{"id":1320288,"date":"2020-05-31T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/serviceberry-surprise\/"},"modified":"2020-05-31T23:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T05:40:00","slug":"wertheim-column-serviceberry-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/wertheim-column-serviceberry-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Wertheim column: Serviceberry surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052910-1-768x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052910-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052910-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052910-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052910-1-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052910-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Serviceberry blooms along Next Jen Trail.<\/strong><br \/><em>Charlie Wertheim<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Driving up Prince Creek Road last Sunday didn\u2019t prepare me for what I would experience on Next Jen Trail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But the trailhead gave an indication of what was to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The serviceberry trees were in full regalia, making a trail ride seem like a stroll through a Japanese cherry blossom festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Maybe it\u2019s just a matter of timing. Maybe I haven\u2019t been in the right place at the right time before.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cProbably some time around 2014 or 2015 it looked like a fresh blanket of snow on most of the hills in the valley,\u201d said Matt Yamashita, Colorado Parks and Wildlife area wildlife manager, about an even more impressive serviceberry display.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">No matter what recipe Mother Nature was following, I kept stopping to marvel at the sheer number of simple, white blooms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It seemed that nearly every tree was in flower, making what for me was a somewhat surreal experience: I was in a familiar place yet it looked so different.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Actually, it was more than that: It felt different.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A return trip Wednesday showed that the blossoms were starting to wither and drop, the bittersweet taste of short-lived spring beauty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But a 4.5-mile loop up Next Jen, down Skullbucket and back up Creekside was still worth it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Next Jen still sported serviceberry blooms all the way to where it opens up onto a south-facing slope overlooking Mount Sopris. On this slope the bitterbrush flowers put on a pretty good show of their own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On my way back down, Skullbucket had a stretch about halfway through, at about 8,000 feet, where it was like going through a tunnel of white.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">All of this beauty has not gone unnoticed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201c[Serviceberry] being one of the primary food sources for bears, we\u2019re trying to keep tabs on it,\u201d Yamashita said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But a good flower year doesn\u2019t predict a good food crop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cNow we\u2019re going through some dry periods where we\u2019re not seeing a whole lot of annual precipitation, so we\u2019re kind of waiting with bated breath. For those plants to start producing fruit they\u2019re going to need some nutrients, and that\u2019s going to have to come in the form of moisture. And if that does not happen even if these blossoms survive they may not produce as much fruit as we\u2019re hoping,\u201d Yamashita said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Prince Creek did get a little moisture Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately for the flowers, it was in the form of a hail storm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Mother Nature can have a cruel sense of humor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Charlie Wertheim is a copy editor and reporter at the Post Independent. He can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:cwertheim@postindependent.com\">cwertheim@postindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/opinion\/columns\/serviceberry-surprise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serviceberry blooms along Next Jen Trail.Charlie Wertheim Driving up Prince Creek Road last Sunday didn\u2019t prepare me for what I would experience on Next Jen Trail. But the trailhead gave an indication of what was to come. The serviceberry trees were in full regalia, making a trail ride seem like a stroll through a Japanese [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1320288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-29 02:46:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}