The many ecotones of the Columbia Gorge

Before heading over to spend six twelve-hour days in the Oregon Convention Center, I had the good fortune to go on a backpacking trip along the Eagle Creek, Pacific Crest, and Ruckel Creek trails in the Mount Hood Wilderness Area. Although I am far from being an expert in the nuances of biomes (and certainly have no experience with the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest), one thing that amazed me was how radically the ecotones of the Columbia Gorge shift. In a thirty-mile, three-day hike we must have passed through dozens of different forest and meadow environments, most likely shaped by a combination of topography and disturbance history. If anyone wants to post some comments explaining the diversity I have shown in the gallery below, I would be excited to be educated.