hit the floor the sound snaps him out of his trance. Heat rushes to his face as he hastily kneels down to clean up his mess, praying that the Girl in the Shelves hadn’t noticed his fumble. When he stands up straight again he’s slightly relieved to see that by the grace of god, she didn’t notice his fumble, as her eyes are still affixed to the spines of the books. 

Jean’s breathing is uneasy, but as he gets a better grip on his things he sees the Girl grabbing one of the bigger books in the section. The tome looks heavy in her arms, weighing her down as she rests it against her frame. The once neutral expression on her face morphs into one of the sweetest smiles that Jean has ever seen, then before he knows it she’s leaving the aisle. 

Once she’s gone Jean takes a second to recollect himself before exiting the French section as well. After stepping into the main space of the library with extra books under his arm, he can’t stop his eyes from looking around to find the Girl again. He soon spots her walking up to an older woman who shares both her dark hair and taste in fancy sun hats, one who is currently taking in a mystery novel while sitting on an armchair.

Jean sucks in a breath and begins to walk. He passes the two by and finds a new spot for himself on a couch near a shelf of DVDs. As he settles in with his new books he can’t stop himself from overhearing the conversation that transpires between the Girl and the Lady. 

“Auntie! I found it!” says the Girl, the smile on her face remaining bright as she holds up a leatherbound collection of fairy tales.

When Jean looks up he sees both the Lady — or rather, the Auntie — and the Girl smiling at each other, but once Auntie gets a look at the text on the book’s cover, her expression falters. 

“Mikasa, Dear… this is in French. You don’t speak French. And neither do I, for the matter.”

The beaming grin on the now-named Mikasa’s face turns into something less joyful. “Oh… right.” 

Jean places his new book on his lap and opens it, yet can’t take his attention off the conversation.

“Can you find it in English?” asks Auntie. 

Mikasa shakes her head. “No, I asked the librarian and that one’s checked out. This is the only one.” 

The look on Auntie’s face is very kind as she places a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “How about you put this one back and find something else? Then we can read it together, I promise.” 

Mikasa looks defeated, as clearly her heart had been set on this book in particular. As she hugs the tome against her chest like it’s something precious, she simply nods her head. 

“Okay.”

Jean watches as Mikasa walks away from her Auntie, looking absolutely dejected with every step. 

Suddenly the feeling that Jean had experienced in the shelves returns, the tightness in his chest and rushing of his beating heart. But instead of making him drop his books like a fool, the feeling motivates him to scoot off the couch and across the library’s carpet. 

With a sense of confidence he hadn’t felt ever since the move, Jean approaches Mikasa and says —

“Hi!”

Mikasa stops where she is and turns around. She is still holding the book of fairytales close to her, like it’s a shield between her and this sudden stranger.  

“Uh… I’m Jean… I speak French,” he manages to say despite the heat returning to his cheeks. He huffs awkwardly and looks down to the carpet. “I can read that with you. Or to you.” 

When he glances up again he sees a little glimmer of hope reappear in her pretty eyes. “Oh… you can!?”

Jean nods along. “Yes.” He points to the couch where he had stashed his own collection of books. “I’m sitting there, let’s go!” 

Mikasa breaks into that sweet smile Jean had seen a second ago as the two make their way to his spot. Before he knows it he’s carefully moving his books aside to make room for her and she's taking off her sun hat so it doesn't get in the way of her reading.

“I’m Mikasa,” she tells him as she sits on the cushions. He nods his head as her name graces her ears again, noting that it’s one he doesn’t hear often in the city he grew up in — but then again, perhaps the name “Jean” isn’t one she hears a lot in this city either. 

The two sit on the cushions, balancing the complete works of Charles Perrault on both their knees, though mostly on Jean's. When he opens it he is greeted by the sight of a gorgeous illustration depicting a woman with golden hair asleep on a bed in the woods. Mikasa flips the page and is quick to bring him to the first story and presumably the tale she was very keen on reading despite her lack of language proficiency. 

“La Belle au bois dormant,” Jean reads aloud. He looks aside to gauge her reaction. “Or Sleeping Beauty.” 

Mikasa smiles again and Jean can’t help but notice how sweeter it seems up close. He looks back to the page and begins to read the book as promised.

[eerna]

i’m not the other anon but their mention of twilight reminded me of when the raven cycle books were supposed to get adapted and the chosen director was the one for the first twilight movie, i believe.. no hate to her regarding the story because the source material was already problematic on its own, but i remember the movie was known for the blue tint it had, and that would’ve been interesting for the trc series.. dunno if it would’ve worked or if it’d appeal to teens today, but those books were pretty much all about the ViBeS and less about the plot ngl 🤔 sadly, the show production got discontinued :(

Oh it did? Sorry to hear it! It would have been interesting, as the TRC vibes are the exact opposite of what I liked about the Twilight movie vibes. The blue hue, the perpetual rain and clouds of the Pacific Northwest, the dark greens and greys and browns of the palette... it's all very 21st century sad American vampires. Meanwhile TRC is all about a VIRGINIAN SUMMER, it's about the LIGHT GREENS and ORANGES and YELLOWS and BLUES, the rolling hills and insects buzzing and sun beaming down, it's about a group of friends searching for an ancient king on a teen adventure of a lifetime!!!! Like you said, the plot was a very background thing, it was all about pretty writing and vibes so an adaptation should replicate that visually. Hm. I truly would have been interested in seeing it happen.

[usfwspacific]

Creature Comforts – Home School with Us! Learn How to Give Salmon a Home from the Comfort of Yours

Photo: Here’s yours truly, an adult coho salmon, looking to make a few new friends. Credit: Roger Tabor/USFWS

Howdy humans! Does all this time at home have you going a bit stir crazy? Well we Pacific salmon are envious. We spend our entire lives just trying to make it home and we are pretty exhausted by the time we get there. Just like you, we like a nice place to come home to, especially when things are tough out there. And just like you, we need others to help us along the way. Which means this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship! You can help make our migratory mission a bit easier and we can teach you a little bit about going with the flow.

You have probably already heard of us, after all Pacific salmon are a pretty big deal in the Pacific Northwest. But did you know that there are five species of Pacific salmon: Chinook, coho, chum, pink and sockeye. Each of us have different appearances, habitat requirements, and life histories. Some of us spawn in mainstem rivers, some in small streams. Some spend years in freshwater, while others spend only months. But we all have one very important thing in common: We all need cool, clean, connected rivers and healthy ocean conditions.  

Photo: A nice illustration from our very popular Salmon and Steelhead Coloring Book shows how different we salmon can look.

Since we are going to be buddies – and we need all the friends we can get! – here are a few other fun fish facts about me and my salmon family:

 -        We aren’t steelhead. No offense. Steelhead are pretty nifty fish but they are more like our cousins, closely related but not salmon. They are, in fact, trout! Unlike salmon, steelhead are sea-run (anadromous) rainbow trout. Another difference is that, unlike salmon that only spawn once and then die, steelhead can return several years in a row to spawn.

-        We are strong and fragile. Salmon can swim thousands of miles in rivers and oceans. They are uniquely adapted to tolerate differences in salinity including making all the physical and internal chemical changes that allow them to move between fresh water streams and the salt-water ocean. They can swim up waterfalls in rivers, and avoid orcas in the ocean. Yet they are fragile in that they are sensitive to warm water temperatures, chemicals in the water, and fine sediment in their streams. As an important food source for humans for thousands of years, they have been highly impacted over the last 100 years by over-fishing.

-        We are kind of a BIG deal. Adult Chinook are known to get bigger than 35 pounds.  The largest ever seen was 126 pounds!

 -        We nourish the ecosystem at every stage of life (and death!). Adult salmon put all their energy into swimming up river, spawning and making sure their species continues. But don’t be sad! Our legacy lives on and our death is actually just as important as our birth! Salmon carcasses bring valuable nutrients from the ocean to the streams where our young live. The nutrients from the ocean fertilizes the stream and supports the growth of plants and insects. In turn, these insects are available for our babies to eat. The plants and trees provide roots, that prevent erosion, and shade that keeps the stream cool.

-        We are a tree-mendous treat. Salmon are eaten by 137 different species (yikes!). Many of those include different types of forest animals. Bears capture and then sometimes carry us up to the forest for a snack. The leftovers and the bear’s scat (poop) help forest trees grow faster by giving the trees important nutrients, like nitrogen, that the salmon brought from the ocean. Additionally, many water insects that feed on our carcasses change into flying insects eaten by birds and other terrestrial predators. Talk about the circle of life!

Video: An egg-cellent view of baby steelhead (close relatives to us salmon) hatching shows what our "lunch boxes" look like. Credit: Florian Graner

-        We pack our own lunch. Each of our eggs contains precious energy in the form of a yolk sac that feed us for the first two months after hatching while we stay hidden in gravel. At this stage, we are called Alevins/Sac fry. We don’t need to leave the safety of their nest (a.k.a., Redd) because our lunch box is attached. After we finish absorbing their yolk, we become free-swimming “fry” and must start eating small stream insects and other small stream animals.

-        We have teeth on our tongues! How is that for a cool party trick? We capture food with our mouth, which is lined with small sharp teeth, and swallow prey whole. We even have teeth on our tongues!  

Image: A lovely visual of our life cycle

-        Redd is our favorite color. Each female chinook salmon builds a Redd (a.k.a., salmon nest made out of cobblestone-sized rocks) and lays between 3-7,000 eggs! Only about 1 out of every 1000 eggs lives and grows to become an adult.

-        We never have to stop to ask for directions. Humans haven’t figured it out yet but seem to think our built-in sense of direction comes from the earth’s magnetic field.  I just like to call it magic. And an incredible sense of smell.  In the river, we use our sense of smell to find the way back home to the stream where we hatched.

-        We are Olympians. Move over Michael Phelps! Salmon have a very sleek shape, powerful muscles, and a large tail (caudal fin). These adaptations make us fast swimmers.  Adults can swim up to 20 MPH. That’s almost as fast as an Olympic sprinter! And we can go the distance. Spring chinook take about 19-20 days to swim from Bonneville dam to Idaho.

-        We need your help to make it home! Water connects us all and there are some simple things you can do at home to help us make it to ours:

o   Conserve water: Take 5-10 minute showers, turn off water while brushing your teeth

o   Help restore salmon habitat: Look for opportunities to volunteer and get involved!

o   Don’t flush medications down the drain: When medications are flushed down the drain they get into streams, rivers and oceans causing known and unknown problems for salmon

o   Don’t release non-native species into our waterways: Non-native species, including invasive species, change the ecosystem and compete with native species for food and space

o   Consider a conservation career (fisheries/wildlife biologist, zoo veterinarian, curator, etc): You don’t have to be a biologist to work in conservation. For example, engineering and technology are both important fields for conservation.

o   Teach others how to help salmon: Share what you’ve learned about salmon with your friends and family

Thanks for taking the time to get to know me and learn more about my journey! I am happy to have you as a friend in conservation and, from my home to yours, keep on swimming :)

 More cool school resources:

Pacific Salmon and Steelhead Coloring Book

USFWS Fisheries and Aquatic Conservation

[almasexya]

Carnivorous Plants and the Things I Know About Them

I've been kicking around the idea of making a post like this and I figured it was of enough general interest to folks on Tumblr to go for it.

So

One of the things I do is grow carnivorous plants, like these

From top left to bottom right we have a Venus Flytrap, a North American Pitcher Plant, a Sundew, and a Butterwort. All of these are pictures I've taken of plants during the growing season.

Now if you look at these weird looking plants you probably wouldn't expect them to be native to North America, but they are. You can find pitcher plants all over the southeast up to the northeast into Canada, flytraps in the Carolinas, and butterworts and sundews all over the continent.

These plants are a lot of fun and easy to grow once you understand their requirements, but before we get into that, I want to take a moment and explain how they came to be in the first place.

To keep it short, carnivorous plants are carnivorous because they grow in soils that are lacking in the nutrients plants need to put out new growth. Because of this, they evolved to find their nutrients a different way - by luring, trapping, and digesting insects. While these plants still photosynthesize, they supplement this with the nutrients they absorb from insects.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I'm going to go into the basics of growing them, point by point. A short disclaimer - I'm specifically talking about temperate North American plants, since they're what I have experience growing. I can provide basic info on how to take care of tropical plants like the southeast asian pitcher plants, but as of this post I don't have experience with them yet.

Soil: For carnivorous plants, a good soil mixture is a must. These plants grow in nutrient-poor marshes, and the soil they call home is constantly wet. The main ingredient in basically any carnivorous plant soil mix is sphagnum peat moss, which is slightly acidic. The second part of the mixture is often perlite or horticultural sand. Some nurseries use a mix of equal parts peat and perlite while others use 80% peat and 20% perlite, but I've had success with both. The most important thing to ensure is that your soil doesn't have any fertilizer added to it. Because carnivores grow in low nutrient soil, any kind of medium that contains fertilizer can actually kill them.

Water: The other vitally important part of the equation (and the one that kills lots of plants when incorrectly applied) is water. Generally, unless your tap water is soft, water carnivores with distilled or reverse osmosis water. The minerals in tap water or even bottled drinking water can eventually build up and kill your plant in the same way fertilized soil does. Carnivores love waterlogged soil, and some even get flooded in nature. To approximate this, set your plant in a tray of water no more than an inch or two high. This ensures your soil stays wet without having to constantly water it.

Containers: Plastic pots are your friend. Avoid terra cotta clay pots, since they can leech minerals into the soil and also tend to dry out your substrate faster. Glazed clay containers can also work. If you're using the tray system, make sure to buy pots with drainage holes, so the water can get in. Also, a trick that lets the water in but keeps the soil from escaping is to line the bottom of the pot with long-fibered sphagnum moss. If you go with an undrained container, make sure to keep the soil wet at all times, but allow some of the water to evaporate in order to keep the water table fluctuating.

Sunlight: Since carnivores evolved their leaves to catch insects, they're pretty poor at photosynthesis. As a result, these plants love sun - the more the better. Many a store bought flytrap has perished as a houseplant due to lack of sun, so if you can, put these plants outside, in the sunniest spot you can. Generally, it's good to give most carnivores around 6 hours of sunlight per day. Many can get by with 4, but they don't often thrive with that amount of light.

Dormancy: Plants that grow in temperate or warm temperate climates tend to buckle down and hibernate during the late fall and winter months, conserving energy until spring. Generally speaking, the large traps die off, or in some cases the plant dies down to the roots, or forms a small bud that rests on the ground. Plants grown outside respond to colder temperatures and shorter photoperiods, while plants grown inside usually need some help. If you're growing your plants on a windowsill or in a terrarium, move them somewhere cold or cut down on their heating, and also diminish the amount of daily light they receive. You can also slow down on watering, though they still need some water to get by.

Temperature: Temperate and warm temperate carnivores can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, despite what you might think. My pots survived the freak snowstorm the Pacific Northwest got this February without a single dead plant. Most species can tolerate temperatures up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 20 degrees, though not for prolonged periods of time. If you see long spells of hot or cold weather coming, try and move your plants to a protected area until they pass.

Feeding and Fertilizing: Now I know what you're thinking. Fertilizer? He just told us that stuff was death! And it often is, but there are ways to fertilize your plants. Generally, a fertilizer made for acid-loving plants can be diluted and applied to the leaves during the growing season. I use Maxsea 16-16-16 on plants that are too young to easily catch prey (diluted down to a half teaspoon per gallon) and haven't had issues. Try not to spray the soil unless you frequently water your plants from overhead, as the dreaded mineral buildup can still occur. That said, if your plants are outside, they'll fertilize themselves. You can also "feed" your plants insects using tongs - keep in mind that some plants require their prey to be alive in order to secrete digestive enzymes. I'll get into prey in more detail in other posts about specific types of plants.

Flowering and Propagation: For a lot of carnivorous plants, flowering is an exhausting effort that tends to deplete the energy they would use creating traps. As a general rule, if you're not interested in seed, clip the flower stalks off. Many plants can be propagated through leaf or root cuttings, which produce genetically identical plants. Some plants also clump and form their own divisions over time, meaning all you need to do to get more is wait for a year or so, depending on the age of the plant.

Pests: Carnivores can be targeted by various pests. For insecticides, I've seen neem oil recommended, as its generally less harmful to the plant and the environment. I haven't had to make much use of these yet, so my information on insecticides is a bit of a blind spot. Generally, try and stay away from soap insecticides and aerosols, and stick to less concentrated varieties. If you're dealing with squirrels or rodents digging up your plants, I found a generous sprinkling of cayenne pepper around the plants works wonders, and does no harm to the plants.

This is a basic rundown of carnivorous plants and how to take care of some of them. I must stress there's a ton of information out there - this post is geared more towards starter plants that are fairly forgiving and simple to grow.

So why grow carnivorous plants when you can just go out and buy some petunias?

They're active: Carnivores are showy, unique plants that can move on their own through some incredibly unique and complex evolutions. Watching a Venus Flytrap snap shut or a Sundew curl around an insect is a truly special thing to see.

They're a conversation piece: The relative rarity of carnivores in cultivation means the average person doesn't know much about them, despite maybe having heard of a Venus Flytrap before. A 12" pot of flytraps, sundews, and pitchers is a surefire way to grab attention.

They can control certain pests: Carnivorous plants can act as natural pest controllers. North American Pitcher Plants gorge themselves on flies and wasps, and considering some pitchers can grow over two feet tall, they can hold plenty of them. Sundews and butterworts specialize in catching smaller prey, such as fungus gnats, fruit flies, and even fleas. These plants can work as limited, natural pest controllers, though they won't eradicate a yellow jacket nest for you.

They're endangered in the wild: The wet, marshy habitats carnivores call home are rapidly dwindling due to improper land management and development. Some are nearly extinct in their home ranges, kept going through dedicated nurseries and attempts to naturalize them in other locations. By caring for carnivorous plants, you're raising awareness of these unique, underappreciated organisms and aiding in their conservation by keeping them alive.

Phew, I realize this was a lot, but I hope it was a fun read! Let me know what you think about carnivorous plants, or if you have any questions about them. I'm going to try and go into more detail on specific plants later, but for now, I wanted to bang out the basics.

If you're looking for more information, Flytrapcare.com is a great forum, and the r/savagegarden subreddit is very helpful as well. For books on the subject, the Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato is the go to source. Nurseries I've used and can vouch for are Sarracenia Northwest (located in Oregon) and California Carnivores (located in California).

[the-world-tree-is-calling]

WILDCRAFTING BASICS: PERMISSION AND OFFERINGS

Wildcrafting is the craft of harvesting medicinal plants from the wild. Humans have been wildcrafting since the dawn of time, but today when medicines are so easily procured, one might question the effort and time required to gather your own. I can assure you that the benefits of harvesting and making medicine from wild plants are many. It is not only more sustainable to use the medicinal plants that grow in the regions where we live, but the herbs we gather will be fresher and more potent. Also, because they are born of the same forces that give shape to our own physical and spiritual beings, local plants are more likely to offer deep healing benefits for our bodies, minds, and souls. In this series of posts covering Wildcrafting Basics (excerpted from my book Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants), I will share with you the many elements wildcrafters ought to consider in order to safely and sustainably practice this age-old craft.

Asking Permission and Making Offerings Once while on a search for cascara sagrada, I found a tree with many inward growing branches that was perfect for harvesting. I asked permission and the tree said “no.” I was baffled, but as I continued up the trail just a bit, I found a tree with a large broken branch that was still full of life and ripe for harvest. Another time, I sat in front of wild ginger in early October completely exhausted after an incredibly busy year of harvesting and teaching. When I asked permission to harvest, I was told that I was too tired to harvest and was instructed to go lay under a tree and take a nap.

Always ask the plants for permission to harvest. Develop your listening skills. The answers come differently to each person. For me a “yes” may be a feeling of openness in my heart or a vision of arms reaching out to hand me a bunch of plants. A “no” will feel like a shrinking of my energetic being or my head will begin to nod from side to side. At first you might hear “yes” a lot and may doubt yourself, but when you hear the first “no,” you will begin to trust your ability to hear the plants.

Reverence and gratitude open the pathways for us to receive. Offer tobacco, cornmeal, beads, shells, some kind words, a song, or some of your hair to express your gratitude to the plants. As I make offerings to the plants, I thank them for all of the healing that they have brought to me and my community and very clearly describe the help that I and others will need from them.

A Short Meditation to Deepen Your Connection with the Wild Feel your feet on the ground. As you breathe in, feel the energy of the Earth rise up through your feet and into your body. With each exhale, send roots deeper and deeper into the Earth. Let this energy fill your body. As you continue to inhale and exhale, the energy will reach the top of your head and burst forth into the sky. Now, as you breathe in, draw energy up from the Earth and into the sky above. As you breathe out, pull energy in from the sky and send it down into the Earth. You are now a conduit between the sky and the Earth. From this place radiate awareness from your heart in all directions. Tune into the life energies that surround you. Listen to the sounds of the birds and insects. Feel the wind as it moves across your skin. Experience the subtle movements of the plants and trees. Do you feel more connected now?

Prayer to Enter the Forest I come here to remember how to be in harmony with all life on this planet I open myself to the light of the forest To the wisdom of the plants To the clarity of the waters I align myself with the stars and the sun and the moon May my heart beat with the heart of my Mother, the Earth

I come here in peace to learn and to see To hear, to smell, to feel Please hold me, please guide me Receive me as your child I call here now upon the Grandmothers and Grandfathers of this place to help show me the way I come here to remember who I am

May it be so

https://forestmedicine.net/blog/2017/4/13/wildcrafting-basics-permission-and-offerings

[scrollofthoth]

So it begins...

Emergent Animism: Exploring a Spirit Haunted World

By Threskiornis

Foreword

“Magick is, if anything, extradimensional diplomacy.”

– Gordon White, Pieces of Eight: Chaos Magic Essays and Enchantments

Magi throughout the ages have defined themselves through their relationships with spiritual entities. Call them what you want. Their names are legion. Gods, angels, demons, djinn, elementals, faeries, ghosts, specters – the names and classifications vary from age to age and place to place. Every land and every culture has had contact with creatures that were in some way more than just material being. The nature of these beings often reflects that of the culture which discovered them, but they also have surprising commonalities no matter their origin. Even today people report contact with a multitude of cryptids and aliens. A Devil stalks New Jersey. A monster swims in Loch Ness. Bigfoot roams the Pacific Northwest, and Yeti in the Himalayas. Mothmen, Dogmen, and Lizardmen continue to be sighted all around the United States, and the world.

Some magi approach these beings for personal gain. Others simply want to communicate with and understand beings that exist beyond our knowledge of space and time. They can be approached with reverence, awe, and worship. Although most magi see themselves as equals. They can be approached with the intent to cajole, threaten, and command. Though I hope to convince you that a bully that attacks spirits is still just a bully.

To be certain, a magus can be successful without ever communicating with a spiritual entity. There exists plenty of valid magical paradigms that eschew dealing with spirits and concentrate on more abstract ideas. But if you’re like me, you thrive on the interchange with things that communicate and think. You need something more than just an idea to contemplate, but something that wants to engage with you just as much as you want to engage with them.

In our last book, Emergent Magick, some felt that we failed to deliver on the goods. It was never meant to be a how-to of spells and formulae. We insist that each magus find their own way. I’m afraid some of you may be disappointed again. This is a book on animism, not shamanism. And it defines animism in the broadest sense – communicating with spirits. There will be discussion of shamanistic techniques. This book will talk about communicating with the spirits of trees, animals, mountains, and rivers. But it contains much more than that. It’s an all-encompassing paradigm that gives a magus the tools to approach any spiritual entity.

It must also be stressed, and will be repeated, that Emergent Animism is just one Emergent Magick paradigm. It is not the “official” Emergent Magick paradigm. In fact, the contents of this book are in no way required to practice Emergent Magick. What it does provide is an excellent example of a classical magical belief system explored through the process of Emergent Magick. Even if your own personal magick doesn’t focus on spirit contact, Emergent Animism will give plenty of insights on how to use the Emergent Magick process in your own work.

Let’s get started. The spirits are waiting.

 Threskiornis, 16670, “Ego Sum Legio”

Scribe of the Order of Emergent Magi

11/20/2019

 Introduction

 As much as I would like to avoid it, I feel I must first define Emergent Magick (EMK). If you enjoy this publication, I recommend picking up, Emergent Magick: Rebuilding Our Tribes Through Ritual and Meaning. It really needs an entire book to get the concept across.

EMK defines magick as, “The art of altering consciousness.” In essence, the universe itself is created and directed by consciousness, and magick is a way to influence that consciousness. Consciousness itself lacks universally accepted definition. For our purposes it includes any sufficiently complex system that can perceive. If you accept that sub-atomic systems are sufficiently complex, and quantum theory proves that particles have some form of perception (in that they will act as individual particles or as a wave, depending on if they are being watched), this includes everything in the universe to a greater or lesser degree. Art, the activity of creation, influences consciousness. Ritual is the art of the magus, and it is specifically designed to alter consciousness.

In Emergent Magick, a magus performs rituals with the purpose of creating altered states of consciousness. The magus then takes what they learn from those rituals to build an ever more concise paradigm, essentially a model for the universe and a method to alter it. While a magus can certainly learn from the magi who came before them, it is what they learn through altered states of consciousness that best informs their magick. What a magus learns through altered states has more weight than anything they can learn by other means.

The ultimate goal of the magus is to perceive the unity of consciousness. To interact with it as part of a larger whole. This manifests in the physical plane by forming tribes of magi and working with them to experience their paradigm, form bonds of love and acceptance, and to influence the collective unconscious through the creation of culture.

At least that’s the short form description of Emergent Magick. Which finally brings us back to Emergent Animism (EMAN).  

 Emergent Animism is the art of communicating with the spirits.

 At least that’s the one-sentence vital core of it. Some old-school magi like to have things summed up in a sentence or two (and I am one of those magi). Why Emergent? First, because I am one of the creators of Emergent Magick and it is how I currently define my practice. Since Emergent Animism is my personal paradigm, it comes from an EMK perspective. Because the methods used to explore and define the paradigm are the methods of EMK. Personal experience takes precedent over accepted knowledge (though you should still be doing research). Those experiences are then shared with my personal tribe and their experiences added to the body of knowledge. You may notice the shifting tense there, because this is work that has been performed and is ongoing.

Which brings us to animism. Much smarter people with better sources have described animism. And I really want to just tell people to go read Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, by Mircea Eliade and Willard R. Trask, and then come back and continue reading this. But I understand that’s not a realistic expectation, so I’m going to give you my woefully inadequate description. Animism has been called the world’s first religion, and from the archaeological evidence and current anthropology there is little reason to doubt that all hunter-gatherers practiced some form of animism. Animism as a world view, sees the universe as populated with spirits. In animism, all things have some vital essence that can be communicated with, from spirits of rivers, mountains, and lakes, to trees, rocks, and clouds, also the spirits of humans, animals, insects, and the spirits of those living creatures that have died. Some animists also believe in alien spirits that come from other dimensions of reality. The practice of animism is the communication with these spirits through some form of altered state of consciousness. This can be ritual, dance, music, meditation, and the use of psychoactive substances. Shamanism is a particular type of animism where individuals of a tribe use altered states of consciousness to contact the spirit realm, referred to as journeying, and petitions the spirits for the benefit of the shaman and their tribe. I do not consider myself a shaman because I do not belong to an indigenous culture with a shamanistic tradition. I do, however, use many of the tools of shamanism in my practice.

In Emergent Animism, spirit is synonymous with consciousness. So, the art of magick in EMAN terms is the art of communicating with the spirits. Which entails all forms of conversations, pacts, offerings, and all the other traditional and non-traditional methods of contacting them. Although the goal of realizing a universal consciousness remains, perceiving a fragmented consciousness is the best humans can do in most circumstances. EMAN theorizes that working with beings made of pure consciousness will bring us closer to that goal.

Know right off the bat that I don’t think anyone should try to pick this up whole-cloth and use it as their own. All magi must ultimately discover their own paradigm and follow that. But I do know it has been helpful for me as a magus to read about other people’s magical perspective. To see what works for them and learn from it. I find the magical world to be sorely lacking in resources that describe exactly what magi are doing. There’s plenty of description of rituals and theory, but little of what a magus actually does on a day-to-day basis. I hope I can add a unique perspective and inspire some people to try these practices themselves. I say, “don’t follow my path,” but do feel free to steal anything that can work for you.

In Emergent Magick: Rebuilding Our Tribes Through Ritual and Meaning, there was some brief discussion of the Models of Magick. The Models of Magick are essentially different theories on how magick works. These include: Spirit Model, Energy Model, Psychological Model, and Meta-model. The Spirit Model is essentially synonymous with our definition of animism, in that all magick works through the agency of some spiritual being. The Energy Model posits that all magick works by manipulating certain energies. The Psychological Model sums up magick as a means to influence your own conscious and subconscious mind to make changes through yourself. The Information Model is somewhat similar to EMKs belief that consciousness creates the universe, and that consciousness is simply information. The Meta-model encompasses all other models and instructs the magus to use whichever model they find most useful at the time. Most magi follow a nuanced form of the Meta-model, since no one model can fully explain all forms of magick.

At first glance, EMAN seems firmly entrenched in the Spirit Model. You will notice that this book generally takes that perspective, and sees spirits as actual, fully-realized, entities in their own right. This doesn’t mean that EMAN can’t be effective within other models of magick. Perhaps you see spirits as just another form of energy. Maybe for you, the spirits are a reflection of your own subconscious. In the end, it doesn’t matter, as long as your magick is working for you.

[thegreenwolf]

Why Pagans Need Field Guides

Originally posted at A Sense of Natural Wonder at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/why-pagans-need-field-guides/

I was talking to someone on Facebook today about how I’m a field guide nerd. I have an ever-growing collection of identification books on the fauna, flora and fungi of the Pacific Northwest, as well as its complicated geology, climate, and other natural features. I even collect vintage ones just for the fun of it. I’m also an avid iNaturalist user and spend a decent portion of my outdoor time taking photos of beings I meet along the way. And I love the challenge of trying to identify some critter or plant that I have never encountered before, just to put a name and a niche to it.

Now, I’ve spent the past couple of decades watching experienced pagans talk about how important history books are for pagans wishing to deepen their practice. They’re right, of course, at least if your path is in any way linked to historical cultures. But think of how many pagans invoke the elements without understanding anything about the earth, air, fire and water in their bioregion, or who call on deities of storm and forest and fertility with little comprehension of those natural forces. We can name entire pantheons of deities and list off magical correspondences for hours, and yet so many of us can’t identify more than a few native plant or bird species.  I’ve already asked why we can’t be as nerdy about nature as we are about history in a both/and rather than either/or manner. So consider this a continuation of that query.

Using Field Guides

First, what is a field guide? Simply put, it’s a book or website that lists a certain group of living beings found in an area. Bird guides are by far the most popular as birders are also generally pretty avid book fans, and when you’re trying to fill your Life List with positively identified new species it’s important to be very sure you know what you’re looking at through your binoculars. But field guides to flowers and other plants, mushrooms, wild mammals, and other beings abound. Some of these cover entire continents; others focus on a single state or region. The best have clear, full-color photos or high quality illustrations showing the field marks–distinguishing characteristics–of each species, along with pertinent info on behavior, habitat, and more.

The best way I’ve found to use one isn’t to cart it around with me all the time, but instead to take note of various beings I find in my day to day life. If I can get a picture, great! But sometimes that’s not possible, and so I need to either sketch or write down as many of the field marks I noticed as possible. For example, the first time I saw a varied thrush I noticed that it was a bird very much like a robin except it was yellow and black. When I got home I grabbed one of my Oregon bird guides and flipped through until I found a bird like the one I saw. The size, location and habits all matched up with what I observed, so it was a pretty safe bet that this was indeed a varied thrush.

I also read through my field guides, because there are many beings I have yet to see in the wild. There are several species which I had previously only seen in books and photos, and which I instantly recognized in person the first time because I was already aware of how they looked. Plus it’s fun to imagine what sorts of wildlife, plants and mushrooms I might find if I decide to go exploring somewhere new!

I’ve kept a journal of my nature sightings for several years, and I also have a pretty extensive collection on iNaturalist. Every time I find a new animal, plant or other being, I make note of it in the journal with what I saw, when and where. Then as I further research the ways in which my ecosystem is put together I can place this particular being into its niche and know how it’s a part of the greater whole. The varied thrush, for example, is food for hawks and other predators. As an insectivore it helps to keep insect populations in check. And like all birds its droppings are important fertilizer for plants and fungi, and because it eats berries it helps to distribute the seeds to new locations. I can appreciate the need to preserve forest habitats in particular since the numbers of this species have been declining due to habitat loss. And so now I think of those things whenever I see a varied thrush, rather than just saying “I see a bird. I wonder what it means?”

How Is This Useful to Pagans?

If you’re going to draw on nature in your path in any way, it’s a good idea to have at least a basic understanding of what it is you’re incorporating. Any introductory book on paganism will extol the virtues of getting to know the differences between various deities and spirits and the like so that you aren’t calling on Artemis in a men’s ritual or asking Dionysus to help with a safe ocean passage. In the same way, it’s important to be able to identify at least some of your non-human neighbors if you’re going to be asking them to join your rituals.

And I don’t mean just going with anthropocentric information. If I am going to learn about fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) I’m not just going to look at pictures of Smurf houses or try and pretend I’m a Siberian shaman by ingesting some of this hallucinogen. Instead I’m going to find out this fungi’s natural range, what sort of substrate its mycelium prefers, what sorts of trees it forms mycorrhizal relationships with, and whether there’s any animal that can safely eat it. All these tell me more about how it fits into the ecosystem I am also a part of, and gives me a greater appreciation for it as something other than “one of those mushrooms that can get you high.”

The more you get to know your community, human and otherwise, the more you come to value it. Just as knowing the names of your neighbors and store employees conveys a deeper sense of connectedness, so knowing the names of the animals, plants and other beings around you makes you more appreciative of them. And as you grow your awareness of how your human community works together in a web of inter-reliance, so your understanding of the complexity of your overall ecosystem shows you just how precious and important it is. And that, to me, is the center of truly nature-based paganism. Not how many Samhain decorations are on your altar or how many crystals you own, but how aware you are of just how entwined you are with everything around you and how much responsibility you have to it. If all you do is take, take, take and never give back, even in the simple act of knowing something’s name, then you are a parasite rather than a partner.

Field guides are a great way to begin this healthy and balanced relationship. Like a list of deities in a pantheon, they introduce you to who’s who. You don’t have to memorize every species in every book or website; just knowing which field guide to start with when researching a species is a great first step. And how much you explore is up to you. You may be content just knowing the data in the field guide entry for a given species so that you can name it the next time you see it. Or you may wish to get to know it better, along with the various other beings that it is inter-reliant with, so that you can place a few more pieces into the puzzle of your ecosystem and have a greater part of the whole picture.

How Do I Find Field Guides?

The easiest way I’ve found is to go online and search for “Oregon field guides” (you can substitute your state, region or country for Oregon.) Or go to Amazon and search for “field guides” and see what pops up, though I recommend actually buying your books from local independent bookstores. If you want to narrow it down, search for things like “Oregon plant field guides” or “books on birds of the Pacific Northwest.” If you’re more hands-on, go to your local bookstore and peruse their nature section. I’ve gotten almost all of my field guides from the gift shops at state and national parks and wildlife refuges as I like supporting them financially.

The same goes for websites. Let’s say I saw a salamander but didn’t know what it was. Searching for “Oregon salamanders” brings up several pages that showcase all the species of salamander found in this state. Some of these sites, like the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s wildlife viewing site, also include information on other sorts of animals, making them valuable for broader research. Here are a few more links to get you started (please notice some of these are US-based, though there are some non-US links as well):

Encyclopedia of Life’s list of online identification guides

Whatbird – the Search page allows you to narrow birds down by attributes like location, color, shape, etc.

Identify That Plant’s list of plant ID websites

MycoKey – the free online version only allows ID of some types of fungus. I haven’t been able to find a single good online reference for all fungi.

10+ Naturalist Resources for Identifying Wildlife – a few broken links but still a solid list

Does this post resonate with your idea of paganism? Then I bet you’ll enjoy my books! The titles from Llewellyn are particularly informed by my interest in natural history and include more details on how to connect more deeply with the nature around you. Check them out at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/books/

[allisonlewis2-blog]

commercial exterminators

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Yellow jackets are considered beneficial insects, but it’s sometimes necessary to permanently deal with these surly wasps and their nests. Roaches Control Removal Trapping Spray Kill Services Once cockroaches make themselves at home in a house, it can be very difficult to kick them out. They can snack on your food, damage wallpaper, books, and electronics. They can also spread disease pathogens by contaminating food, appliances, and surfaces in the home. Spiders Spray Control Removal Kill Exterminators pest control service to spider extermination. There are a few dangerous species in the pacific northwest region including the Brown Recluse, Black Widow, and Aggressive House Spider. Getting rid of spider pests is most easily accomplished by keeping them out, but when inside, there are a variety of proven and unproven remedies you can use to scare them off or kill them. Hire Seattle Pest control services to save you money against spiders in houses or commercial business buildings. Termite Control Termites possess the enzymes, bacteria, and protozoa in their guts which allows them to digest cellulose. This is the organic fibrous material found in wood and plants. Termite colonies can contain anywhere from a few thousand to a few million. Worst of all, they do their damage unseen and can remain hidden for months. The average homeowner has to spend $3,000 to repair termite damage, but in some cases, these pests can eat into your home’s foundations. Ant Control There are an estimated 700 ant species in the United States although fewer than 5% infest homes. The ones to watch out for are Carpenter Ants, Odorous Horse Ants, Moisture Ants, Pharaoh Ants, and Pavement Ants. Rodent Control From a nature perspective, the ability of rodents to adapt to different environments is remarkable. However, we know that Seattle homeowners will not appreciate this fact when they see rats running in their basement! In the pacific northwest, the main species of rats are Roof Rats and Norway Rats. The two most common mice types are the House Mouse and Deer Mouse. Bedbug Control As the common bedbug has unfortunately adapted so well to human environments, it is arguably the pest that causes most problems. Up until a decade ago, Seattle residents believed that bedbug infestations were a thing of the past. Alas, they have made a resurgence in recent years and, contrary to popular myth, bedbugs are NOT attracted to dirt. Instead, they are attracted to body heat and exhaled carbon dioxide. bedbugs feed on blood, and while they don’t transmit diseases to humans, they can cause an allergic reaction. In many cases, it is necessary for our bedbug exterminator team to treat the issue more than once. Bees & Wasps Also known as stinging insects, beehives and wasp nests are a nightmare for any homeowner in Seattle as they can completely ruin your summer. A wasp colony is capable of causing severe harm to humans and could even kill if there are enough of them. Then there is the small matter of allergic reaction. Roaches Cockroaches are another type of pest notorious for their adaptability and capacity to survive hostile environments. Common roaches in the United States include Oriental, Asian, Brownbanded, American, and German. Cockroaches are capable of causing disease as they emit secretions from different parts of their bodies. Their intestinal disease organisms are passed on to humans and can cause allergic reactions such as asthma. Spiders No pest control service is complete without spider extermination. Although the vast majority of spiders are beneficial, there are a few dangerous species in the pacific northwest region including the Brown Recluse, Black Widow, and Aggressive House Spider. Admittedly, the first two species are not native to Seattle, but they can be transported here.   commercial exterminators

[drtanstravels]

When I finished my previous post we had wrapped up the Midwest Ocular Angiography Conference at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences in Jackson, Wyoming the previous night and were just about to begin the holiday leg of our trip through the Pacific Northwest of the USA.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 We had our lunch at the Four Seasons with Tony, the pharmaceutical representative from Chicago we had met at the conference, and now it was time for us to hit the road. We got in our white, rental Toyota Corolla and it needs to be said, Anna does a great job of driving on the opposite side of the road and there were some confusing roads and intersections to deal with in this area. Wifi was almost nonexistent so we had to either try and make the most of the one bar of connection we had while in a town to find our destination on Google Maps or simply resort to paper maps, something I would have to do a lot over the coming days in order to navigate, making me sometimes feel more than a little carsick. In fact things were so remote we couldn’t even get a radio reception and it looked like we’d just be listening to static for the next couple of hours until I was finally able to get my phone to pair with the car’s stereo via bluetooth, allowing us to listen to the music I had saved on iTunes. If we had to rely on Spotify, we would’ve been screwed. It really didn’t take that long to make our way deeper into Grand Teton National Park, where we would be spending that night:

Grand Teton National Park is an American national park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately 310,000 acres (480 sq mi; 130,000 ha; 1,300 km2), the park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile-long (64 km) Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Along with surrounding national forests, these three protected areas constitute the almost 18,000,000-acre (7,300,000 ha) Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the world’s largest intact mid-latitude temperate ecosystems.

The human history of the Grand Teton region dates back at least 11,000  years, when the first nomadic hunter-gatherer Paleo-Indians began migrating into the region during warmer months pursuing food and supplies. In the early 19th century, the first white explorers encountered the eastern Shoshone natives.

Grand Teton National Park is an almost pristine ecosystem and the same species of flora and fauna that have existed since prehistoric times can still be found there. More than 1,000 species of vascular plants, dozens of species of mammals, 300 species of birds, more than a dozen fish species and a few species of reptiles and amphibians inhabit the park.

One of many meese in the area

To be honest, neither Anna nor myself is particularly interested in fly-fishing, which is extremely popular there, but we do like the outdoors, hiking, and checking out the wildlife so we would be doing plenty of that over the coming days. In fact, we learnt an easy way for spotting animals almost immediately; if you see a whole heap of cars pulled over on the side of the road and a bunch of people staring and pointing into the distance, there is usually something worth pulling over and seeing. On the first occasion it was a female moose (above, right) grazing in a small body of water. It was obviously female, because it didn’t have antlers, but this got us immediately wondering if there might be more moose around, particularly male ones. Then I got a little irritated when it occured to me that the moose is a member of the deer family so the name is an invariant, the plural form still being “moose”, not “meese.” It seemed like such a wasted opportunity, but never mind, that wouldn’t stop me from referring to them as “meese.” Nothing could.

Another stop en route to our destination would be Jenny Lake, a popular hiking area through some of the tallest peaks in the Teton Range, in order to trek a portion of the Cascade Canyon Trail. We would take a boat, the humorously named “Beaver Dick Leigh” (which I later discovered was named after Richard “Beaver Dick” Leigh), from South Jenny Lake across to the the entrance of Cascade Canyon and hike up to the well-signposted Hidden Falls, then past the Jaw and the Rock of Ages, down to Lake Solitude, along the way passing that family from Oregon with whom we went whitewater rafting the previous day and Anna having to keep the sole attached to a busted hiking shoe with a hair-tie, before finally making our way back down to Jenny Lake and catching the “Beaver Dick Leigh” back across to our car. Besides squirrels, we didn’t really see any wildlife, but the scenery was pretty spectacular. See for yourself:

Entering Grand Teton National Park

Token panoramic shot

Our ride across the lake

And we’re off

It looks cold but it surprisingly wasn’t

I guess that’s one way to stop lake pirates

Almost there

following the river

Hidden Falls isn’t all that hidden

I’m dressed like I work there

The beginning of the trail

Still going

Anna getting a bit ahead of me

Not a bad way of spending an afternoon

One of many squirrels we would see

Looking down on some trees

Teton Range

We didn’t encounter any bears… yet!

To say the water is clear would be like saying it is also damp

Now that we were done with the hiking we had to find our way to the ranch where we were staying. That’s right, ranch. We were staying at the Heart Six Guest Ranch, which claims to be “One of the oldest dude ranches in America,” located just outside Grand Teton National Park and right near the south gate of Yellowstone National Park. Another fact to add was that the ranch stunk strongly of horse manure, an odour that you could almost taste, one that never disappeared, but also one that permeated everything until you just became acclimatised to it. One good thing about staying in this region is that it stays light until about 9:30pm each night so we didn’t have to worry about locating the ranch in the dark, but when we eventually found it, we were surprised to also see covered wagons and teepees on the grounds. We would definitely have to explore them a bit more in the morning, because I want to know how Native Americans could tolerate the cold nights here in just a teepee! When we arrived we checked in, noting the wildly swinging ceiling fan in the ranch’s reception, along with the multitude of mosquitoes and other insects in the general vicinity. Once done we didn’t go to our room, instead opting to drive down to a nearby river in the hope of seeing some animals, as dusk is apparently the prime time for spotting wildlife. Unfortunately, we didn’t encounter a whole lot, just a couple of female deer enthusiastically spotted in the distance by some fellow tourists, a large, slowly moving mound on the opposite bank of the river that was apparently a beaver (but realistically it could’ve been almost anything), and some spiders. I did, however, manage to snap the photo of the mountains with the purple sky that I used for the featured image for this post while we were there.

We returned to the “Dude Ranch” and asked the guy working in reception where there was to eat. There were apparently two options, one of which the receptionist said in no uncertain terms was “shit.” We walked outside and there was a man in a cowboy hat passing us so we asked him for his recommendation, to which he replied the other option out of the two was “shit.” We weren’t expecting to find ourselves in a culinary hotspot, but in our experience there people were more willing to tell you which was the worst out of the two restaurants, as opposed to which one they preferred, and thus far the consensus was split 50/50. Not a good sign so we opted for the closest which was on the grounds of the ranch — It was shit. There was probably only about 15 minutes until the kitchen closed and there was a family on a table behind us where the mother, similar in appearance to what you see in ‘Karen’ memes, was going to snap. She was constantly complaining to our waiter and bitching at her kids, but it was the waiter that I felt bad for. This tall, gangly guy with long, blonde hair in a ponytail with a fringe, a curly moustache, and suspenders over a t-shirt was frazzled — It can’t be easy being the only hipster in a tiny town, as well as the only employee in the town’s restaurant. When the family was ordering, the mother asked if there were any gluten-free options, to which the waiter replied that nothing they serve would be truly gluten-free, because they cook everything on the same grill and don’t really clean it. She just let out an audible, dissatisfied sigh and ordered a random dish. I’m not sure if he was cooking the food too, but it took quite a while to come out and it most likely wasn’t because they were busy cleaning in the kitchen. That family were there first so their food arrived before ours and the mother still wasn’t happy, going on a rant about the poor quality of their dinner. Ours eventually arrived and it was pretty bad too; a tough steak each and french fries that weren’t just crunchy, but hard as if they had kept all of the leftover, uneaten fries aside over the course of the evening and then refried them all at the end for our meals — It’s pretty hard to screw up fries, but they managed somehow. Still, we just smiled and gnawed on our steaks and crunched our fries, because we didn’t want to ruin the waiter’s night any further, he seemed close to tears.

Once we had got through the bulk of our dinner we decided to have a look around this part of the ranch, including the lounge area and the bar. As had been the case in Jackson and is probably a theme running through all ranches, there was a heap more taxidermy within those walls. Inside the lounge there was a kid being shown how to play pool by an older man, people sitting around reading books, and a stoned-looking guy admiring a stuffed animal head mounted on the wall, looking at it in the same way that a person takes in a renaissance masterpiece in a European museum. He giggled and pointed out to me that it had a weird horn in the middle of its head that would block its vision when it looked to the side. I mentioned that its eyes were on the sides of it head so it probably wouldn’t have had true peripheral vision anyway and the horn could just be the result of poor taxidermy. He seemed to take this onboard and continued to study this felled beast. Anna and I decided to take in other areas of the building such as the small bar with incredibly uncomfortable looking saddles on top of the barstools, when the guy staring at the head came running up, appearing relieved to have finally located me. “It’s a caribou!” he yelled while laughing hysterically, obviously having asked someone else, because he wouldn’t have been able to Google it unless he could get on one of the two occupied computers in the lounge.

We weren’t going to be staying in a teepee or a covered wagon, we just went up to our ugly room and hit the sack for the night. We were told when we checked in that the rooms in the part we were staying had only just been completed and when we got up there we saw that it was really basic; the walls were just plywood and everything appeared to be unfinished and really cheaply done so we could hear everything happening in the neighbouring rooms, all the while trying to make contact with as few surfaces as possible in order to avoid getting splinters. It also smelled of turpentine and there wasn’t a TV or wifi for a distraction so we just showered and went to sleep. A look around the ranch and our room:

Part of the outside area of our ranch at dusk

Me in the ranch’s restaurant with the angry mum behind me

Anna from the other side of the restaurant

Inside the lounge area

Some heads on the wall

The caribou with its weird centre horn

Inside the bar

Those stools don’t look comfortable at all

Our bed for the night

Thursday, July 11, 2019  Maybe it was just the jet-lag catching up with me, but I had a mild epileptic seizure that morning in my sleep. It wasn’t anything major, I still remember waking up immediately afterward and snoring heavily while trying to get back to sleep, but it would leave me feeling kind of lethargic, however, I wasn’t going to let it prevent me from making the most of the day. We also couldn’t sleep much, because there was construction going on outside our room from the early morning onward, as well as people speaking loudly just outside.

We knew that the restaurant in the ranch was terrible and we hadn’t heard sparkling reviews about our only other option so we didn’t bother with breakfast, we just went down to a convenience store, breathing in the fragrance of horse shit the entire way and passing our waiter from the previous night, a defeated-looking man now hanging out towels. We just hoped for better results than the last time we were in a convenience store and we didn’t do too badly, just a couple of average cups of coffee and I grabbed a Hunter’s Reserve Roadkill meat stick. It may sound like a bad double entendre and due to the word “roadkill” being a registered trademark, I have my doubts that it did contain any actual roadkill, however, “meat from feral swine” was one of the listed ingredients. Anyway, I ate the roadkill stick and stuck the wrapper in my pocket, because there were no bins around. We did one last look around, taking in the covered wagons and teepees around Heart Six Ranch and was surprised to see that they were actually quite modern on the inside, almost to the extent of our room, except for the fact that the people staying in them needed to use a communal toilet, something that is kind of a dealbreaker for Anna and I. A better look around the ranch in the light of day:

This doesn’t just apply to cowboys, there is crap EVERYWHERE!

The wagon accommodation

That’s where the smell is coming from

Some of the teepees

I don’t think it would be big enough in one of those for the both of us

So long, poop ranch

About to gnaw on some “Roadkill”

Before long we were back in the car, bound for the world famous Yellowstone National Park (no, not Jellystone):

Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular features. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world’s geysers and hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone.

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the contiguous United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in this park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States.

That all sounds pretty cool and if you took the time to read that Yellowstone background information, you would have seen that it mentioned a geyser called Old Faithful, the eruption of which we wanted to witness that day:

Old Faithful is a cone geyser located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States. It is a highly predictable geothermal feature, and has erupted every 44 to 125 minutes since 2000.

Eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 US gallons (14,000 to 32,000 L) of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet (32 to 56 m) lasting from ​11⁄2 to 5 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 145 feet (44 m).

The time between eruptions has a bimodal distribution, with the mean interval being either 65 or 91 minutes, and is dependent on the length of the prior eruption. Within a margin of error of ±10 minutes, Old Faithful will erupt either 65 minutes after an eruption lasting less than ​21⁄2 minutes, or 91 minutes after an eruption lasting more than ​21⁄2 minutes.

The drive to Yellowstone took us through some gorgeous scenery, bringing us within six miles (10 km) of the Idaho state line, through mountains and alongside rivers until we were finally where we needed to be. Old Faithful wasn’t due to erupt for another 30 minutes or so when we arrived, but remember there is a ±10 minute margin of error, meaning it could be anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes. We had a look around the stores nearby, used the bathroom and grabbed a drink, then we went outside and pulled up a seat on the wooden, colosseum-like benches and waited for the show to begin:

Anna killing time

A lot of people show up to see this thing erupt

Once the geyser had finished doing its thing the bulk of people watching began applauding for some reason, however, a lot of people here do that when their plane lands as well and you know for a fact that that pilot has successfully landed every single flight he’s flown. Others complained that the geyser was three minutes early which was kind of amusing, mainly because it doesn’t follow a set schedule, rather people make educated guesses with reasonable accuracy as to when it will erupt and within three minutes is a pretty decent guess.

We then spent the bulk of the day hiking around the grounds, although this left me a little breathless at times, probably a combination of the altitude and the seizure that morning, but we saw some incredible sights. Photos don’t do justice to hydrothermal features so before I post the pictures from around the park, I’ll add some more videos of individual ones we came across:

Anna and a pool

Me on a pathway

A closeup of the pool

Looking over the general vicinity

Another closeup

Something erupting

Overlooking some of the pathways

That’s a really bright flower!

Once we were done in Yellowstone National Park it was time to start driving toward the state of Montana, our home for the next couple of nights, and twice along the way we saw a bunch of cars pulled over to the side and people staring out at something. As I mentioned, that means there is something worth seeing and we wouldn’t be disappointed on either occasion.

First we would be stopping by one of the numerous geyser basins that follow Firehole River to see yet more hydrothermal spots. This area was crowded and the features there were incredible yet again. On this occasion I had a middle-aged guy with a big beard start laughing at my “Let’s Summon Demons” t-shirt, asking his 14-year-old daughter over to admire it. As it would turn out, she and a group of friends had recently got in a bit of trouble with both teachers and police for conducting satanic rituals and dad was more than proud, both him and his daughter wanting to find where they could get the shirt as well. Ultimately just settling for a picture with me.

We ended up stopping further along the river, this time to stop and watch and entire herd of elk that were making their way upstream. At this point we hadn’t seen a whole lot of wildlife so it was a sight for us to behold:

At the geyser basin

Flowing into the river

This shirt got me a bit of love

A panoramic shot of the area

Another part upriver

Just a small portion of the elk from a distance

Some of them feeding

The next stop would be our last one for the day, we would be traveling to Bar N Ranch, but we wouldn’t be staying in their regular accommodation, not by a long shot. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, or May 23 until September 8, when there isn’t too much snow, the ranch opens Under Canvas and Anna had booked for us to go glamping in a tent in the middle of nowhere. That’s no typo, for those unaware of the term, “glamping” is a conjunction of “Glamorous Camping.” I mentioned earlier that Anna doesn’t tend to like roughing it and despite the fact we were going to be staying a tent, she would by no means be getting in touch with nature. We were going to be staying in a Stargazer tent, described on their website as:

Stargazer

The Stargazer has its own viewing window above the king bed to stargaze at night. The ensuite bathroom in your tent includes a shower, sink and toilet. A wood stove keeps the tent warm at night and a private deck allows you to enjoy the outdoors.

Sleeps up to 4

Private bathroom

Key Features

Superior view with night sky viewing window

King size bed with luxurious linens

Private bathroom complete with shower, sink & flushing toilet

Additional camp cots and bedding can be provided for up to 2 people

Definitely an upgrade from staying in a sleeping bag under a tarpaulin, the type of camping that I was used to. Hell, it turned out our tent even had its own indoor fireplace with a sealed flue going outdoors. We drove down there, but there are a lot of cattle surrounding the entrance due to a cattlegrid stopping them exiting the premises so we couldn’t enter until a woman coaxed all of the cows away from the road. Once down the path we checked in and were chauffeur-driven in a golf cart, along with our luggage, to our super-luxurious tent and this wasn’t like anything I was expecting. We got everything arranged, then went to the main area of Bar N Ranch to have dinner, which turned out to be a great meal, and then it was back to our tent. It was a cold night and our shower had hot water, but it took a little while to kick in. Also, the only way to keep the hot water running was to be continually pulling down on a handle, otherwise it it would just cut off, leaving you standing there naked and wet on a freezing night. Anna discovered the best approach was to put soap on the sponge and toothpaste on the brush before getting in, that way you never had to release your grip on that handle. While I was in the shower, she also thought she had found some biscuits on the fireplace, but wasn’t really hungry — It was a good thing, because they turned out to be firelighters. I was pretty tired by the time I got into bed, our tent had a clear panel above the pillow area so I put on an eye-mask and we both went to sleep. This is where we would be spending the next two nights:

Waiting for the cattle to move

Anna out the front of Bar N Ranch

The view from our tent

Inside the restaurant

Another area of the restaurant

…and another

Glamp Montana

Inside our tent

Looking toward the bathroom

Anna ready for bed

Our shower

Pretty luxurious for a tent

Another part of the bathroom

Anna’s biscuits

Friday, July 12, 2019 Anna was already awake and reading by the time I awoke, which was still quite early. She hadn’t worn her eye-mask to sleep so she woke as soon as the sun rose over the clear panel above us in our tent, but no mask could block out the glare, waking me not long after and helping me avoid getting sunburnt. Factor in the jet-lag that was still affecting us and it becomes clear we yet again weren’t really destined for a long sleep.

The plan for the day was to do a little backtracking from Montana into Wyoming to Gallatin National Forest, an area near where we were the previous day, first stopping off at Gibbon Falls and then making our way down into the Mammoth Hot Springs area of Yellowstone National Park for some hiking, hopefully encountering something a little bigger than an elk this time. Before we left we took a look around where we were staying, this time in the broad daylight, me realising as we were walking that the previous day I hadn’t discarded of the wrapper of my roadkill jerky, instead just stuffing it in my pocket. This wasn’t a particularly bright move because, although we were hoping to see some bears from a reasonable distance, I didn’t want the smell of meat attracting any to me directly. I’ve never even really been in a fight before so I don’t like my chances of fending off a grizzly bear, I’d more than likely just instinctively play dead. Probably should pop that wrapper in a bin. The place where we were staying felt bad about some of the food we had been served in the area so far so they allowed us to buy packed lunches from their really good restaurant and we were off. We drove down to Gibbon Falls, a waterfall currently with a drop of approximately 84 feet (26 m) and constantly growing as it erodes the rock below, and we noticed what we had seen time and time again not only the day before, but had also noticed on several previous trips spent exploring the outdoors — That a lot of women traveling from a country that shares its name with the material from which fine teacups and saucers are made choose fashion over function. We particularly noticed it in Turkey where these women would be walking around caves and other geological features wearing high end dresses and heels when hiking attire is far more appropriate, preventing injuries and allowing you to access more areas. Now a lot of them had been wandering around Yellowstone, some even rocking a pair of stilettos, and we hadn’t seen the last of them. Anyway, Gibbon Falls was really nice, here’s a look at our morning up until that point:

Anna waiting outside our tent

Some of the other tents in Under Canvas

An area for outdoor dining

Not the worst heels we saw, but still not appropriate outdoors footware

Gibbon Falls from the side

Looking over the falls

Gibbon Falls from the front

Next we were going to make our way to a kind of unnamed town in the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District, first to eat our packed lunches, then to go to the Horace Albright Visitor Center to get us some information about where we could go hiking and potentially see some big furry things. A little more about the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District, an area that looks a hell of a lot like a town, operates like a town, but apparently isn’t a town:

The Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District in Yellowstone National Park comprises the administrative center for the park. It is composed of two major parts: Fort Yellowstone, the military administrative center between 1886-1918, and now a National Historic Landmark, and a concessions district which provides food, shopping, services, and lodging for park visitors and employees.

Fort Yellowstone is a carefully ordered district of substantial buildings that clearly indicate their military origins. The U.S. Army administered the park from 1886 to 1918 when administration was transferred to National Park Service. The park headquarters is now housed in the original double cavalry barracks (constructed in 1909). The Horace Albright Visitor Center is located in the old bachelors’ officers quarters (constructed in 1909).

The concessions district contrasts with the military district, with a less formal arrangement and style and includes the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Dining Room, a gas station, and retail stores. The Yellowstone Main Post Office, itself on the National Register of Historic Places sits just north of Fort Yellowstone. The residential area includes houses designed by architect Robert Reamer.

So despite having a residential area, retail stores, and even a post office, it still doesn’t qualify as a town, just a “Concessions District.” That explains why I was so confused trying to figure out the location when I first started writing this part of this post, even the locations on the photos I took aren’t accurate.

Anyway, as we were driving into the town concessions district our path to the main parking area was obstructed by a couple of deer making their way across in front of us, which was not a bad start. We ate our packed lunches from Under Canvas then, as we were making our way to the Visitor Center we had to walk pass the town concessions district square, a patch of grass between the two main streets that was teeming with female elk, all just hanging around, some laying down, others eating. I took some pictures, but as I went in to get a slightly closer shot I was accosted by a park ranger. “You must remain 25 yards or 22.8 metres away from all wildlife at all times!” he screamed in a well-rehearsed fashion, but you would think that if it were really that important they would put up at least one sign in the town concessions district. In fact, the only place it was even mentioned was on a flyer from the Visitor Center, however, you needed to walk past the animals to get the flyer. Once in the Visitor Center we stocked up on some supplies such as sunblock and insect repellent as the mosquitoes and horseflies in this area are awful! Anna wondered whether we should get some bear spray, but to me it all seemed like a bit of a scam; the stuff is US$50.00 (currently about AU$72.50) per can and we hadn’t even seen any bears! It was also possible to rent bear spray from some places, but the stuff doesn’t act as a repellent, more like a form of mace for use on bears, and I figured if a grizzly bear was intent on attacking you, spraying mace in its face would only piss it off more so we opted against it.

We got ourselves some maps and were soon on our way, hiking on an uphill path, walking for about 15 minutes when we were approached by an excited looking tourist from New Zealand and her two young children coming the opposite direction. She told us that just a bit further up the hill was a female grizzly bear with two young cubs and it was a bit angry, scaring her kids. We asked her if she thought it was safe for us to continue and she replied, “Oh, sure, you’ll be fine as long as you have your bear spray.” Shit. We walked back down into the town concessions district, forked out the US$50.00 and got us some bear spray.

Take two. We started to make our way uphill again, this time equipped with our bear spray in a hip holster, a liquid with its ingredients listed as 2% capsaicin and 98% “Other ingredients”. This stuff must be pretty strong, possibly even working on the power of suggestion, because after over an hour of anticipating encountering a defensive grizzly bear and its cubs we came to the conclusion that there were now three possibilities:

The bears were substantially further away than the woman had led us to believe,

The bears were gone, or

The woman was working for the bear spray company

I even began to wish I had now kept the Roadkill wrapper in my pocket in the hopes of attracting one. Still, we kept going, hiking for about five hours, covering over 15 km (9.3 miles) of rugged terrain, getting caught in the rain and mauled by mosquitoes, just to see a couple of does, which quite possibly could’ve been the same one multiple times, one male deer, plus a couple of squirrels here and there. As our hike continued, I became more and more annoyed at how anticlimactic it had been; I was now exhausted, wet, and extremely itchy, yet we had seen hardly anything, encountering not only more wildlife, but cooler-looking animals in the town concessions district! We stopped off briefly to have a look at the Mammoth Hot Springs and then decided to head back. To add insult to injury, there was a female elk sitting right next to our car, but screw that 25 yard rule, I wasn’t in the mood to let this thing stop me from getting in our car. If I needed to be 25 yards away from the wildlife, it could do its part on this occasion and move away from me. Some scenes from the town concessions district centre and the little we saw on a disappointing, albeit trying, hike:

Parking the car

Interesting name

The centre of the “Concessions District”

A closeup of some elk

Looking over the concessions district as we begin our hike

Heading back to the store

Now equipped with bear spray

Seems like there’s some around

It’s all good, I’ve got bear spray

2% capsaicin, 98% other ingredients

Safety first

How to use our spray

A small portion of the area we hiked

A doe we saw

Possibly the same doe later

Mammoth Hot Springs

A nearby deer

Mammoth Hot Springs from a distance

She can get 25 yards away from me

That night we went into a real town, West Yellowstone, Montana for dinner with the intent of eating a bison or bear steak out of spite, because we sure didn’t encounter any on our hike. Instead, we settled for a ribeye and some damn good devilled eggs, all of which we shared between us, and then we headed back to our tent for a final night before moving on to the next stop.

Initially I was going to try and tell the story of this trip in two parts, but it turns out I will need a third and final post in order to tell it properly. Where would we be staying next? Would we encounter any wildlife worth writing about? And would I have to wear that hideous cowboy shirt again to a rodeo? Stay tuned for the conclusion of our journey through cowboy country!

Embarking on the vacation leg of our trip through Wyoming and Montana When I finished my previous post we had wrapped up the Midwest Ocular Angiography Conference at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences in Jackson, Wyoming the previous night and were just about to begin the holiday leg of our trip through the Pacific Northwest of the USA.

[botanyshitposts]

mugwomps replied to your photo “the back of my laptop has been updated a lot in the past month”

Are you working on translating the Japanese papers you picked up at the conference?

not yet, i was just stacking all my new books/papers and stuff up. the japanese papers are really cool; again i haven’t translated them yet, but one is mentioning a rare japanese pitcher plant i recognize (might be reporting its discovery, it’s an older paper) and the other is talking about bladderworts judging by the pictures. i’m planning on scanning in all the papers and old stuff i got once i get home, and i’ll probably use google translate or a japanese-specific translation tool and transcribe it into text, unless anyone out there speaks japanese and is willing to help me transcribe the articles!! 

list of all the papers/miscellaneous materials i got: 

-CITES paperwork from the 70s. seems to be primarily from the Malaysian, Indonesian, and german governments. 

-issues of the carnivorous plant newsletter: volume 1, numbers 1-4; volume 3, numbers 2 and 3; and volume 45, number one (newest, from march 2016) 

-photocopies of the carnivorous plant society’s magazine....thing? i’ve never heard of this organization. it’s volume 2 from autumn 1979. i picked it up because it has a couple pages in it about darwin conducting electrical experiments on venus fly traps, which make a lot more sense under 2018 science light; there was a talk at the conference about a group that carefully measured the action potentials of venus fly traps and demonstrated that wounding the plant made the traps close, too. chemical analysis after that proved that the trapping mechanism must have evolved from a defense mechanism against bugs! but anyway lol 

-the japanese papers, newsletters from the Journal of Insectivorous Plant Society, volumes 38 issue 1 and 39 issue 4. 

-a printout of a 2007 paper from the international journal of botany, “Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes) Recorded From Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia” 

-photocopy from a book/journal publication of some kind; the paper that’s photocopied is from 1979. it’s called “Seasonal heterophylly and leaf gland features in Triphyophyllum (Dioncophyllaceae), a new carnivorous plant genus”

-a photocopy of a large article from volume 33, issue 2 of the Philippine Journal of Science, from june, 1927. it’s called “The Philippine Species of Nepenthes” 

-a REALLY hefty book/paper/whatever, i can’t tell, its virtually unlabeled except for the title: “Insectivorous Plants of Khasi and Jaintia Hills Meghalaya, India (A Preliminary Survey” and then a subtitle: “BOTANICAL SURVEY OF INDIA” 

-a photocopy of volume 17, number 1 of the Science in New Guinea journal. the article in question is another sizeable stack of paper, published in 1991, and the title is “An Account of Nepenthes in New Guinea”. has some AWESOME illustrations. 

-a photocopy from volume 124, issue 4 of The American Naturalist. this was the only paper i like....recognized, at all, and it’s Dr. Givnish’s article on what might cause carnivorous plants to be carnivorous, and when being carnivorous becomes a bad thing. the results are pretty primitive, but it’s really notable for being the article that got botanists thinking about why a plant might be carnivorous, and the kind of energy that gets put into all that work of digesting insects- is it even worth it? it’s called “Carnivory in the Bromeliad Brocchinia Reducta, with a Cost/Benefit Model for the General Restriction of Carnivorous Plants to Sunny, Moist, Nutrient-Poor Habitats”, and was published in 1984. Givnish is still doing work with cost/benefit in carnivorous plants, btw. i’ll have to talk here about his latest work sometime soon, when i met him he told me about it. 

as for why these are all printouts/photocopies...i have no idea. again, these came from a couple boxes of paper materials one of the old hands in carnivorous plants at the conference was selling, and he had quite the assortment going on. don’t know if i’ll be able to get away with scanning in and uploading all of them, but some of them- the nepenthes paper from New Guinea, for example- might be really useful to have out there, and is more of a niche text, as it appears. 

other materials i got:

-a magazine i got from a hotel we stayed at on this trip. it’s from the Save the Redwoods League, and is...just a magazine devoted to redwoods. 

-Coast Redwood: Tree of Dreams and Fortune, by GF Beranek

-Revised Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska, by Pojar and Mackinnon

this was waaayyy more information then you asked for clarification on but part of this was me taking inventory on my own stuff so eh. 

[pcttrailsidereader]

A Review of "Crossing Paths"

Barbara Lloyd McMichael, the Bookmonger, writes a weekly column focusing on books, authors and publishers of the Pacific Northwest. This week the review was of "Crossing Paths: A Pacific Crest Trailside Reader".

More than a decade ago, Mountaineers Books published “The Pacific Crest Trailside Reader” in two volumes. One focused on the southern half of the trail in California, the other as it traversed the spine of the Cascade mountains through Oregon and Washington. Each offered a collection of adventures as experienced by dozens of different hikers.

Now the Seattle publisher is back with “Crossing Paths,” a new anthology containing the reflections of folks who have hiked the trail within the past decade. While many things endure (the plethora of rattlesnakes in the California desert, the kindness of strangers), some things have changed significantly in the past decade.

Since Portland author Cheryl Strayed’s memoir about walking the trail, “Wild,” was published in 2012 and became a bestseller, the popularity of the trail has exploded. Even some folks who are not seasoned hikers are now attempting this trek.

Contributor Gail Storey confesses as much in her piece about tagging along with her avid outdoorsman husband, “I never much cared for nature, or rather, thought it okay as long as it stayed outside,” she writes.

The combination of increased numbers on the trail, and the folks who are unaware of the “Leave No Trace” ethic, have resulted in degradation of the trail and impacts on flora and fauna in some places.

Climate change also is changing the physical landscape that the trail threads through. Droughts have ravaged once-healthy forests, leading to disease, insect infestations, and longer and stronger climate fire seasons.

Another recent phenomenon is the proliferation of electronic devices that hikers now carry routinely, smartphone apps, navigational systems, emergency beacons and the like. Do these technological interventions enhance or interfere with hikers’ engagement with their surroundings?

Some of the writings selected for this anthology contemplate those issues directly, while others involve more personal experiences, as each hiker figures out how to be true to the adage to “hike your own hike.”

Pulitzer Prize recipient and Willamette Valley farm owner Nicholas Kristof writes about hiking the entirety of the trail in sections over seven years in the company of his teenage daughter, Caroline, with generational differences of opinion.

In another essay, with family connections, Chloe S. LaLonde undertakes a through hike with her college roommate, at the same time retracing the journey that her mom, Rosemary L. Broome, made on horseback 42 years earlier. Both mother and daughter contribute to this illuminating compare and contrast exercise. The most poignant story in this collection is the tribute a father pays to his son, who died in a fall while attempting a hike two years ago.

This book covers the gamut of events that can happen along 2,650 miles of wilderness trail. There are mishaps with mice, and encounters with snakes, bears and cougars. There are moments of solitude and episodes of fellowship. There’s an impromptu wedding between hikers who meet on the trail and become soulmates. In sum, “Crossing Paths” will leave you wanting s’more.

[heatherwitch]

Do you have any favorite reference books about PNW wildlife that you would recommend? There are so many, and it makes it hard to choose which would be good to start with.

You came to the right place my friend!! I’ve been hoarding collecting field guides since I was a kid :D

North American wildlife books:

Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America on my tracking weekends I carry this book with me to help figure out what areas to look for animal sign based off of animal habits!

National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America I’m by no means a birder but this book has almost always met my needs!

Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds* fills in the gaps and is super helpful for confirming ID.

Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species is the BEST guide for identifying the feather you find (and it may have been written by some acquaintances of mine)

Audubon Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians* has always met my basic ID needs!

Peterson Field Guide to Insects of North America is great when you find that weird lil critter and wonder what it is.

Audubon Field Guide to Butterflies* fills in the gaps but is less needed!

I know that was an info dump but I’ve found Peterson and Audubon to be pretty reliable, and this is just a broad base if you’re interested in naturalist stuffs!

**Audubon has a bunch of apps too!!

PNW specific:

Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest It’s a super helpful book that introduces the basics of wildlife tracking and covers most PNW mammals! I bring it everywhere!

Birds of Washington is a great beginner book and its color-coded!

Field guide to the Cascades & Olympics I haven’t personally used this one much but it’s a really well-rounded book (local geology, mushrooms, plants, insects, reptiles and amphibians, birds and mammals).

Audubon Field Guide to Rocky Mountain States honestly applies to everything East of the Cascades. Covers a lil bit of everything!

PNW specific plants (sorry I couldn’t resist!!):

Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast if you don’t have this book, GET IT. Even if you don’t really care about plants. It covers most of the basics and you will turn to it eventually. Mine is so well-loved that it’s falling apart.

Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West + Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West were both forced upon me when I was a little nerdy child by my mentor. Super helpful if you’re interested in wild plant medicine! Not so much for plant ID!

I tend to use Audubon more than Peterson, but I have a LOT of plant books because you usually have to cross-reference (or have 6 different books out in my case) to ID plants. Again, there are apps out there too! 

Whew! That was maybe 1/10th of my books? Probably lower than that! I’d be happy to recommend more specific things too, I most likely have a couple of books covering the topic :)

[holceeripon]

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[flavenlonno]

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