Carpeted Slopes

    I have always enjoyed seeing these pine-covered slopes of Beaver Mountain after a snowfall.  They look like they are covered with velvet or a carpet.  

    The cones of pine trees only release their seeds by the heat of a fire, allowing them to be the first ones out of the gate for establishing themselves in the destroyed forest.  These slopes were burned by a forest fire in 1961 and Lodgepole Pine won the race and took over.

    While working at the Forest Service I often had to look at air photos.  When trying to identify timber types from an air photo, I learned that pine forests looked like a carpet, because the seeds were released at the same time making the trees are all the same age, and they grow tightly against one another.  The snow lets you see this carpet-like characteristic.

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