Redwoods

Far south on the northern coast of California, a tremendous and special grove of trees have thrived.  The Redwoods of California.  We'd spent the day in Crescent City where seal had come to sun themselves on the rocks in the bay.  On our way home we parked in one of the pull offs along the Redwood Highway.  Towering Redwoods all around us, just taking one step up the trail made me feel we'd stepped into another world.

In fact, the Redwoods were used in the Star Wars film Return of t
he Jedi.

But they are also famous for something else.

There's a sea bird called the Marbled Murrelet.  In the wake of the 1970s when forest management, ecology and nature were reaching new heights, biologists had a puzzling problem.  Where does the Marbled Murrelet nest?  They've seen them on the ocean water where they spend most of their time.  They've seen them fly over the old growth forests such as the Redwoods or the rainforests of the Hoh in Olympic National Park.  But no one knew where they nested.

Then one day, a ranger was way up in a Redwood tree trimming what he thought would be a dangerous limb over the camp ground.  He stepped onto another branch to get better footing when he almost stepped onto a Marbled Murrelet chick.  The moss created a nest of sorts and feathers from the chicks parents could be seen as well.  It was then that they discovered these sea birds won't nest anywhere but in the high canopy of old growth forests.

I love the Redwoods.  They are one of my favorite places to visit.  Where else can you find such a special grove of trees, but then drive 10 minutes further west to a sprawling California coastline?  But I could literally get lost in the Redwoods for days.  No two trails are alike, and yet the trees remind me how small we humans are.  It's dizzying just looking upward.  Patches of sky appear here and there, but mostly, all you see are towers of red and green.

And the forest floor is covered in mosses, lichens and ferns.

And it's home to the Marbled Murrelet among many other animals.

I pointed out the nurse log to my son who was visiting me from back east. I explained that in the Pacific Northwest and up in Canada and Alaska, when a tree falls over, mosses will grow on it and create a living environment for other plants to grow.  Seedlings from the Redwoods themselves will gather on that moss and eventually start growing in what appears to be right out of the fallen log.  But really it's taken root in the moss and dirt that's gathered.  The log will nourish the new growth and eventually decay away giving itself back to the earth.  The new growth will take over.  The Redwoods are full of these.  Nature has a way of taking care of itself in cycles, and the process is happening all around us while we stand in the forest.

Reflections in the Ice update2

I'm now sitting at 40,000 words and all the chapters have been drafted.  My approach now is to start editing the chapters in order, and approach getting them polished for publishing.  My current goal is to be ready to submit by February 1.

This has become quite the experience and I have to admit to you as my readers, that this has been a journey of sorts.  For those of you that don't know me, I have always wanted to be a nature writer since I first ready Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey back in the 1980s.  I now own a hard copy latest edition of the book.  The problem was, I didn't have the true experiences of nature for which to fully turn into a book, my life limited to raising a family and the years I spent in Anchorage, Ketchikan and Juneau.

But when I had to leave the University of Alaska  early, where I was pursuing a degree in Environmental Literature, I changed my major to film and television because I had to redo most of my English credits at the new university.  For a time I thought I was meant to become a nature environmental documentary filmmaker.  That could still be true...

But something awoke in me in 2017.  For one, I spent a summer in Olympic National Park and the winter at Mt. Rainier National Park, both as an interpretive ranger.  Coupled with my experience as an interpretive ranger in Alaska, the training and experiences there gave me two elements vital to writing my book:  fodder for stories and experiences, and the interpretive training for which to approach story telling.  Both of these elements have totally changed my approach to writing and made it essential in my completing this book.

And I discovered something within me sometime in 2017 a short time after I had totally lost a close friend to disagreement.  I found I was living my life for everyone else and it was time to live life on my own terms.  Something deep within me needed to come out.  I needed to tell the story.  And if I were ever wanting to read about Alaska and nature, I would want Reflections in the Ice to be an option.  Of all my books both bought and sought for (Arctic Dreams:  Barry Lopez, A Place Beyond and The Glacier Wolf by Nic Jans, Dominion of Bears by Sherry Simpson, Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams, Desert Solitaire and The Journey Home by Edward Abbey, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, Travels in Alaska by John Muir among others), I have found that I'd like to read about the experiences I had held and the insights and philosophies I had discovered in my journeys as an interpretive ranger.  I would have looked for Reflections in the Ice.

And so I am just a few months away from submitting this book to publishers.  I need support!  Please advertise this book far and wide and get the word out.  I'm confident it will be a wonder work of literature.

Reflections in the Ice - Update1

Reflections in the Ice:  Glacial Seasons in Alaska.

I've been working on a book for the past few months.  Currently I'm sitting just shy of 40,000 words.  The book is a personal nature book about the seasons I've spent as a ranger, especially focused on the season I spent on glacier boats.  Some of the essays in this blog have in inserted and modified into the book.

The book will touch on all things Alaska:  glaciers, mountains, bears, fishing and special places.  It'll take you from Ketchikan to Barrow, but focused mostly on south-central Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula.  I also have a few essays I'm including from Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks.

It's a reflective piece, thus the name.  It reflects upon my journey into the wild, my witness to receding glaciers and the effects of climate change.  It's also a reflection upon myself.  Much like the writings those of you have read here in my blog.

The difference is the format.  Everything will be connected and themed together into a long read--the kind of book I would have wanted to read if I had interest in Alaska.

I'll keep you updated.