Thursday, July 18, 2013

Juniper Maritima North of Eastsound

I am still spotting Juniperus maritima catching-up-with-juniperus-maritima and noting locations.


I spotted this large mature juniper north of Eastsound. Adams (2007) cored some of the more mature trees he had seen elsewhere and noted that they predated European settlement. This tree is clearly not in a wild setting, but has been here a long time. It is about a half mile from the shore growing in soil derived from glacial marine drift. Outside the developed areas the forest in this area is the usual western Washington mix, but does have a fair bit of lodge pole pine and occasional Sitka Spruce. Historically this low area was likely partially maintained as prairie prior to European settlement.

One possible additional advantage of this spot is it is subject to strong winds both from the south and from the north as the wind is funneled between low mountains to the west and east of the low area where Eastsound is located.

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