#foto Where I’m doing fieldwork right now. My beloved community. my beloved sangha 🌎 taking refuge our war against Nature, against ourselves…
“I’m too poor in this world, and yet not poor enough…after RILKE” vimeo.com/845195766
🌕 #Sun2Sound 🎵 #photo The #WALLOWAS Land of Winding Waters #OREGON
#trekking Clark’s NUTCRACKER w/ #Whitebarkpine seed (not a NUT!) on whitebark snag 2550m
More calories than chocolate;
Only pine w/ cones that don’t open;
It co-evolved w/ bird to harvest
& cache its seeds
Listen to counter-singing harvesting cones www.picture-poems.com/mp3/nutcrack...
#WALLOWAS
thread #nativeplants Barestem Biscuitroot (Lomatium nudicaule) also at CAMAS OVERLOOK #WALLOWAS #OREGO 1250m
The #phenology is interesting. Emergence from deep taproots, flowering, etc, 2 weeks AFTER Nineleaf, but always in an outer, slightly more rocky, ring.
HOTTER, DRIER climate no problem.
#phenology🌿 Nineleaf Biscuitroot (Lomatium triternatum) At its April peak following snow melt at 1250m #WALLOWAS #Oregon
Supremely adapted to HOTTER DRIER
climate. Surges from deep taproot.
Dormant by Summer Solstice.
Wildly abundant.
Entire plant edible.
#nativeplants #wildflowers #wildcrafting
🎵 musicsky soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/...
ROCK WREN (Salpinctes obsoletus), recorded above CAMAS OVERLOOK, the #WALLOWAS, #OREGON
I’m eagerly awaiting his spring return!
🌕 #Sun2Sound 🎵 #phenology
#phenology Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia parviflora) A winter annual here at 1300m.
Flowering in unison now, 1000s forming a
kind of dense, delicate ephemeral ground cover,
among Clovers, Waterleaf, Spring Beauties
and Avalanche Lilies.
Diminutive. But 3cm high.
#WALLOWAS #OREGON #nativeplants
#phenology Bulbous Woodland Star (Lithophragma (Stone + slab) glabrum) flowering now....followed by L. tenellum & L. parviflorum...Saxifrage family, at 1330m #WALLOWAS #OREGON
Trying at present to work
out elevation bandwidth,
+ how this is changing
w/ HOTTER DRIER climate
#wildflowers #climatesky
#foto SUNSIGHT! #IDAHO & Snake River Country, the #WALLOWAS Land of Winding Waters #OREGON 5:25
#Poem to end the mindless
illegal aggression against #IRAN
Quanto smarriti i sentieri
quando si perde la verità
Quanto inutili le guerre
quanta vano lo spreco
🌕 #Sun2Sound 🎵 #PoetsWithoutBorders
#nativeplants Cutleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza macrophylla) curved space leaf geometry & venation1250m #WALLOWAS #OREGON Hybridizes w/ B. sagitatta = mixed forms
Like the LOMATIUMS, I see BALSAMORHIZA
as MOVEMENT, w/ wonderfully var forms
emerging like diff. melodies
from the same chord
#phenology
#foto #Whitebarkpine 🌲 (Pinus albicaulis)The surreal serpentine spirals of erosion-exposed WBP root, thriving at 2300m
To know the trees, is to love them;
To love the trees, is to make them your friend;
To make the trees your friend,
is to surround yourself
w/ teachers.
#WALLOWAS #OREGON #trekking
#nativeplants Arrow-leaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) rising up from newly established colony on rocky, recently disturbed (clear cut) ridge. At 1350m #WALLOWAS #OREGON Nite temp -10C
Read overview by #MONTANA Native Plant Society pdf [161Kb] www.picture-poems.com/pdfs/balsamo...
#phenology
#foto STINK CURRANT (Ribes bracteosum) buds opening in vernal snowmelt stream 1450m, mid-MAY
Amazing, in a traditional Winters,
these currants are under 2m of snowpack
from NOVEMBER to MAY, water
of the small mountain flowing continuously.
Amazing…
#nativeplants #WALLOWAS #OREGON
#phenology The TURKEY VULTURES are back! (Cathartes aura)..l #WALLOWAS #OREGON
I have 6 mature birds circling now
overhead…..at 1330m…they “know” me,
at least, that’s what I TELL myself…
They follow me while I’m out running…
I “talk” to them with my bone whistle.
#foto WIKIPEDIA #avian #wilderness
#foto #backpacking 🌲Whitebark Pine Country & EAGLE CAP, the motionless center about which turns the great energy wheel of the #WALLOWAS A natural MANDALA
RESOURCE PAGE at picture-poems.com/whitebarks
#OREGON #trekking #philosophy #bikepacking 🚴🏼♂️ [cache bike @ State Park WALLOWA LAKE] #wilderness
#design SAGEBRUSH BUTTERCUP (Ranunculus glaberrimus) at
1300m
The petals have a smooth outer layer & a pigmented lower layer w/ an air gap in btwn. Light reflects off the inner surfaces & combines w/ pigment reflection, causing specular (mirror-like) shine.
#biomimicry #WALLOWAS #wildflowers #OR
thread (1) #phenology SAGEBRUSH BUTTERCUP (Ranunculus glaberrimus) 1350 m
The petal has a smooth outer layer & a pigmented lower layer with an air gap in between. Light reflects off the inner surfaces and combines with pigment reflection, causing specular (mirror-like) shine.
#biomimicry #WALLOWAS
#phenology MOUNTAIN Snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus) leafing out now 1330m in open montane, Northeast #WALLOWAS #OREGON.
It’s partner, Common Snowberry (S. albus) moves bit slower in time, from bud-break, flowering, and holding onto its fruit--an important wildlife food--in Fall
#nativeplants
#poem EVERY TIME A BOMB FALLS…
#foto Friends, the HUND family, w/ Isaiah
& Juniper learning to eat YAMPAH Root
(Perideridera bolanderi) at HEARTBREAK
Meadow 1450m #WALLOWAS #OREGON
#nativeplants #wildflowers
#PoetsWithoutBorders #poetry End the war of aggression on #CUBA & #IRAN 🌎☮️🙏
#poetry TIMES 20: All #RILKE 20 of my favorite English tr. from the German, recorded off-grid, in the natural soundscapes of the rugged #WALLOWAS #OREGON
“POETRY? The one thing humans do
that makes the rest of NATURE jealous… . “
mp3 [51Mb] www.picture-poems.com/mp3/rilke_20...
🌕 #Sun2Sound 🎵
#phenology 🌿Avalanche Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum) appeared today III.21.2026 at 1330m #Wallowas Northeast #OREGON A full month ahead of #climate average
A signature ephemeral of montane Spring!
Wildly abundant. Entire plant is wonderfully
edible
#wildflowers #nativeplants #wildcrafting #foto
#phenology FIELDNOTES III.18.2026….Recorded on foot—no snow at 1300-1600m—a male chorus of Mountain TOADS
(Bufo borealis) out a month early…
An overview of current HEAT DOME
mp3 [23Mb] www.picture-poems.com/mp3/fieldnot...
#nativeplants #foto INDIAN POTATO (Claytonia
lanceolata)
#OREGON #WALLOWAS
#trekking #Whitebarkpine 🌲 are a keystone species. In the #WALLOWAS since 1850 they’re migrated up 250m in elevation to abt 2200m A HOTTER DRIER climate is pushing them UP & OFF the mountain.
Luckily, they have ESP now. And it’s mostly
an official #wilderness tree. #foto 2300m
& 2550m
#OREGON
#design Barestem Biscuitroot (Lomatium nudicaule) marvelous leaf venation pattern
After the inevitable collapse of rural
N. American straight-line-grid barbed-wire
cow towns, think of #biomimicry networked
communities designed like this!
The #WALLOWAS are a Lomatium hotspot
From 600 to 2300m
#OR
#phenology Spreading DOGBANE (Apocynum androsaemifollium) Fruit: Pairs of narrow 5-to 10cm-long follicles split open to release seeds with silky hairs
W/ present snow drought at 1300m
the seeds are now everywhere
floating along w/ the warm afternoon
updrafts
#WALLOWAS #OREGON #foto #nativeplants
#trekking 🌲 LIMBER PINE (Pinus flexilis) closely related 5-needle species to #Whitebarkpine on the remarkable MARTIN BRIDGE LIMESTONE of the #EagleCapWilderness #OREGON. At 2650m
LIMBERS are rare in the #WALLOWAS
But they form a unique old-growth (1000 yrs)
community at CRATERS OF THE MOON
#IDAHO
#nativeplants SULFUR-FLOWERED BUCKWHEAT (Eriogonum umbellatum) at 2200 meters, dry southwest exposure....September aspect
Tight, low cushion, short wooly hairs on nearly
succulent spoon-shaped leaves...a marvel
of subalpine adaptation...
#OREGON 🌲 #EagleCapWilderness #WALLOWAS #wildflowers
#booksky TIMES 20: All #RILKE 20 of my favorite new English translations from the German, rec. in the #WALLOWAS #OREGON
#POETRY? The one thing humans do
that makes the rest of NATURE jealous… .
mp3 [51Mb] www.picture-poems.com/mp3/rilke_20...
🌕 #Sun2Sound 🎵 #poem #poesia #Gedicht #soundscape
#trekking 🌲LEARNING to speak #Whitebarkpine...
In the #WALLOWAS #EagleCapWilderness, when your
altimeter hits 2200m., start looking for this gestalt:
full rounded form, upward turning branches. Contrasts
sharply w/ more narrow Spruce & Fir. Upclose,
look for bundles 5-needles.
#backpacking #foto
#photo IMNAHA Canyon, North #WALLOWAS
The IMNAHA is 80km of spectacular free-flowing river;
It originate above 2500m below CUSSICK MT
& joins the SNAKE at DOUG BAR at 400m;
It’s perhaps the Eagle Cap‘s best chance
for salmon recovery… . .
#trekking #landscape #foto #OREGON #poem #bikepacking 🚴🏼♂️
#NativePlants Pink Fairies (Clarkia pulchella) skyview bit.ly/hgmbjg
One of our most beautiful annual #Wildflowers,
not just in the #PacificNorthwest,
but anywhere. And w/ so much history!
Imagine #Sacajawea showing this to
Lewis & Clark:– for the very first time... . .
#OREGON #WALLOWAS
