Nancy and I were invited to visit the Wind River Canopy Crane Research Facility yesterday. It’s not too far from our home in White Salmon. Jim and Judy Mitchell joined us with Judy’s sister Janet Wainwright and her husband Floyd. Janet had the connections that got us the great tour.
Program manager Jerry Franklin and project manager Ken Bible were our hosts. We learned about the 13 year old project to study an old-growth forest, measure the carbon flux, and create longitudinal studies. Even those this stand of Douglas Fir is over 500 years old and is aging, studies have shown that it is still a CO2 sink (absorbing more CO2 then it’s creating). This was not the expected result.
Canopy Crane Gondola
Forests are the primary lungs for our atmosphere and understanding their function and health is going to be critical now and in the future as we work to understand carbon implications on the climate.
The canopy crane is used to study the plants at various heights up to 200+ feet, to measure the carbon flux into the atmosphere, and to compare it with measurements made in the soil. Interestingly in the early days it was thought that photosynthesis created product to help the 80% of the trees that are above ground. Now we find out that 60% to 70% of the products are used underground.
Incidentally, besides all of the interesting scientific information it was just plain beautiful.
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