By: Wyatt Skopov-Normane, University of Vermont
One of the biggest reasons I wanted to go to Atlin was because of my love for boreal forests. The vast stands of conifers, the towering mountains, and the charismatic yet stealthy wildlife. I didn’t expect to see many animals due to their generally reclusive nature, but we were lucky to have many incredible encounters with moose, brown and black bears, mountain goats, stone sheep, and many unique birds. However, it came as a surprise to me when I realized how much I was enjoying identifying and analyzing plant life in the area. Despite the harsh nature of the environments we traversed – high winds, low moisture, frozen soils, among others – I was captivated by the diverse spread of plants and flowers. There were many plants that I learned to identify, but a few stand out as my favorite encounters.
June 29th: We started our first real hike up the El Dorado trail to Sentinel’s Bowl near an old mining site. A river runs through the mining site, which provides the local ecosystem with an increased amount of water. This leads to a lush environment, relative to its surroundings, that supports a large amount of vascular understory plants. One of my favorite understory plants in such an environment is dwarf dogwood (Cornus canadensis), which is also known as bunchberry. When mature, they pepper the undergrowth with bright green leaves and small white flowers. From my observations, they can only survive in areas with similarly high levels of moisture, so they are a good indicator if the area is either near a water source, or if it receives a lot of rain.
July 7th: We had been camped out next to Llewellyn Glacier for 5 days. It’s a harsh area for plants and animals – cold, fast winds blow off of the glacier, and the soil is very sandy in many places. However, one plant can be found nearly anywhere on a rock: the three-toothed saxifrage (Saxifraga tricuspidata). While there’s intense competition for space on the soil, the three-toothed saxifrage avoids it by growing only on rocks. Named for its distinctly three-toothed leaf, they form clumps that can grow in boreal forests and alpine environments. This plant is notable for creating a challenging plant ID situation for me. A similar plant, the spotted saxifrage, looks identical in every aspect except for its leaves, which end in only one point; however, because the spotted saxifrage is pretty rare, I doubted whether or not I had IDed it right in the first place. This led me to research the differences in the many species of saxifrage up here, which helped me to improve my plant ID skills. Anyways, it’s a beautiful plant that can be encountered even in the most unlikely habitats.
July 10th: After a long drive on an old mining road, we finally reached Spruce Mountain, which we would be ascending in order to survey for ungulates. As we climbed higher and higher above the treeline, the ground cover morphed and changed to adapt to the harsh climate. Generally, there’s less vascular plants and more lichens as you enter an alpine habitat; however, there are a few plants that manage to survive. One such plant is the net-leaved willow (Salix reticulata). It’s easily recognizable due to the plant’s namesake net of veins. The plant forms long, creeping vines that grow within alpine habitats, and the lustrous sheen of the leaves that catch the harsh sunlight at high elevations is beautiful to see.
Net-leaved willow growing on Spruce Mountain. Photo credits: Wyatt Skopov-Normane
July 18th: Our group split into two: one party would go to do an ungulate survey, and the other would go hike up a mountain to collect some temperature loggers. I was in the latter group. This proved to be the hardest hike of the program. Despite it being only about three kilometers long, the elevation gain of roughly 700 meters made for a constant uphill battle. About 90% of the hike was spent bushwacking through dense undergrowth and around tightly-packed stands of lodgepole pine, quaking aspen, and various willows. However, the steep slope also provided habitat for a beautiful plant: western columbine (Aquilegia formosa). In our travels, they’ve only appeared near sources of water, making them a rare encounter. Here, however, there wasn’t an obvious stream in the area, so they must’ve been getting enough water from the mountain’s runoff. With a distinct “upside-down” flower and striking colors, they were one of my favorite plants to see.
July 22nd: We woke up to the rushing of Consolation Creek on both sides of our campsite. Having camped in a subalpine ecosystem, the trees were few and far between, and a shrub called scrub birch (Betula glandulosa) dominated the area. Our goal for the day was to hike up to a nearby mountain (what a surprise) and survey for both ungulates and their habitat. After walking along an ATV trail for two or so kilometers, we began to bushwack through the scrub birch in order to reach our destination. Going off the beaten path took us across various streams that branched off of Consolation Creek, but it also brought us to areas where the streams had dried up. These flat plains of dried grass and mud were home to the northern shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia), an incredible flower which I had not seen anywhere else. Despite being so rare that we hadn’t seen it on any other hike, it was everywhere along the dried streambeds. The upside-down “shooting star” shape for which it was named was a joy to see.
