Landscape models: helping land managers think big

In a sun-baked, grassy clearing on the east side of the Cascade Range in central Washington, Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station landscape ecologist Miles Hemstrom and a group of ecologists and land managers from the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) gather in the shade of a ponderosa pine. Hundreds of years old, this ancient pine has withstood temperature extremes and droughts. It’s now the lone tree in the clearing.