CELLECTIONS ARE DONE!!!

I made my last trip up to Lompoc on Friday and finished collecting pine cones!  The groves of Bishop pines I found in Lompoc were much larger than the population on Santa Rosa.  The mainland population also had noticeably larger pine cones and seemed much healthier than the Island population which could signify that mainland conditions are much more favorable for Bishop pines than island conditions.  But the island conditions were much more favorable for me, although the view I had in Lompoc was beautiful I definitely wasn’t alone up there.  As you can see from my photo I never got far from a well traveled road so I didn’t get to enjoy the silence of nature like I did on the island.

 

 

I also noticed sections of the grove where a fire had gone through and the trees had fallen down.  Although I’ve seen patches of fallen trees on the island I never saw so many clumped so close together that had fallen over.  It was really cool to see and although many trees died most of them looked like they were of reproductive age so the new generation of bishop pines should be coming in.