Is the Forest Dreaming?

27

When a forest goes dormant in the fall/winter…does it dream about spring? I’ve wondered this before, and I will presumably wonder it again in the future. Probably next fall when it begins to go dormant again.

I usually head out to my outer coast hatcheries once a year, generally in the fall during broodstock season. It’s a long drive to Conuma and a chunk of it is along a logging road, albeit a very good logging road, most of the time, but not always. Some years I’m actually grateful for rain on the drive because it allows me to see the potholes before I hit them.

This fall I went in twice, only two weeks apart. The first trip was for a Chinook program out on the Burman River, up at the end of Muchalat Inlet in Nootka Sound. The second trip in was to take someone else out and introduce them to the crew, the site, and the programs they do out of the facility, primarily the chum program. This trip didn’t have any river work, strictly sorts and spawning at the hatchery itself, with fish that were collected earlier and held at the hatchery until they were ready to spawn.

At the end of the drive we went for a little drive up to the village of Tahsis; the weather was nice and it was worth taking advantage of since there was to be a change to rain overnight. Between Conuma River Hatchery and the village of Tahsis lies a little puddle of water in the forest and, even though the leaves are still in the early stages of changing colour, it is a picturesque little spot at the side of a dusty gravel road, particularly when the water is dead calm and the reflection almost perfect.

The photo just cried out for application of an Orton Effect to make it look as dreamy as I thought perhaps the forest felt, so I revisited it and had a bit of photoshop fun. The original photo is below.

117 Photos in 2017 – 101. Dreamy