A cluster of 70-year old windswept Sitka spruce in Adak (photo by R.Wild, 7/1/2013)

In 1943-1945, under the direction of Army General Buckner, the military undertook a massive tree planting effort to boost the morale of the troops. It is evident that the general wasn’t a forester; the effort to spruce-up the windswept tundra was a failure. A few stunted trees persist in protected ravines scattered across the north-half of the island, bearing witness to the harsh and unforgiving climate in the Aleutians.

The islands of the Hong Kong S. A. R. where high-tech and tradition meet.  During our stay in the Far East in 2013 we again experienced the outstanding hospitality so characteristic in Asia.

On a job in late fall of 2011 in Hyder, Alaska. The brown bears are still out, feeding on the last few silvers in Fish Creek. Early snow powders the Salmon Ice field up the Hyder Road in BC, CAN. The 90-mile Portland Canal fjord remains ice free, a great transportation route for bulk material out of Canada to the Asian markets.

An exploration trip in summer of 2011 turned into a forester's delight: Petrified pieces of sequoias or metasequoias are evidence of a different landscape and climate that existed in the now barren Shumagin Islands 20 - 25 million years ago. Lush conifer forests of warmer climates in the Eocene to Oligocene ages were mostly silicified with volcanic ash of a high SiO2 content. The petrification process is not entirely understood. The Al2O3 and FE2O3 gives the rocks beautiful colors while the wood structure remains surprisingly authentic. However, it is difficult to say if the rock originating from trees were sequoias or the almost extinct metasequoias.

It's a long way from the home range in the Chugach Mountains to the Chinese Wall, but after all the saying goes if you have not climbed the Chinese Wall your are not a man or woman!