Notes from the field

My longest trip this summer took me out to the Umpqua National forest in Oregon, which encompasses a section of the Cascade Range east of Roseburg. For the first couple days, it was so hot that wildlife was scarce. Undeterred by the heat, insects were abundant, buzzing alongside our car from flower to flower. One…

And now as the iron rinds overthe ponds start dissolving, you come, dreaming of ferns and flowersand new leaves unfolding, upon the brashturnip-hearted skunk cabbageslinging its bunches leaves upthrough the chilling mud.You kneel beside it. The smell is lurid and flows out in the mostunabashed way, attractinginto itself a continual spatteringof protein. Appalling its roughgreen caves, and the…