Porcupine Gold Reclamation add one more tree!

Tailings Pond Returning to Nature

Dave and I plant an eastern white cedar.

Google map where we planted. see the map 

The area looks a lot different then what the older photos that Google shows from the air. More like park land now. GoldCorp is working on connecting the trail systems that al ready exist to the trails that they have created on the site.

You can tour the area every summer read more

Ecpantheria scribonia is my guess

Black Wooly caterpiller

Ants wonder if they can turn it into their next meal?

Hey queen look what I brought home, can I keep it?

48.193557,-81.462814

Google Map of the observation location. see the map

BugGuide read more

Butterflies and Moths of North America read more

Growth on Cedar - HELP

What is this? 

What is going on here?

It is huge on this cedar.

I will have the section removed and will bring it to my lab.

And by lab, I mean my office. And when I say office, I mean in the office for a day until it must be removed. I need to measure, but the tree is about 70cm in diameter so the growth is very big.

In this area I did see 2 or 3 more with much smaller similar growths.  How does this happen? what is this?

This is where the tree is  view map

Help me out.

Amanita muscaria - just looks cool to me.

Wish I was a little person

Looking up 

It would look as big as a tree.

.

Amanita muscaria

Amanita muscaria

This, as far as I can figure, is the Fly agaric ( Amanita muscaria) mushroom.

There was a number of them on the old road I came out of the bush on to. In the sun the colour was super!

There are some interesting links about he mushroom, sounds like it could be very powerful?

Andy's Northern Ontario Wildflowers

Morning Earth - The Biosphere Community

Ancientforest.org - The Blueberry Lake Ecology Trails

This moose the dog wanted to chase. It was far enough away that he had no hope of catching up to it.

It was different when the moose is so close you can hear it breathe. The whole shortened story.

Walking out of the bush the other day, I have my head down, watching my footwork in the tangle of vegetation on the forest floor. A low grunt startles me. I look up into the eyes of a moose I have stumbled a little too close to. Talking to the moose I back up until I am behind a very big cedar. "Dog where the hell are you?"

Roll'n arrives from the side and does not see the moose right away. Roll'n is now standing beside me and sees the moose. A little too close for him too, he will not chase it 'cause it is not running away yet.

The moose sees both of us and decides to back off rather then continue his grunting advance. Once behind the tree I remember I have a camera, but it was too late the moose had turned and was leaving.

That is the closed I have ever stood eye to eye with a moose, usually the dog clears my path.

Road to Winter Wonderland

A Road Less Traveled

I have driven down each of these roads over the years.  Each road was built to access forest stands  to be harvested. I drove these roads when looking at the plantations to assess the health and survival.

Look at the plantations from the air in Google Maps shows how great the plantations are coming along.  New forest growing with vigour.  Great examples to look at for International YEAR of the FOREST.

See in Google Maps

See in Google Maps

Big White pine would seem unwell

or

Big White Pine wood seam unwell!!

This great White pine has stood for over one hundred years, I would guess.  It look like it must have been hit by lightning within the last 10 years. The tree is still doing ok, but I guess a lot of it's stem strength is gone.

If the tree can survive another 100 years it will just look like a long seam. The split runs almost the entire length of the tree. If I am still around in another 100 years I will post an update here, wait for it . . .

Go take a look for yourself, you can see the tree from the road if you are standing here.

2011 International Year of Forest.  read more

It is all about the trees here at Oxygen Grows On Trees.

Sudbury is getting Greener - Slowly

Recently I was in Sudbury for a Saturday night, and a Friday night too. I was there for a Regional Local Citizen Committee Conference.

Our field tour on Friday afternoon was to look at the regreening of Sudbury.

Many years ago the mining of Sudbury metals created a ring of destruction around the mining complexes due to pollution coming from the mills.

Since the 1980's the regreening efforts have taken barren lands that could not grow anything and created lands capable of supporting vegetation. It will be many more years before the forest return the Sudbury basin, but at least the effort is being put forward.

Pictured below is what the ground has looked like over the last 50 years with nothing growing except some poor white birch and some mosses. Other picture is of ground that has had lime added to reduce the acid, seeded to grasses and clover and fertilized, then finally trees planted.

The white pine seem to be doing really well on the site. I hope over the long term the area is able to recover to again produce great trees that will create oxygen for all of us!

Do you want to plant your own tree or purchase a tree that will produce oxygen.

Timmins Naturalists and Observations Page

White Birch Tar - Do It Yourself

I made birch tar.

I was super surprised how much tar a little bit of birch bark produced.

I stuffed a coffee can full of birch bark. Put it in a fire for an hour and out came about third of a soup can of birch tar. Maybe I am leaving out a few small details about the process, since the entire process would be better described with an entire web page with many pictures. It will follow soon.

The tar was similar to the tar I would put on the bottom of my wooden cross-country skis. Smelled the same and felt the same.

I boiled down the tar until I ended up with more of solid when it cooled. A brittle solid.

Solid birch bark tar.

The huge amount of tar in the bark must be why the wood will rot before the bark. Often I find tubes of birch bark with the wood gone and the bark in good condition.

Look at other posts below and you will see many examples of birch tubes.

Want to have a birch tube of your own, check out this site.

Muddy Mark Goes to School

went to school the other day. My kids class was interested in how I became a Forestry Technologist.

I like to think the impression I left them with was that they had to be totally interested in what they choose to do with their future.

If you pick the correct path your job can just be an extension of yourself. Find the best part of your job and do them the most, while making the best of the parts of the job that are not your favorite.

Also very important here in Northern Ontario is to be able to speak french. I can not and I wish I could. The kids are teaching me, but they are better students then teachers!

Classmates, please leave a comment!

Going to school

I am going to my daughters class on Tuesday. I expect they will all have looked at this and be able to ask interesting questions and be able to answer questions. Important questions about the forests of Northern Ontario.

While in class I might ask questions like :
1. What is the provincial trees of Ontario and why is it important?
2. What forest products are made here in Timmins?
3. What is a better construction material, wood or steal?
4. What tree species are found in and around Timmins.
5. What is the biggest tree in Timmins?
6. What is the oldest tree in Ontario?
7. Where can you buy a piece of hollow birch bark?

Questions that might get asked of me so that you sound smart might include:
1. Do you think it is working in the outdoors that keeps you looking so good!?
2. Who cuts your hair?
3. If I make a mark on a tree at 1 meter when I am 10, how high on the tree will the mark be when I am 20?
4. If I get lost in the bush how do I know which way to keep walking, which way is north?
5. Are you afraid of bears, do you get to see any?
6. How do you get seeds for growing trees?
7. How important are trees to the carbon footprint I am creating?

Hope the class is prepared. I will be there with as much 'hands on' stuff as my dog and I can carry.

Winter WonderLand

Snow has arrived in the Great White North.

The white pine, which is the arboreal emblem of Ontario, look good with a dusting of snow.

In the background is McKeown Lake. Today Roll'n and I walked about 5 kilometers in the snow. The snow is not deep enough for snowshoes yet, but sometimes the snow is up to my knees. Roll'n needs to jump sometimes making him look like a running deer.

I do have my snowshoes in the truck with me now, just in case I need them.

Black-capped chickadees and a single woodpecker traveling together worked their way past me while they searched for food in the trees.

White Cedar Strip Down to Show All

What is going on here?

I have been seeing this in young cedar over the last couple of years. Maybe I just never noticed before , but now I seem to see it a lot. Seemingly healthy young cedar are shedding their bark in strips.

In many cases the bark has been striping around the entire tree. I always thought that if the bark was removed from around the entire tree - it would die. It seems these guys are all doing pretty well.

So what makes this happen?

Will they survive?

I hope someone will be able to help.

I will continue to search for the answer when I find it I will post.

What else did I see today? Just a little snow, but most of the shallow still water if frozen. I Roll'n chase a red squirrel that I was sure was in his mouth at one point. Those little critters are fast!! He loves the chase and sure would like to do more catching.

The Red Squirrels look really healthy. Big bushy tails and lots of fur. Big and bushy I think more then normal. I wonder if this means more cold then normal?


UTM 17-0456255-5334832