We were unlikely friends, Rob fresh from the military and the Gulf war, me anti-arms, anti-war. But we had a big thing in common: our love of the outdoors, our love of the mountains. "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees" said Muir. We hiked many trails of Olympic National Park and Rainier National Park together, spent a few new year's eves in the snow watching moon rise over Mt Rainier. We told each other many stories of hikes, rides, climbs, outdoor adventures we so cherished.

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop on Climate and Forests in Flagstaff, AZ. The field trip before the start of the workshop took us to areas of aspen decline, pinyon mortality, and other landscapes devastated by recent fires. On the second day, speakers from the forest industry gave interesting presentations about what they saw was the future of their trade: Carbon credits for growing young trees and revenue from wood sold as a renewable source of energy.

Last week scientists from Russia, Sandinavia, Canada and Alaska, as well as falconers from United Arab Emirates are getting together in Boise to discuss the probable impacts of climate change on gyrfalcons and their main prey, ptarmigans (conference web site). The conference brought together experts from around the world who will share results of their research to better understand changing population viability throughout their circumpolar distribution.  These experts discussed both challenges (interspecific competition, changes in prey phenology such as bird migration and land-mammal cycles) and opportunities (longer summers may increase prey base, allow interbreeding with other falcons; captive breeding can help replenish declining populations).Such international collaboration and sharing of resources is essential to begin developing global strategies and international policies addressing climate change issues (see new Nature article on the subject).

Often when graduate students or visiting scientists start research projects that include some modeling, they read relevant publications and talk to modelers.  Learning how a model really works, aka "looking under the hood," is usually a steep learning curve that takes time and energy from the one learning how to use the model, as well as from its developers whose research does not often stop to allow this "teaching moment".

It has become a habit for politicians and journalists in the USA to point the finger at China when referring to greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, the Chinese government has been much more proactive than our own and is becoming a leader of climate change mitigation efforts.

Last week a colleague from the lead Forestry school in France came to visit me in Olympia. Yves told me a story he read in the Smithsonian (2004) about forest decline following drought-years in Morocco, where Barbary macaques were found stripping the bark of Atlas cedars to eat the moist and nutritious tissues underneath. Authorities want to get rid of the monkeys but they are endangered.

The theme of the annual Ecological Society of America meetings this year was climate change. One talk I listened to really stands out in my mind. Tom Stohlgren (USGS Fort Collins) gave a thought provoking talk about the role of invasives  species (harmful plants, animals and diseases from other countries) in shaping the world we live in.

Four years ago, Worldwatch in their wonderful but now defunct magazine, published a few interesting numbers. In the mid-1990s there were 385 bicycles per 1000 Americans (US), the number in Germany was 588 per 1000 Germans and in Holland .... 1000 bikes per 1000 Dutch people of course! Bicycles in Europe are considered a transport vehicle just like a car and are treated as such unlike in most of the continental US.

The largest uncertainty in future climate projections is the level of anthropogenic emissions expected throughout the 21st century. As Phil Duffy from Climate Central (and a Data Basin Advisor) often reminds us in his talks: it is IMPOSSIBLE to project future human emissions because human behavior is unpredictable.

I just came back from a week of backpacking in the Gila Wilderness. I hiked from the hot New Mexico desert into cool moist canyons lush with blooming yellow Columbines and omnipresent poison ivy all the way to cool dry peaks where firs, pines and aspen formed healthy green forests. In places, wildfires have killed trees whose boles will retain the stored carbon for years to come providing great drumming opportunities for the local woodpeckers and flickers. We discover these while pitching our tent under a patch of remnant green trees in a large burn area.