Conifer Country Blog - Michael Kauffmann

July 30, 2025July 30, 2025

Conifer Forests of Whistler, BC

Subalpine fir in the high elevations of the Coast Mountains near Whistler, BC

Exploring the unique high-rainfall, glacially sculpted forests of the southern Coast Mountains

Whistler, British Columbia is famed for its mountains, but just as magnificent are the ancient forests draped across their flanks—wet, wild, and woven with a diversity of conifers that whisper of deep time. Tucked in the southern Coast Mountains, the forests surrounding Whistler are shaped by a cool maritime climate, abundant precipitation, and a legacy of glaciation that has carved basins, ridges, and deep alluvial valleys. These physical forces, coupled with nutrient-rich colluvial and glacial soils, give rise to complex plant communities where conifers reign.

July 15, 2025July 15, 2025

Among Ancient Pines on Mount Linn

As spring transitioned to summer, we traveled deep into the Coast Range to the headwaters of the Bigfoot Trail. Mount Linn—at 8,098 feet, the highest point in California’s Coast Range—rises like an island above a sea of rugged ridges and folded drainages. Here, the Bigfoot Trail begins, and here, we spent our days working to open the path for future hikers—treading, clearing logs, and feeling that familiar rhythm of shared labor in wild places.

June 1, 2025June 1, 2025

Discovering Shasta Snow-Wreath (Neviusia cliftonii)

Eastern Klamath Mountains from Hogback Lookout.

In Search of a Living Fossil in the Eastern Klamath Mountains

This spring, I embarked on my inaugural journey to the far eastern reaches of the Klamath Mountains—a realm where ancient limestone outcrops narrate tales of deep time, and where evolutionary relicts persist in quiet resilience. My quest: to encounter the elusive Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii), a botanical enigma known only to the rugged terrains surrounding Lake Shasta.

May 24, 2025June 28, 2025

Revisiting a Research Natural Area in the Klamath Mountains

There’s a quiet magnetism in Research Natural Areas (RNAs)—pockets of protected wild that call to those of us who seek to understand the living mosaic of California. These places are often the last intact natural systems on our public lands—and for decades, I’ve been drawn to them, trekking into these living sanctuaries to witness nature in its most undisturbed form, to document its story, and to carry that story forward.

May 10, 2025June 28, 2025

Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii)

An Old Friend in a New Light

I first met Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii) when I moved to California as a young educator, living and teaching at SCICON, a school nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the Great Central Valley. The property was draped in a mosaic of oak woodland, and it was the blue oak—with its pale, ghostly bark and seasonally bare branches—that became a familiar companion during daily lessons with sixth graders. At the time, I didn’t fully grasp what I had stumbled into, but I knew it felt like home. As a kid raised in the deciduous forests of the Appalachians, these leaf-losing oaks whispered a comforting language.