Baruch S. Blumberg

The death of a friend is never easy. You mourn the loss, and worry about their family, and the sadness deepens.

In my previous post about the elms, I mentioned Barry, but what was left out was the story of Barry. I met him several years ago and along with Peter, we helped him get to know the plants around his summer home.  He was a man of science. highly intelligent, articulate, compassionate,humble,etc. His sense of humor was great and at 85, the youngest man of his age I had the honor of knowing. The phone call this morning hit me hard. Just a day ago I had an email from him, his excitement over the elms we found and getting that news out to the scientific community was very joyful. The kid in him really shone.

A man of many talents, yes he's photographing his shoes.

His list of accomplishments was impressive. He was a doctor, and won a Nobel. He was the director of NASA's  Astrobiology Department. President of the American Philosophical Society. A father. And a great friend to those who knew him.

Damn. Barry, I'm really going to miss you.

Baruch S Blumberg
Fox Chase Cancer Center bio
The Telegraph

Elm

Recently I was reading the Vermont Center for Ecostudies blog about two USDA scientists who are doing some gene studies on American Elm  to see if the trees were tetraploids, triploids or diploids and disease tolerance to Dutch Elm Disease.  You really should go read the article, well, mainly because it does a better job at telling what is going on, I just glass over and wander off...

All kidding aside, a few years ago I had noticed some trees that looked elm like. I mentioned to a friend and we made plans to hunt them down and take a look. They are not the easiest place in the world to get to, like a alder choked floodplain. In the winter, it's hell to snowshoe in, crying comes to mind, and in the summer the plants grow up with abandon. Last summer Peter, Barry and I, (the 3 members of the Rangeley Botanical Society) floated down the Kennebago River where these elm like looking trees were, and finally got an identification. They were elms!  Healthy looking too. So last week when the VCE blog mentioned this study, I contacted the members of the RBS and then emailed Alan Whitemore about the trees.   He has expressed an interest in obtaining samples of them and come spring we'll get them. It will be very interesting to see how these trees stand.

And it also brings to light just how much study this area really needs.  We currently have no nature center or nature related museum in the area, but with the lakes, mountains with alpine features and the mixed forest types that we have, there is a need for a lot of study.

Books

There are a number of great books concerning natural history in Maine. Honestly I am having trouble as to where to start.

 Glaciers & Granite: A Guide to Maine's Landscape & Geology is a great  book concerning the geology of Maine.

Natural Landscapes of Maine came out last year and covers the different ecosystems in the state.

I love Baxter State Park, and it's a great treasure, but most gripe about the regulations in the park. Gov. Baxter wanted to give the park to the people of Maine, but he was also a lover of nature and so the regulations reflect that love and the desire to help keep it in a natural state.
Katahdin: An Historic Journey - Legends, Exploration, and Preservation of Maine's Highest Peak
and A Guide to the Geology of Baxter State Park and Katahdin will give you something to think about when you plan your trip. As will this hiking guide, Katahdin: A Guide to Baxter Park & Katahdin

Maine's weather always gets talked about, made fun of and puzzled over.  To help make some sense of it you can read Conditions May Vary: A Guide to Maine Weather.

And of course a list concerning Maine's natural history would not be complete without mentioning Thoreau'sThe Maine Woods. Yes it's a classic and well worth your time to read.

This is only scratching the surface, there's so much more The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine's Wildlands, Above the Gravel Bar: The Native Canoe Routes of Maine,  Maine Birding Trail: The Official Guide to More Than 260 Accessible Sites and the list goes on and on.  Enjoy and let me know your favorite books on Maine, it's natural history and even art and literature.

And so it goes...

This morning it was 6 above zero. Not Celsius, Fahrenheit. And throw in a strong breeze, oh say 10 mph, gusting to 20. No mud, just bitter cold. That would be fine back in January, but not now. There is no humor in it, where's the fast forward button?

Typically in March, more towards the end, the last two weeks, we warm up and lose more snow than in the whole month of April. For us, April is a winter month. But some good things about March. Days are getting longer, birds start coming back, it's supposed to be getting warmer, bare ground starts reappearing. You do get a mix of temps, and that's nice, bitter cold and spring warmth.   And the snowmachines go away. It gets quiet. People go south to avoid April. You can easily picture this area back a 100 years.

Which is what I was doing, well I do that a lot. My house sits in an old cow pasture that 100 years ago was filled with cows, but not now, I mean this time of the year. They were most likely in the barn, waiting for the snow to leave. The only way to get to Rangeley a 100 years ago, was by train, or maybe by canoe via the Androscoggin River from Brunswick, up to the twin cities of  Lewiston/Auburn,then to Rumford, over to New Hampshire to Errol, Umbagog Lake, then Mooselookmeguntic, then Rangeley Lake.

During this time of the year life slows down. And living where I do, it defines you. New England is a great place to live. It always show you more, gives you more than you expect. And after years, it grows on you. And this time of year the most valuable lesson it teaches us to slow down.

Mud Season

It's mid March, and the beginning of mud season for the mountains. While other parts of the country are boasting frogs calling, trees budding, birds migrating northward, we are sitting watching winter deciding if and when it will end. It's always this dance for us. One day it's warm, in the thirties,(for us that is warm), then the next it's back to winter,snow falling, wind howling,freezing cold.

It's enough to drive you nuts.

Back and forth,warm and cold. Mud comes, then freezes and we dance back and forth, through March,into April and on into May. When you see snow falling in May,it can drive you to crying.

It really makes me wonder why some move here. Usually what happens is someone comes here in summer. They fall in love with the lifestyle, the mountains, lakes and woods. So they may buy a house, and retire up here. Their first winter does them in. " We didn't know it was so cold here", well yeah it is. They move. Or become summer people, and when the first storms of autumn come, they drift away. I mean if you want culture,Portland is 120 miles away. Farmington is a college town, and that's 50 miles. Not much goes on here, except the occasional play, maybe a concert. There is no nature center here, but some of us are trying to change that, and you can't hunt all the time, those that moved here to do so, don't. Trying to make a living and hunting seasons don't allow what some think they want. Fishing is another thing that has a limited season, and most people end up not liking to do a lot alone.

So I walk the few muddy roads that are open, just waiting for them to become safe when the snowmachines stop. Spring is near, I saw a robin the other day. We don't have that many migrants yet.OK, I should say no migrants. Southern Maine and the coast, they do. But my snow buntings did leave, the last I saw them was on the 15th.

Back out to watch more mud.

News.

I don't do contests.
Ok now that I put out that disclosure, I did enter one contest this past fall. I thought, what the hell?
The Appalachian Mountain Club has a annual photo contest open to it's members and I was thinking how bad last year was, what the hell. Well, recently they announced the winners and I was curious as to what the winners looked like so  a visit to the website was in order. So I was completely unprepared to see one of my photos as an honorable mention.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Here's the link to the slideshow. Number 4 is mine.
Will I enter more? No, well maybe the AMC.

Housekeeping.

 Since Saturday last, we've had 2 nice days. It's snowing today,rain tomorrow and more snow is on tap for the weekend. Hmm, time to get ready for Spring.

I've been keeping a journal of dates, happenings and such on Google Documents for the past 2 years. It works out well, you can share the document if you wish, its not clogging more space on my hard drive ( note to self: move photos to external hard drive, you know the one you bought last year and watch it sit collecting dust in it's box), so I need to start one for this year.  I didn't do that earlier, just wondering how things were going to work out this year. Then there's the bunch of projects I need to restart, like submitting to the Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch, Professor Wilson's Spring Arrival Project, and hopefully the Owl Monitoring Project.  Oh and check out my gear.

After I get the photos moved over, I'll feel better about taking yet more photos. And I swear I will be doing that tomorrow.  Honestly I will. It's hard enough to work on your day job, (buying and selling stocks), taking care of someone who needs a lot of care, and all the other little things that keep piling up and suffocating you. Believe me there's a lot of work to do. And now I have the time to get some or most of it done, we made the difficult decision to place my mom back into Hospice House for some more medicine tweaks to help her and us deal with her dementia. It's a lot of work.

Inventory my books! Hopefully I will be able to get a post up on books that you my readers might find helpful in the Northeast. The state of Maine has been putting out a couple that are real nice additions to a natural history bookcase for Maine.  And speaking of Maine, I need to order my Maine Birder's Band. It's worth it, and it's also becoming a collector's item. Go get one!

What else? Well, I'm patiently waiting for Lang Elliot to come out with his series of soundscapes over at The Music of Nature. It should be available soon and for sale over on ITunes. From what I've heard it's better than fabulous. And since I mentioned ITunes, if you are looking for a very good nature podcast, then check out Wild Ideas...The Podcast. It's from The Wilderness Center in Wilmot,Ohio, and every 2 weeks they do a top notch podcast about nature. Had I had access to them when I was working at the Wilhelm Reich Museum, my job would have been a breeze. I found the podcast last summer, then slowly listened to the entire series over the course of the summer. Real good stuff!

And I just realized I need to get my camera traps ready for the spring. I have a new one that I need to wire up and test, and I can also spend some time on maps looking for a good place to set them.

That seems to cover it for now, Snyder is quietly laying here, it's still snowing  and I need to get outside for a break. So until later...