The Forest for the Trees
Crystal Mill
Quaking Aspens (Populus tremula) grow throughout the forests of western North America. The are usually one of the species to quickly recover from a forest fire where they grow into a dense stand of similarly sized trees. One reason for this is that a stand of Aspens isn’t really one tree… it is a stand of clone “trees” all growing up from one root system. I don’t know when fire last visited this stretch of Crystal Creek near Marble, Colorado, but it is definitely recovering nicely. Photo © copyright by Chris Eaton.