This past weekend I was in the Nicola Valley, near Merritt, British Columbia. This region is rugged and hilly, hosting a wide range of life. I spotted many different types of birds and other wildlife including Osprey, Clark's Nutcrackers, Cedar Waxwings, Brown Crow-birds, Robins, voles and more.
This image tells the story of the forest floor in the Nicola Valley, which is a four hour drive from Vancouver. The forest floor is covered with needles and cones from Ponderosa Pine trees that are common in the area. These needles and cones form a thick cover over the mix of sedimentary and volcanic rock, creating a recipe for disaster if a forest fire were to breakout. To make matters worse, the Nicola Valley is one of the driest regions in Canada, receiving an average of 23mm or 0.9 inches of rain a year! I tested this danger by putting large bunches of pine needles in my campfire, and the speed at which these dry needles burned was rapid to say the least. I could easily see entire hill sides burning up in less than an hour.
As a side note, June is the wettest month of the year and it rained while I was there several times. I would hazard a guess and say that over the four days I was in the region there was 1-2mm of rain. The ground greedily sucked up the moisture within a few minutes of rain ceasing to fall and if you didn't seen the rain falling, you likely wouldn't know that it had.
Tinder Box
This image tells the story of the forest floor in the Nicola Valley, which is a four hour drive from Vancouver. The forest floor is covered with needles and cones from Ponderosa Pine trees that are common in the area. These needles and cones form a thick cover over the mix of sedimentary and volcanic rock, creating a recipe for disaster if a forest fire were to breakout. To make matters worse, the Nicola Valley is one of the driest regions in Canada, receiving an average of 23mm or 0.9 inches of rain a year! I tested this danger by putting large bunches of pine needles in my campfire, and the speed at which these dry needles burned was rapid to say the least. I could easily see entire hill sides burning up in less than an hour.
As a side note, June is the wettest month of the year and it rained while I was there several times. I would hazard a guess and say that over the four days I was in the region there was 1-2mm of rain. The ground greedily sucked up the moisture within a few minutes of rain ceasing to fall and if you didn't seen the rain falling, you likely wouldn't know that it had.
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