Field Notes
Stories from the field, built from what caught my attention.
Maybe it was a pine that looked subtly wrong. A bark pattern. An unfamiliar leaf. A shift in elevation. A desert plant hiding in plain sight. Or an entire plant community that suddenly made a landscape easier to understand.
Field Notes follow those moments from observation into investigation: what I noticed, what the evidence supports, what remains uncertain, and what the encounter revealed about the larger place.
Observation first. Investigation next. Understanding grows from there.
These are not trail reports or species checklists. They are records of naturalizing—of learning to see familiar and unfamiliar landscapes with better eyes.
Four Pines and a Lot of Surprises
A steep climb up Goat Peak becomes a four-pine game—and a day of western larch, unfamiliar maples and alder, pine resin, and useful mistakes.
Two Forests in One Afternoon
An elevational transect through Kelly Butte’s Cascade conifers, followed by a lowland White River forest and an inland Sitka spruce.
Where the Forest Meets the Slough
A coastal journey through Willapa Bay, Tarlatt Slough, Long Beach, and Cape Disappointment—where field evidence, changing landscapes, and one mistaken cherry reshape the day.
When the Desert Changes Shifts
At Crismon Trailhead, an evening walk through 102-degree Sonoran Desert scrub reveals chollas, saguaros, creosote fruits, green-barked trees—and how much there is still to learn.