A visit to the Russian Wilderness miracle mile

August 7, 2017 by Fred Allebach

The Klamath Mountains are a world-class conifer biodiversity hotspot. This has come about for a number of reasons having to do with world climate, geology, plate tectonics, soil types, and the existence of refugia from past glaciations.

500 million years ago, during the Cambrian explosion of life, the Pacific Plate subducted under western North America. Various island groups were scraped off and ended up over-riding the North American Plate. These scraped-off island groups formed the basis for different Klamath rock chemistry areas called terranes. As the rock weathered, different soil types were produced, and combined with rainfall patterns, elevation and slope aspect differences, a wide variety of habitat was created, making ecological space for much conifer biodiversity.

In the sequence of past world climates and geological ages, Klamath flora represent a remnant of the Arcto-Tertiary forest. Arcto means northern. The Tertiary Age was from 65 million years (end of dinosaur age and beginning of age of mammals) to 2.5 million years ago. This Arcto-Tertiary warm-adapted flora was common in the northern hemisphere, but when the climate started to cool for the Pleistocene Ice Age 2.5 million years ago, the flora retreated to isolated non-ice-covered pockets that had micro-climates and habitats where it could survive.

California as a whole has many refuge areas for conifers, for example: redwoods, Sequoia, Monterey pine, Monterey cypress, big cone Douglas fir, Sierra juniper etc. And this is just conifers. A look at California’s climate zones and plant communities, hints at a lifetime of interests to be satisfied for my inner David Douglas.

The southern Appalachians are another Arcto-Tertiary refugia forest, with similar biodiversity to ther Klamath area. I got all this info from a chance impulse buy at Humboldt Redwoods State Park, of a book by Michael Kauffman. My Mom was nice enough to buy it for me. Since I have become a major Kauffman fan.

During the Pleistocene, where glacial episodes waxed and waned in accordance with the Milankovitch parameters, modern pines and conifer genera speciated rapidly. Many of the pines, firs and spruces came into being only in the last 2.5 million years. Is this too cool or what? Southern hemisphere conifers (monkey puzzle, Fitzroya cypress, Norfolk Island pine) are much older lineages benefiting from more stable, temperate habitats.

What kind of conifer diversity are we talking about in the Klamath? There are 17 conifer species within the “Miracle Mile”, near Russian Peak in the Russian Wilderness, and 38 species of conifers in the Klamath Mountains, as many or more than anywhere else in the world.

Miracle Miles trees: foxtail pine, whitebark pine, western white pine, Jeffrey pine, ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, sugar pine, white fir, Shasta fir, subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, Brewer spruce, mountain hemlock, Douglas-fir, Pacific yew, incense-cedar, common juniper, western juniper.

With each of these trees I have spent days, weeks, months on the Pacific Crest Trail painstakingly identifying them and discovering their natural and developmental variability. Some are easy, like sugar pine: very long cones, bark with smaller, fine plates. Lodgepole is the only one that has two needles in a bunch, with uniformly small cones, and a unique scaly bark. Yew has a needle type more like redwood, easy to ID, and the females have red berries called arils. Incense cedar could be mistaken for Sequoia, but once you get to know them, the particular branch spray and flat, upturned needle type tip you off. Whitebark pine is a five-needle white pine that grows in clumps only at high elevation. Western white pine grows in small patches or in isolates, with a special bark pattern and unique canopy shape for mature trees. When you hear Clark’s nutcrackers, (a type of jay), that is the sound of whitebark pine. Foxtails have a disjunct Klamath population, away from their main group in the Sierra Nevada south of Taboose Pass. Foxtails are related to Bristlecones, and have a unique bark texture, color, and tight, short needle shape. Brewer spruce has drooping branch sprays like no other, and you will not see them anywhere else but in the Klamath area. Mountain hemlock has very small cones and a crown like Dr. Seuss character heads.

Common juniper is a creeping hedge that hides right in plain sight, and only shows up in the most barren, high elevation places. Junipers are tough trees having evolved in arid Mexico, and have been spreading up north during the Holocene.

Telling the difference between Jeffrey and ponderosa comes down to cone size and texture, as well as habitat. If it is much drier and exposed, chances are it is a Jeffrey; ponderosas are more a fair-weather, lower elevation tree. Two of the biggest ponderosas in the world are in the Klamath, in the Sugar Creek drainage. Douglas fir is very easy, needles cover the whole sprig, and the cones have mouse-tail bracts. Many ID jobs come together in a confluence of recognizing a pattern: of cone litter, bark texture, foliage color, shape and sheen, crown, and knowing slope aspect and elevation. The most challenging aspect is to get to know the young trees; they do not look like adults. It takes hundreds of miles of looking to get a sense of the full scope and variability of a species.

The hardest trees to ID are the firs because they grade on a cline from regional subspecies. The Klamath is the transition zone. You can get ballpark IDs, but they end up being like oaks, crossed, non-specific. This leave the Engelmann spruces, which I have always had trouble with, as there are not that many to see in California, and I forget about them. I’m more of a piney guy anyway. But when you know all the others, Engelman spruce is so different, you say, “well, it must be that.”

I recently went to the Klamath and was able to find 14 of the 17 miracle mile conifers, and would have gotten two more (foxtail and whitebark pine) if I had not been run off the ridge by thunder and lightning.

The Klamath is a neat area, one worth exploring, with lots of hikes and camping opportunities. Now it’s back to town and immersion in the world local issues.