COLORADO COLLEEN: High Country Color

The aspens are changing! The aspens are changing!

But better hurry if you want to see some gold in them there hills because when I flew home from California on Wednesday, I saw plenty of snow on the mountains.

I took this photo last year, on a hike near Guanella Pass.

But if you're planning to drive the scenic byway over the pass, better check with the road service first. As of late August, a stretch of the pass road was closed due to the threat of a rock slide. The summer's abundant rainfall evidently loosened a section of rocks about the size of a football field, and the unstable rock mass posed danger to drivers.

If you want more details about aspens, here are several links to previously posted pieces on my blog or my Examiner.com Denver Flower and Gardening page.

• Aspens: Phoenix of the Forest. Click here now.

• Aspens on Vail: Click here now.

• Urban Aspens: Click here now.

COLORADO COLLEEN: Aspens on Vail

Enjoy these slender, sylvan aspen trees on Vail, at left. We skied all the way to the slurpy bottom and hockey-stopped to say hello to this aspen grove toward the bottom of the run known as Whippersnapper.

If you're curious about aspens, check out my post "Phoenix of the forest" somewhere on this blog.

But bear in mind that I left out the most controversial part: Aspens have been on the downslide. When I reported the story, firs were overcoming the forests. One forester called it "an outbreak of firs." And many species rely on aspens for habitat.

Also yesterday, I shot a couple of less-than- picturesque images of a tree dying from Mountain Pine Beetle. This is a huge problem in our Rocky Mountains, leaving shocking swaths of rusty red throughout the evergreen forests. Of course, many voices speak out on this issue. I'm not well posted enough at this point to say, but I'll show you some photos for those of you not exposed to this blight. Some say that within a few years all the lodgepole pines will fall.

I don't have ready facts for you, but if you care about these trees, please Google away: I'm sure there's lots of information. One thing we can all do to help all trees is use less paper--so even as my beloved newspapers are evaporating across our nation, I can see that the electronic media has benefits.

Like blogs. (Can you tell I'm hooked?)

If anybody has any good sources on aspens, lodgepole pines, or Mountain Pine Beetle, please sound off here and leave a comment.


But back to nature.


Years back, beginning in the mid-90s, I wrote a feature titled "The Nature of..." for The Denver Post. They gave me a whole page every other week in the old, large broadsheet format. That kind of real estate is unheard of in the pages of today's newspapers! I wrote a main story and a sidebar, and they ran some wonderful art to illustrate the pieces. I was thrilled to be writing about subject matter I cared about profoundly. At the time, the whole green movement was not yet in vogue. Looking back, I see I was something of a visionary, if I may say so, with a message of wonderment from the natural world of canyons and clouds, hummingbirds and snow crystals. Feature after feature, I looked closely at a plant, animal, mineral or weather form and attempted to distill its essences. Always, I stood in awe.

But always, too, I seemed to be reporting a message of alarm: butterfly populations and thunderstorm patterns and aspen populations and prairie dogs colonies and wildcrafted medicinal herbs all seemed to point to what we now know is true: Our planet is in peril.

Yet we are waking up, in earnest. We are saying no to plastic bags in favor of cloth. We enjoy cloth napkins rather than paper. Paper we do use, we recycle, along with glass and cans and aluminum foil and all the rest. We turn off the water when we brush our teeth. More and more people are carrying out more and more actions on behalf of Creation.

I'd been a nature girl since I can remember, playing in my yard, my neighborhood, the library gardens, at my grandparents' farms, Girl Scout camp. Researching and interviewing and writing about all these awe-inspiring aspects of nature taught me so much and introduced me to people passionate about their life work in the natural world.

Here at Bluesox headquarters, we're in the process of distilling those stories down to blog-sized bites. I'll share more nature photos, too. I guess I believe that by sharing the mysteries and facts we've gathered about nature, we can learn from other living beings and find ways to live more harmoniously on the big blue marble.

NATURE POSTS TO COME:
Rabbits
Lilies
Butterflies
Dragonflies
Hummingbirds
Lightning
Clouds
Canyons
Medicinal Herbs
Peppers
Zinnias
and more.
Thank you for making time to read.
Please stay tuned.
Namaste'.

COLORADO COLLEEN: Urban Aspens

Aspen trees don’t fare well in city environment, where hot temperatures and heavy clay soils prove detrimental to their well being. Plus, they can’t filter air pollution effectively. Injury by hail, pruning and other elements render aspens susceptible to fungus, and other diseases readily set in. Quaking Aspen is the most typical species. Big Tooth Aspen can be found, but is rarely commercially available. Aspens don’t make good street trees, but can make nice accent trees in yards.

For those who want urban aspen, note the following considerations:
* First, make sure you’re selecting and planting a tree with a well developed root system. A lot of aspens are collected from the mountains, and sometimes the trees don’t have much of a root system.
Ask questions about where the aspens came from and when. If the trees are in containers, look at the bottom of the container to see if you can see roots. Sometimes, the aspen are collected with they’re much younger, but if they’ve been growing in the nursery for a year or two, they would have a more developed root system.
* Another key factor in successfully growing aspen is finding the correct site. Don’t plant them on the south side of a house or anywhere the tree will get a lot of reflective heat from the street, sidewalk or buildings. Aspens are prone to sun scald.
* Amend the soil. Aspens typically grow in decomposed granite. The key to successful growing is well drained soil. Local soils tend to be heavy clays, but they can be amended with organics.
* Water slowly and deeply. Aspen growing in their native habitat get a lot of moisture. Aspen in the city need a good watering regime. Water every couple of days after the soil has dried out--about every three days during summer. Like all plants, aspens need water, but also oxygen. If the site is constantly wet, the trees won’t get the oxygen they need.
Other caveats:
* Due to the big, woody roots that connect trees, aspens tend to produce sucker growth, especially when placed close to lawn areas. Aspen can fill in, so keep them in isolated beds filled with other plants or heavily mulched and you’ll have less of a problem. Do not mulch with cedar.
* Aspens are the shortest living tree species in Colorado. People growing aspens in the city should view them as 20-30 year plant. Some live longer, but not many.
* Be aware that aspens are prone to twig gall disease and leaf spots, both fairly difficult to control.
* For information about aspen trees, visit Plant Talk.