Conifers Archives - Michael Kauffmann

March 22, 2025March 22, 2025

A Life Beneath the Canopy

How California’s Trees Shaped a Book, a Friendship, and a Calling

I first fell in love with trees as a high school student in the green underworld of the eastern deciduous forests near Williamsburg, Virginia. My teacher, Charles Dubay, believed we should know our world with both precision and appreciation. In his field biology class he taught us the trees twice—once in the fullness of leaf and light, when the crowns cast shade and shimmered in the wind, and again in the starkness of winter, when the branches and bark told their stories—bare.

I first learned about trees in swamps across the eastern piedmont of Virginia.

November 12, 2024November 17, 2024

Spruce Engraver Beetle in Northern California

In June 2023, my family and I took a trip up Russian Creek in the Russian Wilderness. This area is renowned for its conifer diversity so I was on the lookout for my favorite plants.

It was alarming to discover mortality in one of California’s rarest conifers, the Engelmann spruce due to Spruce Engraver Beetle in Northern California. Here is what I wrote:

It appears California’s Engelmann spruce are also under attack as the Blake’s Fork stand in the Russian Wilderness is witnessing ~60% mortality over the past few years from what I believe to be spruce beetles. More monitoring is needed.

June 27, 2024June 27, 2024

Conifer Country (second edition)

Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) in the Klamath Mountains.

A note for you, lover of conifers

A few years after the first edition was first published, I was deep in the Siskiyou Wilderness in search of yellow-cedar stands. To my surprise another backpacker came stumbling through the brush. After we said hello, he got a smile on his face as he pulled a copy of Conifer Country from his backpack and asked for an autograph. My heart swelled with joy as we discussed how to tell the difference between yellow-cedar and Port Orford-cedar with both the book and plants in hand. This experience was grounding and simply lovely.

It has been 12 years since Backcountry Press first published this book. My wife Allison and I launched the business to support that publication. We took this risk to tell the story of science in interesting and engaging ways–to inspire deeper connections to the Earth. Looking back, I am amazed at what this project has brought us and the connections it has helped establish with the land and its enlightened people.

December 11, 2023December 11, 2023

Golden State Naturalist

I joined Michelle Fullner on her podcast the Golden State Naturalist. She states that it is a podcast “for anyone who’s ever looked around and realized just how much there is left to learn.” I was happy to chat with her.

Golden State Naturalist with Michael Kauffmann

We discussed my growth as a naturalist and how that brought me to write a book about the Klamath Mountains. We discuss ancient rocks, carnivorous plants, temperate rainforest, why people are a vital part of the story of place, and why the Klamath Mountains are bursting with a truly stunning array of beings and relationships. I hope you enjoy it–Michelle does a great job with her podcast!

Listen on her website

September 25, 2023October 16, 2023

Papoose Lake Revisited

Papoose Lake in the Trinity Alps as view from the south ridgeline.

Trinity Alps Wilderness

In November 2008, I made my first trip to Papoose Lake in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. That trip inspired my first blog post which evolved into Field Notes From Plant Explorations. This first post was more about geology than plants because of the unique geologic character of the Papoose Lake Basin.

This month, almost 15 years later, I returned to Papoose Lake to conduct vegetation surveys as part of our Klamath Mountains Vegetation Mapping Project. In many ways the basin is the same but in others changes are afoot. What follows are some reflections on 15 years of blogging through the eyes of a Klamath Mountain lake basin.