Remembering

This post failed to get posted back at the end of May. I sort of take Memorial Day seriously and am of the view all war vets should get Veteran's day off while the rest of us work.

I have some work coming up that will take me near some of the bloodiest Washington State battle sites that will be worth a post or two time permitting.

"The next day, I was asked by the people from the graves registration to direct them around the previous day's battle so they could pick up dead Americans. It was not a very pleasant job." - William McShane.

Washington Geology Film Clips

Nick Zenter and Tom Foster have put together a series of short geology film clips. Fun stuff and worth taking a look at with lots of good stuff from central Washington as well as some areas.  http://www.youtube.com/user/hugefloods. I have stumbled across their videos before. One of my favorites is the short clip on palagonite which can be seen in road cuts near Vantage, WA.

And if your going to be checking out short clips on Washington's landscapes I still love watching this one from a different era on Lake Lenore.

 

Landslide and Mud Event on the Nooksack

Nooksack River at Hannegan Road Bridge, Lynden, Washington

The Nooksack typically is not ths muddy this time of year, so I suspect the mud was the result of a very large landslide and mud flow into the river in the headwaters of the Middle Fork on Mount Baker AERIAL VIEW.

Dave Tucker has been covering and acting as a conduit for the recent big landslide and debris flow off of Mount Baker into the Middle Fork Nooksack River. For those not linked into Dave's great work:

 http://nwgeology.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/more-on-middle-fork-nooksack-debris-flow/
and http://mbvrc.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/large-debris-flow-in-middle-fork-nooksack-river-may-31-2013/
and http://mbvrc.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/update-nooksack-debris-flow-initiated-by-landslide-not-outburst-flood/
In addtion Steph Abegg has some aerial images http://www.stephabegg.com/home/photography/aerial/36.

Tala Point Part I: Advancing Shorelines, Boat Ruins and Iron

I had a small project to assess at Ludlow Bay in Jefferson County. With a low tide and mostly sunshine combined with other site work having been done I allowed my curiosity to propel me along the shore to Tala Point as I had not previously made that shoreline trek. AERIAL VIEW. All together I hiked about 4 miles of beach. So a few notes from the hike broken into parts.

The first thing that generated curiosity was a low bank area of peat soils that was being eroded and encroached on by the sandy beach.

Organic soils eroded and encroached.

There are a number of possible explanations. Perhaps it was an estuary that had previously been protected by a spit, or the organic layer was the result of woody material placed as fill during early settlement days or more exiting there is some tectonic process at work here causing this bit of shore to subside or it could be a spot where sea level rise is a bit more evident or (lots of ors) a combination of the alternatives.

A bit further on I came across some western red cedars that suggests the beach and hence relative water levels may be rising.

Cedar at the top part of the beach

Cedar stump (the stump appeared to be in place and not drift wood)

Looking north towards Tala point

Net shore drift is towards the the picture taker as can be seen by sand built up behind log across the beach.

The next curiosity was what I thought might be some hard sediment or bedrock forming a platform along the shoreline. Instead it turned out to be the last remnants of a wooden ship.

Wooden ship ruins with port Ludlow resort in distance across the bay.

A shore feature I have seen before but is still always a curiosity and in this case was rather spectacular is iron precipitation on the beach surface.

Superficially the iron precipitation appears like it may be blobs of oil or fuel

But on a close look note the cracked surface of the iron (and possibly manganese) precipitation surface

A broader view of the close up from above

This stretch of shore had a broad filled former shoreline estuary behind the beach. The fill was at least partially natural, but given the history of the area and the ships some of the fill may have been anthropogenic. As groundwater passes slowly through the organic zone the oxygen is depleted and iron and other metals dissolve and are mobilized. When the water reaches the surface at the beach the oxygen in the air causes the metals to precipitate creating a mirror like surface that looks at first glance like the interference and sheen like effect of oil.

Washington Navy

Washington State has a very large military presence. I got a terrific view of a bit of that presence while riding the ferry from Port Townsend to Keystone, Whidbey Island. We passed though a convoy of naval ships. 

The first ship was coming out of Puget Sound and turning towards Indian Island where it would presumably take on a load of munitions from the Indian Island Weapons Depot (indian-island-jefferson-county and indian-island-us-supreme-court-case.

 

A nuclear submarine with escorts on either side was powering up the sound towards us from the south.

The Coast Guard escort made a quick pass in our wake perhaps to make sure no one had thrown anything overboard into the path of the sub.

This bit of water at the entrance to Puget Sound has always been a military area. As we approached Whidbey Island I had a view of a no longer operable part of our military history - a former gun emplacement at the former Fort Ebbey that was part of the "triangle of fire" protecting the entrance to Puget Sound. It would seem our navy is so superior, the triangle of fire is no longer needed.

Movement of Youth

No inspiration on Washington landscapes this morning - I have been reading economic stuff the-movement-of-people-(and-its-consequences).

Years ago Lisa and I were staying in a small Greek village. We had power for one hour and no running water. A construction project required the crushing of rock for the concrete aggregate - the crushing was done with a sledge hammer.

On our last day, we were invited to breakfast by the woman that owned the little home we stayed in. She did not speak English and our Greek was minimal and the dialect was impossible. But she wanted to show us something. She pulled some papers out - they were diplomas. One was an advance degree from MIT. All of her children had left to do great things.

Reading the-movement-of-people reminded me of that long ago breakfast. The youth of Europe are on the move again and there will be long term consequences. I saw the whole community differently afterwards. It is something to consider during hard economic times. And finally it does appear in parts of our own state's landscapes. Where did the people go and how were the choices to leave confronted.

 

Cutting Edge Planting at Padden Estuary

Upon returning to Bellingham via Chuckanut Drive after adventures on Whidbey Island and the Olympic Peninsula, I made a short visit to the Padden estuary in south Bellingham before heading home. Geoff had alerted me to a planting area next to the estuary that included my latest favorite tree, Juniperus maritima. The planting area is located between the Port of Bellingham parking lot and the lower estuary of Padden Creek and is a great example of appropriate native plant selection.

Padden Lagoon planting including Juniperus maritima

Padden Estuary, 2011

The site is very far from a natural site. Natural processes were long obliterated from the landscape at this location with the construction of a railroad across the mouth of the creek, a road with fill across the estuary, and wide assortment of fill and industrial activities during early industrial development of the area.

1889 View of Padden estuary

View towards the east with industrial era in Fairhaven, 1898

Padden estuary is to the left of the street behind 3-story hotel

Many of the buildings in image are long gone

Padden estuary viewed from the west in 1918

Fairhaven 1890

The estuary would be just to the left of the image

Close up of image above - note the large stumps throughout

The large stumps in the old image above very near the estuary indicate that the estuary area was likely mostly forested with really big evergreens prior to the arrival of Americans.

1950 Aerial

Estuary used as a log pond

The selection of trees and brush for the site is a great example of appropriate native vegetation selection for the site conditions. It works for the narrow strip available, it works for supporting the limited wildlife and it works for giving opportunity to plants that are native but would otherwise not grow in the area unless some management is provided.

Besides the juniper, a few other favorites of mine were utilized - Garry oak, madrone and hairy manzinita. Plants to think about if your considering planting native trees. We have plenty of Douglas fir, western red cedar, Sitka spruce, western hemlock, red alder and big leaf maple. Giving the other trees that have lost habitat seems to be a worthwhile approach. After my visit, I am thinking a hairy manzinita is just the thing for one particular corner of my yard.

 

Garry oaks

Hairy manzinita

Hairy manzinita