Branch treasures

THIS IS NOT MY MAIN PHOTO TODAY!!! Flickr is messing things up again, showing my photos in the wrong order when (some) people view them!!!!

Happened to come across this photo last night and, as it has been a long time since I posted a fungus photo, thought I would add it this morning.

I was with a group of botany friends when we came across this naturally decorated branch. We were walking at Paskapoo Slopes in the city on 19th August 2009. Fungus, licken and Red Tree Brain fungus - all things I enjoy photographing.

"The Paskapoo Slopes are a significant natural, environmental and cultural feature on the western side of Calgary, Alberta. They have a high visual impact and are a prominent landmark along the Trans Canada Highway, Calgary's western gateway from the Rockies.

The slopes include a set of six forested benches that were carved by Glacial Lake Calgary during the Pleistocene epoch, and they are incised by a series of twelve ravines. They rise up to 155 metres (510 ft) above the highway along the edge of the Paskapoo Escarpment and the Coach Hill Uplands.

The Paskapoo Slopes extend for four kilometres along the south side of the Trans Canada Highway from Sarcee Trail to the Coach Hill/Patterson Heights area of Calgary, and include Canada Olympic Park.

The Paskapoo Slopes Preservation Society was founded by Hugh Magill in 1993 to preserve the park and to protect the environmentally sensitive escarpment as well as significant archeological sites – including the historic buffalo jump.

The City of Calgary's Park Development and Operations has identified large portions of Paskapoo Slopes as environmentally significant and has been extensively studying the area since 1991. The escarpment is characterised by an abundance of natural features including steep ravines and gullies, streams and springs, unique stands of aspen and balsam poplar, dense dogwood, riverine tall shrub communities, and a large glacial erratic (in the south- central portion of the ASP area). The slopes are also known to be habitat for deer, small mammals, and a large variety of migratory and breeding birds. The Paskapoo Slopes are comparable to the Nose Hill natural areas in terms of environmental significance.

Increasing competition for use of the Paskapoo Slopes land highlights the need for protection of the Environmental Reserve (ER). The City of Calgary has undertaken a number of studies out of concerns about encroachments into the Paskapoo Slopes." From Wikipedia.

www.facebook.com/savepaskapooslopes/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paskapoo_Slopes