By Sandi Doughton
CARSON, Skamania County — Suspended 20 stories in the air, Ken Bible looks down on the crown of a 500-year-old Douglas fir and ponders a mystery.
It’s not the obvious one: How does a man without superpowers hover above the treetops?
That’s easy. The University of Washington forest ecologist rose to his lofty perch in a metal gondola hoisted by a 285-foot-tall construction crane.
The vantage point allows Bible to study the upper reaches of this old-growth forest, where a reproductive orgy is under way.
“We’ve never seen anything like this here,” he says, reaching over the edge of the open-air gondola to grasp a limb laden with cones… Scientists’ thrill ride… [more]
November 27, 2007 | Topic: Latest Forest News
