5 days ago · Paleobotanist Jack A. Wolfe of the United States Geological Survey at Menlo Park, California, has found a number of tropical rain forest fossils along the eastern Gulf of Alaska. These …

5 days ago · The Klukwan giant belies the belief that trees tend to get smaller the farther north one goes. Both balsam poplar and cottonwood have value for fuel wood, pulp and lumber.

Feb 6, 2026 · Why take a chance with exotics, when native trees have proven their ability to survive? Several reasons prompt testing of foreign tree species. Human activities often create and maintain …

Feb 6, 2026 · In an earlier column , I asked if any readers could explain why the grain in trees seemed to spiral up the trunk-in a clockwise direction. That is, spiral marks in old trees crack open from the …

5 days ago · A swath of dead, tilted and broken trees now makes obvious the trace of the Fairweather fault that broke in July 1958 to devastate Lituya Bay and nearby parts of southeastern Alaska. …

Nov 27, 2024 · Stan Boutin has climbed more than 5,000 spruce trees in the last 30 years. He has often returned to the forest floor knowing if a ball of twigs and moss within the tree contained newborn red …

5 days ago · Burls weaken trees but do not kill them. The weakening effect, however, makes the trees vulnerable to other diseases which can kill them. Relatively little is known about burls, for several …

Feb 6, 2026 · By late winter, intricate buildups of hoarfrost crystals have formed on wooden poles and other objects. Warming rays of the sun cause evaporation of whatever frost may have formed on the …

May 25, 2023 · The range of the feltleaf willow, probably the most numerous tree in Alaska. From Alaska Trees and Shrubs by Les Viereck and Elbert L. Little, Jr.

Feb 6, 2026 · Spruce trees planted on the islands by the Russians in 1805 are doing just fine and reseeding themselves naturally, although the total tree population hardly amounts to a forest.