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Sunrise over Cuneo Creek, with fog filling the valley like a glacier, or a very high tide. *Viewed: 1453 times.
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Old growth redwood forests create their own microclimate. The interact directly with the fog and clouds, wicking water out, and raining it down, even during the middle of a dry summer. Viewed: 1466 times.
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Calf Creek flows across the lower Bull Creek Flats. The coarse sediment load of this stream is mosty depositied across these broad, relatively flat surfaces Viewed: 1398 times.
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The forest canopy is stratified - cool and damp on the bottom, windy, warm and dry, wet, foggy, or raining.up above *Viewed: 1295 times.
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Forest gaps of various sizes occur in the old growth redwood canopy. Otherwise, there are tens to hundreds of feet of foliage to potentially intercept rainfall. Continuous litterfall also accumulates rapidly, and build soils on the ground and in the trees. Viewed: 1253 times.
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Halfway up the tree there are dead branches that support mosses, lichens and even mushrooms. This shot is taken from about 200 feet up. Viewed: 1472 times.
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A close up view of the LBM (little brown mushroom, and lichen (spaerophorus, sp?). Viewed: 1441 times.
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Thick moss mats grow near the top (at about 340 feet). *Viewed: 1300 times.
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In order to measure microclimatic patterns and tree physiological processes, Dr Steve Sillett and Marie Antoine install solar powered data collectors at multiple sites in some of the oldest and tallest trees on earth! Viewed: 1347 times.
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This vertical panorama of the middle portion of the lower Bull Creek Flats shows the variability in foliage patterns, and the stratified nature of these incredibly tall trees. This pano is taken from over 340 feet above the forest floor, and looks down upon The lower mainstem of Bull Creek, where a light fog sits above the channel. Viewed: 1334 times.
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Viewing down into a forest gap. It is easy to imagine the stratification of microclimates, as you descend over 300 feet back to the forest floor. Viewed: 1566 times.
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Upstream view from the Millenium Grove, at the upper portion of the lower Bull Creek Flats *Viewed: 1271 times.
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Upstream view of the upper Bull Creek Flats, as viewed from the top of the Stratosphere Giant Viewed: 1240 times.
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South Fork Eel River at the confluence with Bull Creek. The camera sits on a large gravel bar that has been a constant at the mouth of Bull Creek for nearly fifty years, as a result of VERY high sediment loads from this basin. Viewed: 1247 times.
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Bank erosion along the lower South Fork Eel eats away at toward the second tallest redwood on earth, the Federation Giant. *Viewed: 1513 times.
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Lee Benda surveys a piece of "large wood" from a recent tree fall. A falling redwood can create a large forest gap, allowing light into otherwise dark forests. *Viewed: 1498 times.
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A car drives by Lee Benda and Greg Nagle, standing on the divide between Burns Creek, and the rapidly encroaching SF Cuneo Creek landslide (the Devil's Elbow Slide). Shallow surface landslides, like the one in the upper center of the photo, haven't changed much since the 1950s, while others have either revegetated, or grown larger. The few that have grown larger are often located on highly unstable geology, inner gorges, or steep slopes. Viewed: 1329 times.
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View down into the upper portion of the South Fork of Cuneo Creek. This erod-a-holic sediment source just can't stop eroding. The slide has been growing since it's initiation in 1955. It fully mobilized in 1964, and continues to grow today, to the dismay of the Humboldt County and State Parks Roads Crews. *Viewed: 1331 times.
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Lets go up a tree and take a look around. We'll stop halfway up and have a closer look *Viewed: 1370 times.
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Pan up and down, and view from the upper canopy to the forest floor. The small blue dot in the bottom center (at the base of the tree) is a climber's helmet. *Viewed: 1449 times.
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Old growth redwood forest canopy has a complex topography, when viewed from above. Note the great variation in forest crown morphology. This view is from ~340 feet above the lower Bull Creek flats. Viewed: 1220 times.
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Stratification of foliage and microclimate exists in the old growth redwood forest. This view shows a stand of redwood trees (mostly over 300 feet in height), from top to bottom. Fog is moving above the "understory redwoods" lining the lower Bull Creek channel. *Viewed: 1381 times.
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A diversity of foliage and crown structure is apparent in this top to bottom view of a portion of the tallest forest on earth. Most of the trees with the tops in the clouds are close to 350 feet tall. Bull Creek flows at the base of the trees. Notice the canopy foliage in the foreground. *Viewed: 1327 times.
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BullCk_Mush_Lich_detail_tbd Viewed: 1202 times.
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goosepen_150 Viewed: 1350 times.
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Strat_360_tbd
See also http://www.thomasbdunklin.com/gallery/zoomworlds
for a pannable zoomable version Viewed: 1418 times.
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Formerly the tallest tree on earth, at 370 feet above the forest floor. Note the canopy ecologist ascending on a rope, to the right of the main trunk.
StratosphereGiant_TBD.jpg *Viewed: 1085 times.
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Dr. Steve Sillett looks out over the forest canopy of the Lower Bull Creek Flats, 85 meters above the forest floor.
sillett_branches_85m_tbd.jpg *Viewed: 1328 times.
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