Tree Identification transcript

[Music] hi i'm kelly stanley i work for port blackley and today we're going to learn how to identify different trees in the forest oh our first one is right here it is actually washington state tree and our state tree is called the western hemlock so look at the needles they're real short and they're flat looking blunt ends the bright green is just the new growth right here one thing that's really neat about the western hemlock when you flip it over it looks more white on the bottom but the best way to identify a western hemlock if you look at the top of the tree the top of the tree is called the leader western hemlocks leader always droops over so it's easy to identify them in the forest and they get big too this is just a small one and there's the western hemlock over there as well the next tree we're going to learn is the big leaf maple so here is an amazing big leaf maple so this is diameter wise one of the biggest in the forest here look at the bark of it it's real rough like that it goes in grooves once i had a student say it looked like elephant skin and i think that's a great way to identify the bark and then the leaves the leaves have five lobes it's a deciduous tree and they have pointed edges like that it grows really really wide like douglas fir goes straight up tall but this one goes really really wide and we call that the crown of the tree so this tree has a very big crown we just learned to identify the big leaf maple which is an amazing tree but there are other um wonderful trees in the forest that we are going to learn to identify so follow me and let's go have some fun so the next tree we're going to learn about is this tree right here this is a red alder tree this is a deciduous tree it has leaves and not the needles that we think about red alder is probably one of the most common deciduous trees in western washington the other trees we've learned they've had rough bark but look at this this is real smooth mystery has a lot of moss on it but it's more white or gray in color and then look at these leaves they are oval in shape like this and then look at on the edge of it it has serrated edges where you can think of it sort of looking like a mountain range to it so it's a very common tree in the pacific northwest and here we have a douglas fir tree so douglas fir this is oregon state tree look at the bark there's grooves in the bark and they go down the tree like this it has really really thick bark like this it protects it from forest fires that we have sometimes in the summertime and i'm lucky to have found a branch right here look at the needles they sort of go all the way around the branch and here's the little buds at the end they're starting to break open and there's actually a douglas fir cone growing on this branch right here and that's how you identify the douglas fir tree the most common tree in the pacific northwest now i'm so excited to teach you about my favorite tree in the forest the western bred cedar tree so let's go learn about that so here it is the western red cedar tree and can you look at the color of the bark one of the reasons they're called western red cedar trees because it has that red looking bark and let's see if i can find a branch of this tree over the years i've had people say it looks like a fern or feather tree and if you get really really close it looks like a flattened braid right there so now we learned to identify five native trees of washington and oregon when you're out this summer see how many trees that you can identify when you're hiking or in a local park they're all around us you