My wife and I went over to the Oregon Coast for Thanksgiving. While over there I got permission to collect some shore pines on a 100 acre piece of property. Shore pines of all sizes were all over, but very different to collect than the pines I collect around my home in Baker City, Or. Some of the shore pines were growing in sand and you could actually pull the smaller ones right out of the sand. If they had any size to them, when pulling them up, one encountered very long roots 1/2'-1" in diameter and 4-10' long running out through the sand, and very few feeder roots attached. If I moved a bit inland to collect, the larger ones had very long/fat tap roots and not a lot of feeder roots at the base. Discouraging to say the least. I did find a little ridge that I did collect the one pictured here. There was a very heavy/thick matting on top of the ground about 2" thick, then some clay, and then hard pan. When you got through the first two layers, the tree would just pop out as it was just sitting on the hard pan. You can see the crater that the tree came out of in the picture. I collected the larger one and several smaller ones on the ridge, but was pressed for time and had to leave.
We went back home a different way than all the freeways, boring scenery, and terrible traffic. There was very little to no snow in the passes and 45-50 degree weather. I collected three pretty nice Mountain Hemlocks...one single trunk and two double trunk ones...3-4' tall that were very healthy with good branching.
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!
We went back home a different way than all the freeways, boring scenery, and terrible traffic. There was very little to no snow in the passes and 45-50 degree weather. I collected three pretty nice Mountain Hemlocks...one single trunk and two double trunk ones...3-4' tall that were very healthy with good branching.
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!