Garden Color

Ambling around the garden, the color pops and the summer soothes.  Found a bumble bee asleep in the morning dew-soaked Buddleia.  Maybe was too tired to go home, or maybe just gave up and died right there.  Flowers speak to the simplicity of color and scent.  Nothing else to consider when experience blooms in the early morning light.

Posted by michael

Where There's Smoke

Last month I was visiting family in Fairbanks, Alaska.  On the way there, as the plane approached the airport, we were greeted with the haze of forest fire smoke all around the Tanana Valley.  There are many forest fires every year in Alaska.  You’d think at that rate that there would be nothing left to burn.  The first week of June was early for forest fire activity, but they had had a dry winter and spring, and recent rainstorms with thunder and lightning. 

[Photo from here]. 

It reminded me of some accounts of catastrophic wildfires in the early days of Lincoln County noted in the oral history records (the following excerpts are from the Oral History Collections of the Lincoln County Historical Society).  One large fire raged through the area in 1868, shortly after the Siletz Reservation (originally larger than all of Lincoln County) was first opened for white settlement.  Floyd “Bush” Davis describes his family’s experience during that fire at their homestead at the mouth of Beaver Creek.

“My uncle [Lemuel Davis], dad’s oldest brother, came to South Beach in 1866, and built a home there and filed on the mouth of Beaver Creek, which is now Ona Park.  And my father was here in [18]68 with him, when a big fire came through.  The fire had jumped the bay from my Aunt Mary’s place, they were forced to go right down on the ocean beach, next to the breakers, to get away from the smoke and the heat.  And they mixed up with all kinds of wild animals, who were also mixed down there.”

       ----Floyd “Bush” Davis  (1967 Interview)

Another account of the same fire was given by Cliff Phelps.  He heard about the great wildfire from several elderly Siletz Native women’s accounts told to him as a child.  I have seen early photos of homesteads from other parts of the county showing charred trees in the background.

[On stump removal] “But you know, these meadows was just a little patch here and there.  There was dead old snags laying in there when the big fire went through here you know.  God, we sure done a lot of work here.  In them days, why we’d dig out the stumps, you know...well, we dug around there with the team and haul them out someplace and worked them up...My Dad and I done a lot of that kind of work in the wintertime.”

“There was quite a lot of old growth firs in them days.  They were no doubt the same age as the ones that got burnt.  They didn’t do a clean job of burning when this country was all burned you know, that all happened, of course, years before we came here.  When we came here [in 1908] there was real elderly women (I don’t know if there was any men or not), Indians in the Siletz, that could remember when that burn happened.  They said the ocean was just full of all kinds of animals, they were all in there together, you know.  It was so hot and so much smoke, and it just drove them to the ocean, and I suppose a lot of them never did get there.  But it went through this whole country, you know, it was just covered.  There was more so, when we moved here with these big, burnt snags, some of them were solid, any of them that were solid made good wood.  But, oh God, the whole country here for miles in every direction except out over the ocean, had been hit by the fire.  There was an awful lot of talk about it when we came here, but you know, I was just a kid.  I never paid much attention.  But it sure as heck happened all right.  I remember that much about it.” 

    ----Cliff Phelps  (1977 interview)

Bob Zybach wrote about the historic incidences and uses of wildfire in his Ph.D. dissertation in 2003 (entitled, “The Great Fires:  Indian Burning and Catastrophic Forest Fire Patterns of the Oregon Coast Range, 1491-1951”), and in a 1994 interview published in Evergreen magazine (“Voices in the Forest: An interview with Bob Zybach,” Evergreen magazine, March/April 1994).  

Drawing from many sources, such as historic accounts, maps, and analysis of tree growth rings and vegetation distribution, Zybach compiled vast amounts of data to support his conclusions. He argued that the modern view of how forests appeared in the past is flawed.  A popular assumption is that when white settlement began in Western Oregon, the area was covered with a “sea of old growth” (which he defined as stands of Douglas fir trees containing 60-70 % of trees that were 200 or more years old).  Zybach states instead that the 200+ year old Douglas fir trees probably covered more like 5-38 %.  He described the forests of the mid-1800’s as being more open than they are now, and free of the underbrush and woody debris seen in coastal forests today.  “There were islands of even-aged conifers, bounded by prairies, savannas, groves of oak, meadows, ponds, thickets, and berry patches.”  He attributes this to the local Native American use of fire for managing natural resources.  “Indians used fire to create habitat for wildlife, to clear away trees and underbrush, and to shape forest in the image of their own culture.”

Several major catastrophic fires occurred from 1849 to 1951 in the Coast Range region.  Zybach defined catastrophic fires as those extending 100,000 acres or more.  From the historic and scientific evidence he examined, Zybach states that catastrophic fires were rarer before white settlement occurred.  He attributes this to the changes in the use and management of the land and natural resources.  The biggest fires occurred in August or September in years of prolonged drought.

“Between 1840 and 1850 an abrupt transformation took place in western Oregon that resulted in permanent and large-scale changes to the region’s forest and grassland environments.  During that decade dozens of local American Indian nations and tribes were all but replaced by a comparatively homogenous population of European American immigrants.  Many wildlife species were subsequently decimated and extirpated in favor of domesticated plants and animals...Even fire was affected.  Expansive grasslands that were annually fired to produce and harvest food crops were plowed and grazed instead.   Interior forestland trails, prairies, meadows, brakes, and berry patches--created and maintained by fire--were abandoned and began converting to trees.  Near the end of the decade, probably in 1849 or 1850, the first of a century-long series of catastrophic forest fires took place in the region.  These wildfires were so large and notable they became known as the ‘Great Fires’ and acquired individual names:  the Yaquina, the Coos, the Nestucca, the Tillamook.”  

    ----Bob Zybach, 2003 Ph.D. dissertion cited above

In an Appendix to Zybach’s work is an account of the Great Yaquina Fire of 1849.  It is told by William Smith, an Alsi Indian man, who told this story in his native language to anthropologist Leo Frachtenberg in 1910.  Mr. Smith’s family (7 adults, 8 children) was returning to the Alsea River area from a trip to the Siuslaw.  They got as far as Heceta Head when the story begins.  

“Then it seemed to be getting dark all over...We kept going.  Although the sun stood high, nevertheless it threatened to get dark...And then darkness fell all over the world.  The surface of the sun just kept on getting red...The fire seemed to be flying in all directions as soon as darkness enveloped the world...its crackling just seemed to make a roaring noise...All sorts of (animals) were coming to the sea:  elks, black bears, and cougars--the hair of all (of them) was just partially burned...The fire was just terribly hot.  The smell of the smoke made an awful odor all over...For probably ten days it was dark all over.  [Finally they were able to return home].  Nobody was burned:  all the people are well.  Nature (seems to have been) doing its worst thing.  Never (before) did nature act like that.”

It is predicted that the first Yaquina fire of 1849 burned 500,000 acres and the second Yaquina fire in 1868 consumed 300,000 acres, some of the largest of the Great Fires.  (This link describes forest fires and their effects on populated areas of some more recent fires).  I don’t know much about forest management or predictions for that type of catastrophic fire to recur here in the future.  I merely present these stories as vivid historic experiences of the landscape of this region, and as examples of how these and other events have shaped the way the land now appears. 

Posted by jackie.

A Difference Of Perception

On a fine summer morning the fog rolls into the marsh off of the Pacific Ocean.  The air is still and the sun warming.  Bird song echos over the creek and the water is filled with sparkles of sun light on its slightly rippled surface.  Sitting with a kayak in a grass bed beside the marsh bank, everything conspires to a sense of overwhelming bliss, with mind and body gently relaxed on the mirror of awareness.  

Out of the distance a fisherman comes slowly, in a boat pushed by a trolling motor.  We see each other, nod hello and comment on the delightful nature of the morning.  We agree that the morning here does not get more perfect, with the lack of wind and the warm, sweet sense of joy on the water.  Then he says, "It would be even better if I caught a fish".  I note "Ah, the fisherman's dilemma".  He turns and laughs in recognition of his longing.  Perfect moments could only be improved by making them imperfect and then replacing with other perfection.  A dilemma is a choice between two equally undesirable alternatives.  In the fisherman's dilemma, choice between not having caught a fish, and not being able to catch a fish.  The morning remains perfectly joyful when not distracted by imperfect choice.

Given the opportunity, wildness gives the undistracted moments in which we can experience our joy in the perfection of no choice.  Any other distracting choices bind us to less perfect moments of desire and repulsion.  Experiencing nature releases the chains of distraction and wanting.  A breeze through the trees, a flower in full color and scent, bird song echoing, and a bird flight leaving no tracks in the sky; favorite things that bring a sense of ease.  These perceptions do not argue and discuss or make choices.  They do not have opinions and defend their point of view.  They simply give a sense of wonder and fill the morning with joy, warmth, and light. 

Posted by michael 

Osprey Over Beaver Creek

Hung out on the water with the osprey family.  They have a nest in a pole holding high tension electric lines next to Beaver Creek above the marsh.  One of the adults made feeding flights every 20 minutes, landing on the nest and bringing food.  One time the other mate took off and another time the same bird took off.  So the mates vary the order of staying on the nest and making feeding flights.  The bird on the nest fed itself and the chicks from the food brought in.  There was lots of vocalization and excitement about food and flying.



Posted by michael

Golden And Silver Falls, Coos County, Oregon

Recently we visited Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area.  This state park is a sister park to the Beaver Creek State Natural Area.  The park is located in Coos County, Oregon, in the coast range forest.  There are delightful trails to hike through native coastal forest vegetation in canyons that lead to spectacular waterfalls.  It was refreshing to walk through vegetation that is characteristic of coastal forests, without the usual complement of invasive species that persist along roadsides and cultivated fields.  This falls state natural area is a gentle reminder of the inspiring power of nature in wildness.  The park was established in 1936 to conserve an old growth stand of Douglas fir around the falls.  



Posted by michael

Beaver Creek From The Water

Take a trip through lower Beaver Creek on the water.  A field guide of sights and sounds gives impressions of the creek and its banks, bordering forests, fog banks rolling in off the ocean, osprey, eagle, fish jumping, beaver lodge, watercress, water lily, reflections, marsh, and the wide open space of water and sky.



Posted by michael

Beaver Creek State Natural Area

Views from Beaver Creek State Natural Area.  This is the featured new Oregon Park for 2010.  The park includes trails around and over a forested hill with vistas over the Pacific Ocean, Beaver Creek marsh, and surrounding forests.  There is also a welcoming center and access to Beaver Creek  and surrounding marsh and swamp.  Opportunities are abundant for hiking, boating, fishing, birding, and wildlife observations.  The natural area is undeveloped and offers a glimpse into the workings of one of the rare remaining freshwater wetlands on the Oregon coast.



Posted by michael

Hummingbird Visits

Hummingbird gave us a cameo today, feeding on delphinium.



Posted by jackie.

End Of June Reminders

Summer flowers in the garden remind me of where I learned gardening.  My grandfather George, on dad's side, came to Chicago in 1920 as a young man from a farm in Missouri.  He brought with him an enduring love and skill for gardening.  He lived on the south side of Chicago and had an acre of land filled with flowers, fruits, berries, and vegetables.  I shared many hours with him in this garden planting, watering, weeding, feeding, and harvesting.  The summer nights were warm and fireflies filled the garden with dancing lights, accompanied by cricket song and the murmur of neighbors.  We sat in steel lawn chairs near the garden and enjoyed the evening sounds and smells.  He smoked a big cigar and the mosquitoes saw fit to remain on the sidelines.

Grandpa told me tales of the farm and of his early years in Europe and Chicago.  Several items stuck with me.  I learned that gardens are filled with many ideas and seeming contradictions of color, smell, taste, and texture.  Gardens are places where ideas and experiences blend and find their common ground; full of blossoms and the fruits of summer sun, rain, warmth, and deep soil.  Grandpa was like his gardens.  He studied at the University of Chicago for a Ph.D. in Divinity, became a Baptist minister, and then quit that to become an insurance salesman.  Through all of these experiences, he grew dinner plate-sized dahlias and gave them to people he visited and at the church suppers attended through his life.  He loved people and did what was needed to help them, whether it be ministry or insurance; he remained true to his garden of ideas and actions.

Every year Grandpa began the garden season by cultivating a big load of composted horse manure from the Illinois country-side into the soil.  He knew the value of including waste into growth and was not afraid to make sweet-smelling flowers from barnyard manure.  He instinctively avoided using manufactured chemicals in his gardens.  Plants grew on abundant animal nutrients and a gardener's love, beyond the reach of disease and insects.  When I enjoy the flowers of summer, I remember how Grandpa found a place for conflicted ideas in his garden and inspiration from the people around him.  He showed me that growth and creativity of ideas and gardens came slowly from careful work with the elemental forces of wildness.  

Posted by michael

Salmon Fry In Beaver Creek

Salmon fry are abundant in Beaver Creek waters now.  They are in backwaters, culverts, side channels, and the main channel.  Fish are many different sizes and are feeding and growing well.  If you walk up to water quietly and stand still, they will come to the surface and begin swimming and feeding.  You can see fish moving just beneath the surface by the ripples that appear on the water.  In the main channel, fish hold position, swimming against the current and capturing food as it comes by them.



Posted by michael

Moment on Beaver Creek

Rest a moment on Beaver Creek.  When your head is filled with thoughts and rushing to conclusions, let wildness be your guide.  Direct experience leads you to a state of natural grace, unencumbered by attachment and aversion.  The creek embodies all of the elemental forces that naturally arise when we open our eyes in the dawning day of activity.  Merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.



Posted by michael

Bobcat Returns To The Garden

Bobcat returns to the garden.  Sitting on a rock, sniffing the warm evening air.  Walks through the clover, finds a bunny, and chases.  Jackie taps on the window and distracts bobcat.  Bunny escapes into the ferns for cover.  Bobcat looks and looks for bunny; then walks off past the house and the sunset.  Wildness captures our attention with its enveloping experience.



Posted by michael and jackie

Beaver Creek Flows Into The Pacific Ocean

Beaver Creek flows through the marsh, through Ona Beach State Park, and into the Pacific Ocean.



Posted by michael

View From The Hill

Views from the hill in the Beaver Creek State Natural Area which is 1.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Beaver Creek drains into the ocean at Ona Beach State Park. You can walk trails and fields on the hill. Enter the hill in the natural area by turning onto Beaver Creek Rd. from U.S. Hwy. 101 at Ona Beach State Park. Drive 1 mile on Beaver Creek Rd. and then turn right onto South Beaver Creek Rd. and go south, crossing two bridges. After the second bridge, there is an entrance to the natural area on the left (east) side of the road. Park nearby and enjoy your walk!

Posted by michael

The Mirror Of The Mind

Consider the mirror.  A mirror is an object with at least one reflective surface.  While anything can appear in it, the mirror is not changed by appearing images.  If the reflective surface becomes clouded or distorted by impurity or wind, then the image changes.  Still the mirror is not changed by the image, the image is changed by the mirror.

Mind is a mirror.  In it we see thoughts, perceptions, and emotions that are reflections of the causes and conditions which surround us.  Strangely we have lost perspective and identify the thoughts and perceptions as us, the self.  I feel, see, or think this or that way.  Returning to the natural state, our gaze is shifted to the mirror of the mind and we see the reflective surface in which everything arises.  This surface is called awareness and is spacious enough to include whatever may appear.  Images, thoughts, and emotions appear from the reflective surface as luminous movements of awareness, which we do not cling to.  So in the natural state, we are awareness; open, spontaneous, and responsive.

How peaceful to be luminous space rather than a confused self composed of constantly changing thoughts, perceptions, and emotions.  Wildness reminds us of this natural state that has always been and is not created or destroyed by causes and conditions.   

Posted by michael

Upper Beaver Creek Marsh

Short 360 degree tour of upper Beaver Creek marsh on a sunny, windy June day.  The marsh is 1.5 miles east of the Oregon coast and is part of the State Parks Beaver Creek Natural Area.



Posted by michael

A Consistent Reminder Of Mystery

This delphinium has been with us for twenty years.  It flowers near the beginning of summer and is strong beyond its years.  The hummingbirds enjoy its nectar, the chipmunks enjoy its seeds, and we enjoy its size and history.  It reminds me of the many moons that have been experienced here on the hill above the marsh.  I cannot look at this flower enough and wonder at its persistence in the face of weather, animals, and time.  It is a true perennial that marks time in our flower clock.

The delphinium is like the sun, peering through the avenues of time, to reveal the nature of life in the mind.  The world around here is clearly apparent, yet not existent.  On a cloudy day look around and say that the sun is not shining.  This is the appearance of not shining.  Yet we can know through experience that the sun is shining above and beyond the clouds or the shadow of a planet, and does not cease to shine.  Context makes it that the sun is not shining and is shining at the same time; and we live in both worlds together.  All other appearances are understood in the same way.  Carefully we can untangle this web of deception called perception and begin to understand that seeing is not always believing.  “ I would not have seen it if I did not believe it.” 

I can trust that unchanging awareness is underlying all of these phantoms of perception and be relieved that the delphinium appears at the start of every summer.  The movement of awareness through time, space, and memory conjures perception.  Unchanging awareness is like space.  Everything rests inseparably on space and is permeated by space.  In the same way everything is dependent on awareness for its context.  Be unaware and you fall into a state of illusion, just like the sun on a cloudy day is not shining.  Wake up and you remain in a state that has always been, like the sun shining in space.  When a light is turned on in a room called your mind, the darkness of untold years is dispelled instantly.  What great mystery is this nature.

posted by michael  

Natural Beauty Experienced

Does your mind sound like an echo chamber?  Are there so many thoughts of this and that bouncing around looking for some choices.  We value freedom to make choices and don't even recognize that this freedom limits the potential for direct experience.  Here are some flowers for your enjoyment.  Natural beauty supports spacious thought without the filter of freedom choice.  Let that smile come across your face and feel the fresh breeze coming off the ocean, meandering through the marsh, and up over the hill in the bright morning sun.  Those other decisions and distractions can wait for you to breath deeply the gay colors of the kingdom of flowers.

In memory of Ruth, the gold miner's daughter on her burial day.

Posted by michael

Calculating Personal Energy Use And Carbon Equivalents

In the previous post I gave an example of energy use calculations for our residence and car.  When energy is produced, transported, and used, CO₂ is produced.  CO₂ is an important greenhouse gas and recent research suggests that monitoring and controlling its production and release is necessary for good policy formation.  We can begin this process by calculating our personal production associated with residence and car.  

Using the numbers for annual energy that I gave before and CO₂ equivalents for fuels, our annual production of CO₂ can be calculated.  

400 gal propane      =  36.64 Mbtu  x 139.2 = 5,100 lbs

120 gal gasoline      =  13.80 Mbtu  x 156.4 = 2,158 lbs 
3 cord firewood        =  72.00 Mbtu  x 195.0 = 14,040 lbs

550 Kwh electricity   =    1.87 Mbtu              =  0 lbs

Total residential        =  124.31 Mbtu            = 21,298 lbs 

Car gasoline            =  55.20 Mbtu  x 156.4   = 8,633 lbs 

Waste disposal        =  (EPA calculation)      = 1,493 lbs 

Total annual household CO₂ production for 2 people = 31,424 lbs 


(Assumed 1 Mbtu propane = 139.2 lbs CO₂; 1 Mbtu gasoline = 156.4 lbs CO₂;  1 Mbtu firewood = 195.0 lbs CO₂; electricity was solar generated with no CO₂ production).

The EPA calculates that average U.S. annual residence and car CO₂ production for a household of 2 people is 41,500 lbs CO₂.  So Jackie and I are at 75.7% of the average.  Assuming that less CO₂ is better, we can begin to contemplate ways to reduce our “carbon footprint”.  As pointed out in the previous post, these calculations only include energy and carbon used and released by annual use of the house and car and do not include carbon released from production, transport, and marketing of food, clothes, shelter, appliances, education, and cars.  These latter items need to be accounted for by life cycle calculations that are beyond the scope of this post.

So have some fun and do your own calculations for energy use and carbon release.  

See here and here for examples.  

Posted by michael

Calculating Personal Energy Use

Recent events in the Gulf of Mexico have reminded me that producing, transporting, and using energy has many obvious and hidden costs, including the potential for catastrophic environmental costs.  To make informed decisions about potential changes in energy use as individuals and as a nation, it is useful to begin by calculating energy uses.  If wildness and the ecological services that we receive are to be conserved, part of this effort requires a better understanding of energy uses.  

I have prepared an example using our home on Beaver Creek marsh.  We use propane for space and hot water heating, cooking, and refrigeration; gasoline for a backup generator; douglas fir for firewood; and solar electricity.   Energy comes in various forms and making comparisons requires having common units.  I have converted types of energy we use to Mbtu (million btu; British thermal units) for comparisons.  Jackie and I built and live in a house that has 1248 square feet of space.  In a year for the house, we use: 

400 gal propane      =  36.64 Mbtu

120 gal gasoline      =  13.80 Mbtu                                       

3 cord firewood        =  72.00 Mbtu

550 Kwh electricity   =    1.87 Mbtu 

Total residential        =  124.31 Mbtu

(Assumed that 1 gal propane = 0.0916 Mbtu; 1 gal gasoline = 0.1150 Mbtu; 1 cord fir wood = 24 Mbtu; and 1 Kwh electricity = 0.0034 Mbtu).

How do these numbers compare with average use?  In Oregon, total annual energy use per capita = 297 Mbtu.  This total is derived by adding up total energy used in the state and then dividing by the number of people.  The total includes residential (24.2%), transportation (31.3%), commercial (18.9%), and industrial (25.6%) sectors in the state.  So the average annual per capita residential use in Oregon is 71.87 Mbtu and for two people is 143.74 Mbtu.  Jackie and I use 124.31 Mbtu, or approximately 86.5% of the Oregon average.

This is a simplified picture of our residential energy use.  We have not included the energy required to produce and transport the propane, gasoline, firewood, and electricity that we use.  We could assume that those btu were included in the other sectors for per capita energy use.  But these fuels are not all produced in Oregon, so that assumption is not valid.  Dividing up energy use by state borders is an arbitrary comparison that does not match our purpose.  We need to expand our data base to include much more information that is beyond the scope of this post. 

We have not included the energy for building, furnishing, and maintaining the house and its appliances.  That energy derives from both economic and ecological sources and may be considered in more complex life cycle calculations.  Other personal life cycle energy uses include energy for producing, transporting, and marketing our food, clothes, entertainment, education, and car.  

How about fuel for personal transportation?  We have one car and use 480 gal gasoline per year, or 240 gal per capita.  The average per capita use of car gasoline in Oregon is 434 gal.  So we use 55.3% of the average.     

So Jackie and I use less energy in our residence and car than average.  We assume that less energy use is better for the world and may be able to reduce our uses without reducing quality of life.  To begin we can make an audit of our residential uses and potentially improve the efficiency of energy uses, i.e., get more out of each btu and use fewer btu.  We can begin to consider the life cycle energy for our food, clothing, entertainment, and transportation.  Too complicated?  It is no wonder that many people simply want to go into a room and turn on a light switch, saying “don’t bother me with these details”.  They usually forget to turn off the light when they leave the room.  “The lights are on but nobody is home”.

Posted by michael