bstclair579

Sep 27, 20233 min read

Sometimes I Regret That I Retired

Updated: Jan 25

I know. Sounds strange. But only because I had a great career filled with a love of nature and wonderful people, and interesting work. The last three days reminded me of that.

On Sunday (September 24th), I went out in the mountains with a wonderful couple, Sergio Braham Sabag, and his wife, Leticia Marure Herrera. Sergio is a forester and instructor at the Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro in Saltillo, Coahuila. He and I have much in common - for one, a love to be out in nature away from people (as well as a love of music - he has a record collection of more than 2,000 albums). We drove into the Sierra Madre Oriental east of Saltilla to his cabin on a small plot of land far away from the nearest town, the ejido, La Mesa a las Tablas. He loves to go out to his cabin and spend days alone. He also brings students up here to teach them about seed collection and handling and reforestation. The plant diversity is amazing (see list of conifers at end of this blog post). Unfortunately, we also saw some older dead stands of trees (climate change?). We also found a large Douglas-fir (to make me feel more at home). The quaking aspen changing colors was beautiful.

On the way we passed through the Pueblo Magico San Antonio de las Alazanas, filled with people from the nearby cities enjoying their Sunday. The area is famous for their apples. The road to the cabin was long, steep and rocky, but definitely worth the ride. A long day, but thoroughly enjoyable with a very nice couple.

The second day was another day with such great forestry people, this time with Eladio Cornejo Oviedo and Celestino Flores Lopez. Eladio is a proud graduate of Oregon State University where we have crossed paths over the years while at OSU and at meetings. He is a professor of silviculture at Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro. Celestino - I have heard of him many times. He is also a professor at UAAAN, and a colleague and close friend of my good friend and mentor, Tom Ledig. Tom spoke of him often as he was critical in helping him in his collections and knowledge of the forests of northern Mexico.

Eladio, Celestino and I headed up to the top of Cerro El Potosi, a hulk of a mountain and the tallest peak in northern Mexico at 3,720 m (12,200 ft). It was a long, slow drive to the top on a bumpy but amazing road of round cobblestones. As we drove up through the clouds, as Celestino said: "We are driving to heaven." It was a fascinating transect of the forests of the Sierra Madre Oriental, including a rare endemic pinyon pine, Pinus culminicola, found on only a few peaks and unique for having five needles (most pinyons have one to four) and dioecious. At the top is a microwave relay station for flights in eastern Mexico and several communication towers. It felt like we were flying. Such a great day.

The third day in Saltillo, Eladio and I stopped by the university where I met some faculty and students. Then we headed out to look at some provenance and progeny tests of Pinus greggii (which has been planted in many other countries, especially in South Africa) and Pinus cebroides. Afterwards we headed to downtown Saltillo to see some sites and meet Eladio's wife, Teri, for dinner at an excellent steak restaurant. Another great day. Tomorrow I will head south to Querétaro and maybe take a day to recover from the past three very full days.