Eskers are the result of sand and gravels deposited by streams that flowed within or under glaciers. Although its hard to tell in this photo, the vegetation on the esker differs from adjacent areas because of the esker's coarse soils. This particular esker is supporting a rare plant community (threetip sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass).
Embedded on a ledge within Moses Coulee, is Whisper Lake. The home base for The Nature Conservancy's Moses Coulee Preserve.
I'm not a lichenologist, so I do not know their names, but I counted what looked like to me nearly 10 different species on this rock. They all had their own beautiful shapes and colors.
Yellow sedge (Carex flava), a rare sedge in Washington, was growing in a calcareous fen in northeastern Washington.
Dead ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) along the foothills of the eastern Cascade Range in Washington.
Not sure of the name of this little beetle, but I came across it in the Palouse prairie of eastern Washington.
This bull snake never actually took a bite, but it definitely considered snacking on this spider.
Steptoe Butte supports a lonely, isolated chunk of native vegetation in a sea of agriculture. Steptoe Butte is essentially the top of an old mountain that has been partially buried by the thick loess soils that make the Palouse region such a productive agricultural area---an unfortunate fact for the native prairie ecosystem.
The Scablands of eastern Washington is an amazing landscape created by massive, torrential floods that occurred during Pleistocene glaciation.
Took this photo at Kahlotus Ridgetop Natural Area Preserve in eastern Washington. The area had burned a few weeks prior but the 'biological soil crust' (a combination of organisms that can include cynobacteria, mosses, lichen, and fungi) was still as beautiful as ever. Soil crust are very important to many arid ecosystems as they decrease erosion, affect water infiltration, provide nutrients, and can affect seed germination.
The Palouse region of southeastern Washington once supported a vast stretch of grassland known as the Palouse prairie. This grassland is now one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America. Because of its fertile soil, the Palouse has been converted to agriculture. The foreground of this image shows native Palouse prairie (what the Palouse used to look like) while the background shows what 99% of this region looks like today---a vast region of wheat, peas, and lentils. Still beautiful, but not quite the same.
Short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma douglassii) skittering through shrub steppe in eastern Washington.
Prairie star (Lithophragma parviflora) is a common beauty in eastern Washington and the rare prairies of western Washington.
Looking across South Park toward the Mosquito Range. Southern Rocky Mountains, Colorado.
Large black oaks (Quercus velutina) at Hoosier Prairie Nature Preserve, Griffith, Indiana. Managed by Indiana Department of Natural Resources and National Park Service (a unit of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore). Black oak savannas once covered much of northwest Indiana but are now very rare due to conversion to agriculture and development.
Daggerpod (Phoenicaulis cheiranthoides) is found in the shrub steppe habitat of eastern Washington and similar habitats of western North America.
Looking northeast toward the Salmo-Priest Wilderness Area of extreme northeast Washington.
Higher elevation forests near the crest of the Cascade Mountains are often dominated by mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana).
This particular forest had been singed by a recent fire. Hardly any plants have recolonized the area.
Western larch (Larix occidentalis), like ponderosa pine, is a pioneer species that dominates 'old growth' stands of fire-maintained forests. This particular forest was thinned to create the open, park-like understory that was so common in these forest prior to fire suppression.
Aspens (Populus tremuloides) in Washington don't quite reach the stature as they do in Utah or Colorado, but this particular tree in the South Fork Tieton River drainage was impressive. It was a beautiful “bluebird”; day.
