Photo Gallery click on a photo to see a larger (70-120 KB) image
Photographers: Jeff Lukas (JL), Connie Woodhouse (CW), and Mark
Losleben (ML)
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| Mark Losleben coring an old ponderosa pine at the Eagle Rock (EAG) site high above the South Platte River. (CW | Mark coring a very old and very large Douglas-fir at the Lands End (LAN) site on the western edge of Grand Mesa. This tree is about 900 years old. Note the sparseness of the crown and the craggy branches. (JL) | Peter Brown coring a very old yet very small Douglas-fir at the Lily Lake (LIL) site in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park. This tree is about 800 years old. Age and size are not well-correlated in Colorado conifers! (CW) |
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| A typical old ponderosa pine (note the orange bark and large bark plates) at the Soap Creek (SPP) site west of Gunnison, looking across an arm of Blue Mesa Reservoir to the volcanic bluffs behind. (JL) | Typical old Douglas-fir at right (note deeply furrowed bark and heavy limbs) at the Princeton (PRD) site. Several trees at this site were over 800 years old. In the background is Mt. Yale and the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. (JL) | |
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| A very old pinyon pine at the Piceance (PIC) site west of Meeker. Note the twisted trunk and dead limbs. One of the trees at this site (perhaps this one) had a core with an inside date of 1124, making it about 900 years old, the oldest known pinyon in Colorado. (CW) | Mark Losleben with a merely old Douglas-fir at the Encampment (ENC) site in southern Wyoming. It was a stiff climb to reach these trees. Most of our sites, though, are pretty close to roads--old trees are more prevalent than one might think. (CW) | Connie Woodhouse coring an old ponderosa pine at the Vedauwoo (VED) site in southern Wyoming. Note the rounded, flattish crown and heavy limbs. (ML) |
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| Barren slopes and stunted Douglas-firs at the Green Mountain Reservoir (GMR) site, not too far from the ski resorts of Summit County. The storms that dump on the slopes give some moisture to these trees, so their growth reflects the state of the mountain snowpack and thus streamflow. (JL) | Douglas-firs clinging to a steep south-facing slope at Douglas Pass (DOU) north of Grand Junction. The snag on the skyline was cored and had an inside date of 1449 (it died in the 1920s). The live tree to its left had an inside date of 1382. (JL) | |
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| Mark and Connie pose with an enormous ponderosa pine at the Soap Creek (SPP) site. Ponderosa in Colorado don't get much bigger than this one. Like some old trees, it had heartrot and so could not reveal its full record of past climate. (JL) | Dozens of ponderosa pines at the Cochetopa Dome (COD) site south of Gunnison showed evidence of use by Ute Indians c.150-250 years ago. The Utes would peel the bark and cambium (which is edible and nutritious) from the tree in a vertical strip, leaving a scar about about the size and shape of an ironing board. On the tree at left, a subsequent fire has charred the surface of the scar. The tree at right center also has a scar. (JL) |
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| Classic pinyon-juniper habitat at the Escalante Forks (EFU) site west of Delta. This site was first collected in 1964 by Stokes and Harlan. It is one of our youngest pinyon sites; the oldest tree is "only" about 450 years old. (JL) | Pinyon pines growing right on the edge at the Plug Hat Butte (PLU) site near Dinosaur National Monument. The oldest trees here are over 700 years old. Pinyons this old are actually fairly common across western Colorado. (JL) | |
Last updated: 17 Dec 2004