Editor's Note

Earlier in this issue of WOM I mentioned that we would start a series of articles about finding and collecting cottonwood bark, written by Alex Bisso. As it turns out, doing a proper job of editing all the material and photos that Alex provided is taking more time then expected, so the official kickoff of the series will be in the March/April issue of WOM. As a taste of what is to come, however, here is a small preview:

Excerpt from Finding and Collecting Cottonwood Bark

By Alex Bisso

Very large trees

While not all very large trees have thick, wide bark and while some trees that are not very large in diameter do have thick bark, generally very large trees are the ones most likely to have bark that is thick enough for carving.  Whenever I am scanning a wooded area for bark possibilities, I am looking for some really large trees – those that really stand out from the rest – monarchs of the area that announce that they have been there 100 years or more.  Areas with these really giant trees are the best areas to look if you want to find some really thick bark.  Even if I do not see any “bones” or dead trees from a distance, if an area has a number of cottonwoods that stand out as larger that most, it is definitely an area that I want to investigate.  The worst that can happen is that I could get to walk amongst some really majestic old trees and not find any dead or fallen ones and that is not too bad at all. 

Alex Bisso with a Cottonwood Monarch