Good Morning

[bobpbx]

I wish you all a happy New Year. I think we should have one post that will be dated 1 Jan, 2016.

Even though in 2015 I discovered that I have arthritis in several areas, and in fact even had a herniated disc in my back, I had a good year. They can't all be good I suppose. But at least we have hope for a better year in 2016.

 

[bobpbx]

For all my Brothers of the pines out there. For those who love the quiet beauty of a walk through a mature white cedar swamp, and the invigorating ramble through a pitch pine forest with a huckleberry understory, and a brisk bushwhack through the windy and wild pine plains. Wherever you roam in this big wild world, you'll never forget the pines.

 

[oji]

Happy New Year Bob and........

 

[46er]

Happy New Year, don't limit yourself and remember

 

[Boyd]

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry, I don't have an inspirational video.

 

[Spung-Man]

Sorry, I don't have an inspirational video.

Boyd, I couldn’t think of an inspiration video either. Then it struck me that Harshberger’s monograph, The Vegetation of the New Jersey Pine Barrens: An Ecological Investigation, is now a century old! We often think of McPhee or McCormick as initial champions of the Pines, but check out what Mary Cynthia Dickerson wrote about this place 99-years ago after editing Harshberger’s article:

​

Harshberger, J.W., 1917: The New Jersey Pine Barrens. The American Museum Journal. 17: 245.​

Spot on! Mary was the first woman to head a scientific department at the American Museum of Natural History. She was a herpetologist, who later suffered auditory hallucinations of an arctic explorer (Vilhjalmur Stefansson) who founded the permafrost research group (CRREL) among other colorful exploits. Mary died in an asylum in 1923.

Late-Pleistocene permafrost exposed in the walls and ceiling at the CRREL tunnel, Fox, Alaska.​

S-M