It has been a good start for the month of July.  I hope that everyone had a great 4^th!!  May the rains come to Colorado and the West to help with this year’s fire season.  It has already started out with a bang.  Hopefully the monsoonal moisture will kick in and put the fires out before they do too much damage.  It is interesting to note that fires have always been a part of the forest landscape.  It is only when people have moved into these areas that were once uninhabited or at best temporarily inhabited that it has become more of an issue.  It has been estimated that there are about 100,000 wildfires or forest fires each year.  This includes areas that you might not consider “Forested” but more like grass lands with low bushes and tall grasses.  Think West Texas and Western Oklahoma.  These fires clear anywhere from 4 to 5 million acres of land in the U.S. every year.  (This information is from NGS).  What this tells me is that if you live in a forest or a wildland area, it is not a matter if a forest fire will happen, but when.

Well on a different note.  I finished up a couple of books in the last few weeks and I think they are worth mentioning.  The first one is called “The Stranger in the Woods” – The extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit.  By Michael Finkel.  This one was published in 2017.  It is the story of Christopher Knight, who lived as a hermit in the Maine woods for 27 years.  In this time frame he did not have a conversation with another person.  Finkel tells the story of this unique individual and in the process explores the possible reasons and history of people that became “Hermits.”  This is an easy read and well worth a look for a quick summer book while on vacation.  Humans are very social animals, so I find it fascinating when one of the tribe wants to go off the reservation and disappear.  You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Woods-Extraordinary-Story-Hermit/dp/1101911530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530810054&sr=8-1&keywords=the+stranger+in+the+woods

The next book is called “The Hidden Life of TREES” – What They Feel, How They Communicate.  By Peter Wohlleben.  I have a minor in Botany but have not really kept up with any new research in the plant world other than bits and pieces here and there.  So, I was curious about this book when it came out in 2016.  I have to say that after reading it “AMAZING.”  I don’t think that I will ever walk through the forest the same way again.  It is almost like something out of the movie “Avatar” by James Cameron.  Wohlleben talks about the forest as a true social network.  That trees talk with each other, share nutrients with those that are struggling and warn each other of impending dangers.  He goes on to make the point that their behavior can be likened to human families.  And on an environmental note, he talks about the best practices in harvesting trees and how our current system could be made much better and more humane for the trees.  This was a real eye opener for me.  Just the fact that the trees could be considered more than just a thing?!  An actual living, breathing, thinking entity.  Think of “Treebeard” in Lord of the Rings!  Just crazy, it puts the forest in a whole different “light.”  You can find the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate_Discoveries-Secret/dp/1771642483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531110619&sr=8-1&keywords=the+hidden+life+of+trees+by+peter+wohlleben

The last book is called “Reality is Not What It Seems” – The Journey to Quantum Gravity.  By Carlo Rovelli and Simon Carnell.  I am always on the lookout for books that help to make sense of the quantum world.  I had not read this author before but his name popped up in Amazon’s recommended books.  And I am glad that I took a chance on this one.  This book came out in 2017.  Rovelli is an Italian Theoretical Physicist and seems to have a way with words when it comes to helping the curious layperson with complex subjects.  Rovelli gives a brief history of the two Modern Physics redoubts, The Theory of General Relativity and Quantum Theory.  Both can be very hard to understand for the layperson.  The rest of the book is about Quantum Gravity and Information Theory.  I have read other books and watched videos on these subjects and still not quite understood what I have read or watched.  I did not feel this way with Rovelli.  And this is where the beauty of the book comes into play.  I highly recommend this book if you want to “START” to know more about these subjects.  They are very complex and can be confusing.  Even Einstein had trouble accepting some of these ideas.  You can find the book at Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Reality-Not-What-Seems-Journey/dp/0735213933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531115291&sr=8-1&keywords=reality+is+not+what+it+seems+carlo+rovelli&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&dpID=51T0lHa9wkL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Well that is about it for me this week.  Had a great trail run up to Blue Lake yesterday.  Lots of water crossings, which I take as a good sign that not all of the forest in Colorado are in drought conditions.  Take care, have fun out there and see ya next week!!