Vegetation
A mix of conifer tree species account for approximately 84% of the forested area of Mill Creek Wilderness. The northwest corner plateau area, Bingham Prairie, is mostly forested with lodgepole pine, which have recently been attacked by the mountain pine beetle, causing some trees to die. In August and September 2000, the Hash Rock Fire burned 14,236 acres (5,761 ha) of the Mill Creek Wilderness. However, the area is quickly recovering and currently contains examples of an exemplary climax forest of ponderosa pine. Other plants in Mill Creek Wilderness include aster (genus), bull thistle, snowberry, and both native and non-native species of grass.
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Famous quotes containing the word vegetation:
“We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is the color of colors. This plant speaks to our blood.... What a perfect maturity it arrives at! It is the emblem of a successful life concluded by a death not premature, which is an ornament to Nature. What if we were to mature as perfectly, root and branch, glowing in the midst of our decay, like the poke!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter ... decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)