Douglas Fir

Yesterday's blip was the Douglas Squirrel. Today the Douglas fir --both named after the same person....

These PNW coastal trees can be 60-100 meters tall, the second tallest conifer in the world after the Giant Redwoods. They grow with Western Red Cedar, Hemlocks, and Grand Firs with salal, oregon grape and sword ferns on the forest floor underneath. Just like in my "back yard"! These are "old Growth," meaning they haven't been logged for 80 years or so here (altho there has been some log gin since then on the island) - this tree is several hundred years old, maybe more. They produce hard dense durable wood. and heavy. (we know this from carrying rounds that have been bucked from a fallen tree!) The first nations were known to burn the forest floor to open it up and also to fell the bigger trees on occasion. Several of our big trees have burned bark up about 10 ft.

They are named after David Douglas, the Scottish naturalist, altho the scientific name is pseeudotsuga menziesii, after Archibald Menzies, a Scottish physician and rival naturalist who first described it in 1791. I'm going to quote from the jacket of a book in my stack, (as yet unread unfortunately), The Collector by Jack Nisbett
" Between 1823 and 1834, Scottish naturalist David Douglas wandered from New York to Hawaii in quest of promising nursery plants for the London Horticultural society. He was a complex character whose dogged perseverance delivered a flood of both scientific names and garden delights to Great Britain, and in the greater northwest his achievements far outstripped the commercial aspirations of his employers. Today we attach his name to the Douglas fir, iconic tree of the Northwest as well as to many other familiar plants and animals.
Douglas stands as the first outsider to describe the Hudson's Bay Company's extensive reach through the Columbia and Fraser River drainages. He made forays both on and off the major river routes, displaying a remarkable zeal as he gathered everything from minerals to mammals and horned lizards to band-tailed pigeons.
Along the way, Douglas forged relationships with fur trade agents, mixed blood voyageurs, and a succession of native tribes who understood the species that he sought. He watched families dig and bake roots, gather fibers to weave into the products of everyday life, and manage diverse habitats in subtle and effective ways. His detailed field notebooks and lively narrative sketches, along with extensive flora and fauna collections- still housed in England- provide baseline information about Pacific Northwest landscape and culture during the period of initial Europeon contact."
It will be a good read! soon!

The Douglas Squirrel (tamiascciurus douglasii) yesterday's blip surprised a few with the news that they eat mice. I've done more looking (too many to list here) and found more sites that don't mention mice but a minority that say they can if the conditions are right, or there is a dead one around. Also that they can eat bones. (I assume ones they find....) So...eating mice is not the norm as are nuts, seeds and mushrooms , but possible. I'm sure that little guy gets plenty of other vegetarian delicacies.... :-)

I will have to follow up here with a blip one day of the Douglas fir cone -which looks like the tail and 2 back feet of many little mice running up in between the scales.