It’s About Time

With summer coming on strong I am drawn to mountain meadows, where wildflower diversity is on glorious display. The flowering plants that dominate the meadows are relatively young in evolutionary history, only half as old as the conifers that dominate our forests. The ancestry of conifers is about 300 million years, giving our forests a Paleozoic character. Liverworts and moss like plants were the earliest land plants, their ancestors dating to over 460 million years ago. Ferns are almost as old although most of the oldest fern families are now extinct. Modern ferns, descendants of the extinct forms, have a fossil record only about 150 million years old.

My favorites are moonworts and grape ferns, inconspicuous rare ferns that grow mostly in open meadows in our area. One species of grape fern even grows on the high elevation pumice ridges of Cascade volcanoes. People who see me in a mountain meadow on my knees as if praying could guess that I’m photographing flowers but it is just as likely that I’m excited by a grape fern emerging.

Grape ferns have a remarkably different growth form compared to their flower companions. Each plant produces a single stem every year, each stem with a fern-like leaf and a branch of spore cases that look like clusters of tiny grapes. Our biggest grape fern has an evergreen leaf that persists through a second summer. In midsummer a new shoot, looking like an embryonic brain, emerges from a womb-like pouch at the stem base.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.

None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!