Cedar Boughs

 Evaluating a valley in the Olympics earlier this fall I noted these cropped trees. 

The limbing was not for creating views through the forest, but was a partial harvest of the tree boughs for evergreen arrangements and/or wreaths. The trees in this case are western red cedar. And this was an allowed operation by the land owner. Evergreen foliage is a big business on the Olympic Peninsula and southwest Washington, and unfortunately some of that business is illegal harvesting. It is particularly problematic in young tree stands as the removal of branches and even the tips of the trees destroys the tree plantation. The very fact that the trees above were scaled and limbed (by hand) in the manner they were indicates the value of these products.  

Chicken Eggs

Traveling to a field work site I came across one of the larger egg producers in Washington State. The packaging for the eggs notes that the chickens at this farm are free ranging. Agricultural friends have told me that the egg labeling is accurate. I got to see what a large scale free range chicken operation looks like. Thousands of chickens meandering through open grass fields.   

The farm is Wilcox Farms in the Nisqually River valley. They kindly allowed me access across the farm to assess a site saving me from a rather long bushwhack along rough river bottom land.

Last week I passes by another large egg operation. I observed no chickens at that facility which is consistent with the labeling on the egg packages.

Plane Notes: A Few Infrastructure Observations

Aerial views are part of my routine 'tool box' as a geologist. I use aerial photographs on a nearly daily basis for multiple reasons. Other aerial imagery is utilized as well - lidar, infrared and sometimes radar imagery. I enjoy this type of work and a there is a sense of discovery when viewing aerials. 

I had previously seen the below feature when reviewing historic aerials for a project, and hence, when I got a view of it while flying out of Seattle knew exactly what it was. 

Cedar Hills Landfill

The Cedar Hills Landfill serves King County. 

While I do like to see the geology observable while flying, the human infrastructure also stands out. Some infrastructure has far reaching influence.  

From right to left: Keechelus, Kaches, Cle Elum

Interstate 90 traverses along the left side of Keechelus

The Snoqulamie Pass ski areas are visible in the lower right 

The three lakes are all part of the Yakima River watershed. There were natural lakes at all three locations associated with past ice age alpine glaciers that left depressions and moraines in the three valleys. Dams were erected at the outlets of all three to raise the water storage which is then metered out through the summer growing season in the Yakima Valley below. The dams should not be considered static features - they require ongoing maintenance and at times repair. All three dams are Federal dams managed and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation.    

The western side of the Quincy Basin with the Columbia River to the right

The rocky ground with lakes are former spill ways from the large ice-age floods (quincy-basin-plumbing). The Quincy Basin is a major agricultural area in central Washington with irrigation water supplied via water routed from the Grand Coulee Dam through the former routes of the ice-age floods. On the upper part of the picture an additional flood spill way can be seen plus a whiteish area. The upper whiteish area is a site of a diatomite mine. The ice-age floods plucked off enough basalt to expose old lake deposits containing diatoms that are now mined.  

 

Moses Lake and Potholes Reservoir to the north

The east end of the Quincy Basin is drained through another ice-age flood route. Moses Lake is a natural lake formed in the deep flood water channels. Its depth and extent was slightly expanded by a small dam work at the outlet in 1911. Potholes Reservoir is formed by O'Sullivan Dam. The lakes receive natural water flow via Crab Creek, but the bulk of the water passing through now is via the water pumped into the upstream ice-age flood route of Grande Coulee and then routed via other reservoirs and canals to the Quincy Basin.    

Potholes Reservoir

Potholes Reservoir is a critical junction in the Columbia Basin project. Water from this area is routed to project irrigation lands around Basin City (upper left in the picture), the Crab Creek valley (above the lake in the picture) and the Wahluke Slope (dark area above the Crab Creek area and separated from Crab Creek by the ridge of the Saddle Mountains).

The lower Snake River

The lower Snake River is an area where infrastructure has generated some controversy. The lower Snake in Washington State has four dams that were the last of the big dams on Columbia-Snake system. These dams have led to the extinction of some salmon species and endangerment of additional salmon species. There is some irrigation near the lower Snake River. The big fields on the left are dry land wheat, but nearer the river above Ice Harbor Dam pumps in the backed up river and in wells near the river supply water to irrigated land. Part of the conflict over the lower Snake dams revolves around these irrigated lands --- if the dams are removed the irrigation works will need to be altered and water pumping costs may increase. 

Lower Snake River passing through the Palouse 

Most of the area along the lower Snake in Washington is not irrigated farm land as the river is a in a narrow steep rocky canyon for much of this river reach. The above image shows the slack water backed up by Lower Monumental Dam. The wide tributary is the Palouse River also backed up by the dam. The tributary on the left is the Tucannon River which drains out of the north side of the Blue Mountains.

The high Palouse and Blue Mountains

The further east position and higher elevation means wetter areas. In June the eastern Palouse and the Blue Mountains are very green landscapes. here the moisture levels are high enough that dry land winter wheat can be grown every year versus the every other year pattern in the areas to the west and at lower elevations. That switch over line can be seen on the right portion of the picture. 

If you blow up the picture above or better the one below another newer infrastructure feature can be observed. 

Rows of wind turbins line the upper ridges of the high Palouse in this area

One last infrastructure note beyond Washington Sate's borders: 

Surface mines along mountain ridges in southeast Idaho. 

Bear lake in northwest Utah is in the distance

Extensive open pit surface mining has been taking place in southeast Idaho over the past 50 plus years. The mines are phosphate mines. Some of that phosphate may end up shipped to Washington farm lands as a critical fertilizer. This particular mine is a JR Simplot Smoky Canyon Mine. The phosphate ore is mixed with water and pumped via pipeline for processing in Pocatello, ID. This was the best view I have had of the scale of the phosphate mining in this area. Its impressive on the ground, but more so from the air.   

Blowing Dust in Skagit and Douglas Counties

Last week while on the Waterville Plateau in central Washington I observed a bit of a dust storm to the east in the early morning.

   

Blowing dust on the north side of the Waterville Plateau

Distant haze suggest dust blowing further east 

The dust blow was from an area that burned last September that is also underlain by glacial lake sediments. Glacial ice from the Okanogan ice lobe blocked the Columbia River forming a large ice margin lake. The lake sediments are very fine grained and readily will erode via both water and wind from areas of disturbed ground. 

More surprising was the dust storm mid day today on the Skagit River delta.

April and May have been dry on the Skagit delta/flats and the fields are drier than usual. This is generally a good thing as wet springs can hamper getting out on these fields -- they are just above or at sea level (think Netherlands and dikes that keep the tide out). Most of the dust was from potato fields that were recently plowed. They get plowed pretty deep and pretty late with some not yet planted. However, one corn field just sprouting was kicking up dust as well. The pictures are from between Edison and Allen, northwest of Burlington.

Dust lifting off plowed field obscuring the view of Blanchard Mountain

Dust lifting off field with Bayview Hill in the distance

Driving across the Samish Flats was an eastern Washington experience

The dust blow lasted a few hours but ended as the wind calmed a bit and spring shower passed through. 

I sent a few pictures to Cliff Mass and he has a write up on today's wind event: dust-storms-on-both-sides-of-cascades. Cliff included some pictures from the Tri-City area, a place where I experienced my share of dust storms. 

Josh Ritter starts a song that is apt for dust storms and farming: "Dirt roads and dryland farming might be the death of me. But I can't leave this world behind" Josh Ritter - Lawrence, Kansas. I will just note that all the rain in Skagit winters precludes dirt roads in the farm land.

Canola in Central Washington

In the slightly wetter dry land farming zones of central and eastern Washington, canola fields have become part of the crop rotation.

Central Washington canola field with North Cascades in the distance

Connolly, McCracken and Painter (2016) describe a cost spread sheet developed for farmers considering planting canola. There has been an uptick in canola in Washington in part due to a canola oil plant built in Warden in 2013. Viterra recently gained full ownership of that plant (Press Release to WSU). Improvements to infrastructure and technical support may lead to expansion of canola in Washington.

The term canola is derived from combining "Canada" with "ola". Canola is a product of breeding out the undesirable part of rapeseed and was developed on the plains of Canada. Viterra is a Canadian Company.

Changes in farming can be global, and a big market for canola oil is China. The US-China trade struggles may impact these brilliant yellow fields. China has its own canola agriculture and has had trade disputes regarding canola imports to China from Canada that recently popped up again likely associated with the Huawei case.

Glacier Peak Tephra on the Waterville Plateau

Geology is a critical component of agriculture. The recessional glacial outwash plains around Lynden in northwest Washington formed some of the best agricultural lands in western Washington. The narrow gap at Wallula in the Horse Heaven Hills backed up ice age flood waters which in turn filled the Yakima and Walla Walla valleys with thick blankets of silt (lake-lewis-and-wallula). 

I had a nice geology outing with a soil scientist last week. It was informative interaction and we were traversing through country where Jay had completed soil mapping projects. Jay noted subtle features in the soil I would never have noticed without him.     

Note tiny tan grains

The small grains in the soil are tiny pieces of volcanic tephra. Given the central Washington location and the distribution of the grains Jay described, the source of the tephra is likely from Glacier Peak (Porter, 1978 and Kuehn and others, 2009).

(Kuehn and others, 2009)

This seeming small feature is a big deal to the local agricultural productivity. The tephra fragments allow the soil to hold a lot more moisture and thus adds significantly to the productivity of the fields where the volcanic material is present. The various tephra deposits are an important dating tool and thus tephra deposits are of great interest to more than geologists. Glacier Peak had a particularly violent eruptive period during and after the last glacial period. Mount Saint Helens and Mount Mazama also deposit tephra over a large areas. The three volcanoes have left dating markers over wide swaths of teh northwest.

Snow Geese on Samish and Skagit Flats Have Not Left Yet

After being on eastern and central Washington ventures, I wondered in the snow Geese had left the Skagit and Samish flats for their breeding grounds on Wrangel Island in the Russian Arctic. The question was readily answered as the main flock flew over me while I traversed the flats.    

Apparently the leave date varies for these birds (Stevick, 2017). A later leave date may present problems as the flock may do a heavy graze on fields that have been planted. In this case the field has not yet been planted and the field that the flock was leaving is a Fish and Wildlife holding.   

Mayview Tram, Snake River, ca. 1935

Mark had a request to use a picture I posted on the remains of the Mayview Tramway, a wheat tram above the Snake River (Getting the Wheat to the River). He

Mark alerted to a video of the Mayview Tramway in action. There is  write up on the tram at historylink.

Trade War Notes

The trade wars have begun. Washington State does a great deal of international trade. In part, due to our northern ports facing the Pacific. But the State also produces a lot of products that are shipped overseas. The US Chamber of Commerce put together a state by state highlight of the value of exports that will face tariffs. For Washington State the value of goods facing tariffs is more $6 billion (uschamber.com/tariff_data/one_pagers/wa.pdf).

Mexico has been especially strategic and that nations's retaliation will hit Washington fruit hard as well as potatoes. The Canadian strategy is to avoid supply chain issues for Canada.

I am not convinced about the Trump administration strategy, particularly with regards to Canada, Mexico and the EU. And I suspect that China situation is not well understood and will lead to long term harm.

Krugman knows a bit about trade and suggests that Trump will be well remembered for his statement that "trade wars are good and easy to win": Krugman: how-to-lose-a-trade-war

It appears the European thinkers will be strategic as well voxeu.org/new-cold-trade-war.

For Washington State - exports will remain important. It will be hard to consume all those apples.

Daffodils on the Skagit Delta

The tulips are not quite in bloom yet on the Skagit Flats, but the daffodils are in full display. 

I got a glimpse of the workers - these flower fields are a business and not simply a display for tourists.

Bauermeister Wheat

A modest detour allowed a bit of memory revival along a former familiar road and landscape.    

At least the road name warns about Bauermeisters. Bauermeister Road leads to Bauermeister Farm. This dry land wheat farm is southeast of Connell and I liken these dry land wheat farmsteads as small islands of trees in a sea of dry land wheat and scrub steppe. The nearest neighbor to the Bauermeister farmstead is nearly one mile away.

Dale and Dan Bauermeister were active participants in trials of wheat strains put on by Washington State University. One hard red wheat variety tested on their farm was named for the farm (Red/Bauermeister.pdf).

That variety along with other wheat varieties is changing how wheat is being grown and turned into food (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/bread-is-broken). Wheat fields in Skagit County are growing Bauermeister wheat and the resulting flour and bread is bringing about a change in bread (new-wave-wheat). New local wheat varietals and baking can be likened to the early days of craft local beers.

From the New York Times article "A couple did not have much flavor or structure, but one of them in particular, Bauermeister, knocked my socks off."

Samish Island: No Ferry Needed

Due to a cottage and Lisa's studio being on Samish Island, I have (and Lisa) had to explain that one can drive to Samish Island. Samish Island is barely an island.

Road to Samish Island as seen from the island

Alice bay is on the left and swampy fields on the right

The island is connected to the mainland via tidal mash and tidal flats where dikes were built to create farm land during early American settlement. The initial survey map shows a narrow continuous water connection across the area shown in the picture above.

It should be noted that the water covered areas of the map, Samish Bay on the far right, Alice Bay on right and Padilla Bay on the left all become mud flats during low tides. Very high tides would inundate the marsh land if not for the dikes that keep the high tide water out.

In the early days of American settlement, building dikes to farm areas of delta land was a quick way to develop farm land as little tree and brush clearing was needed. The down side is maintaining drainage. The lower areas become difficult to maintain and over time some of these areas have been abandoned as farm land, at least in part due to drainage problems or periodic inundation with sea water.

River flooding into the delta creates a situation where the dikes used to keep the sea water out end up holding the flood waters in and Samish Island becomes an island once again.

1990 flooding of Samish Flats south of Samish Island

Daffodils on the Skagit Flat

Had some weekend excavation work to tend to.  

But after excavation work was done I caught the daffodil blooms on the Skagit Flats west of Mount Vernon.

A few tourists or locals had stopped. Turns out two of my neighbors were visiting this field as well. The hills in the distance are Mt Erie on Fidalgo Island and high points of various San Juan Islands including Mount Constitution.

Another field with the Northwest Cascades in the distance.

The daffodils are a bit early this year as it has been a very mild winter. Apparently saturated fields from heavy rain has not slowed the bloom time down.

The Daffodils do not bring out the tourists as much as the later blooming tulips will. A sunny weekend day on this same road would require some patience during the tulip bloom. 

Dry Land Wheat Harvest and Towns

Historic wheat harvest pictures tell more than simply the old ways. A little thought also tells a demographic story which is reflected in the dry land wheat towns of eastern Washington.

The above picture shows that harvesting and shipping wheat required people. The equipment would require people. the horses would require people and moving bags of wheat would require multiple handing and storage. Some of this effort would have been taken up by traveling crews. But many would be local. The number of employees or farmers required today is tiny compared to the situation 100 years ago. And that in part explains the appearance of numerous eastern Washington dryland wheat communities.

The change was not immediate. And it has been ongoing. Even the past few decades, long after horse and ox were had no longer been in use for many years the number of workers needed has continued to decline. Farm equipment has gotten better and more reliable. The same can be said for the cars we drive and the way food and goods are distributed. A long list of reasons some of the small towns have faded.

A couple of years ago I had some field time over in the dryland wheat and learned just how much some towns had shrunk. Lesson learned about the lack of places to have an early breakfast.

Winter Alfalfa Irrigation and Stateline Wind Farm

Onions are perhaps the Walla Walla valley's most famous crop. However, grapes for wine have become a much larger industry and in some circles may be eclipsing onions. The valley also has large acreage in alfalfa. The ice age flood silts and wind deposited silts combined with irrigation and generally dry air are the right combination for highly productive alfalfa fields. The fact that large tracts of range land are present on the east end of the Horse Heaven Hills and in the nearby Blue Mountains helped establish large acreage in the production of feed for livestock. In the early days of Walla Walla there was good money to be made from raising meat for mines in Idaho. 

Ice on a recently irrigated strip of alfalfa

The ice age flood silts will hold a lot of water and alfalfa will grow as soon as the weather begins to warm. Hence, irrigation is a year round project to build up and maintain soil moisture in this otherwise very dry area on the southern half of the valley.

A new type of "farming" can be seen on the ridge line south of the valley. The State Line Wind Farm is one of the largest in the region with wind turbines lining the crest of the Horse Heaven Hills along the Washington-Oregon boundary. These turbines catch the wind rising up and over the Horse Heaven Hills from the Columbia River gorge to the west.

Apple Season, Migrant Workers and Wenatchee Wlamart

I had a rendezvous in Wenatchee and came up with the idea of meeting at the Walmart parking lot as it is easy to find and on the edge of town. I got there a bit early and observed that several buses were bringing workers in for shopping. Its a busy time in Apple Country.   

Dust Blow

Other than the very heavy late August rain event, this later summer early fall has been fairly dry. For the dry land winter wheat on the east side of the Cascades there was enough rain in August to get the wheat started. But the dry weather since has left some fields or parts of fields fully green and still partly dry. That was in evidence as the wind kicked up on Saturday at this central Washington site.  

Overall though conditions were not bad with the dust blow up in this area being limited to a bit of a low area that perhaps had had a bit less rain and was a bit warmer. Hence, a rather rare event of seeing dust blowing up into the sky but with overall clear conditions. It also helped that we were upwind of the dust - much better than being down wind. Dust storms do happen in eastern Washington, but the frequency has become less with improved farming practices.

This area of dry land wheat farming is winter wheat only. The wheat begins growth ideally in September and is well established by the time cold weather arrives and then finishes growth in the spring with harvest in the summer. After harvest the fields harvested are left fallow for a year to allow moisture to build back up. At wetter areas to the north and east of this site plantings may take place every year and may be rotated with nitrogen fixing crops.