Walk and Talk Series Ends with Lichens

Earl's trademark foraging hat is adorned with a lichen sample known as "fairy's barf". (Photo by Andrew Gates)

By Andrew Gates

TNews Contributor

In late July, Four Valleys’ “Walk and Talk” series held its final session—a lichen nature walk, headed by Howard Earl. It started at the Winner Creek Trailhead at Alyeska around eight, and there were around 20 people there. 

You could immediately tell Howard was incredibly passionate about the topic, at the very start explaining how lichens were a hybrid of fungi and algae growing in a symbiotic relationship. People started walking, but a few minutes in, he stopped the group to give a lecture on the different types of lichen, giving “Fairy Barf” as an example of crustose lichen, a variety found growing on rocks, flush to the surface. 

The group then stopped on a boardwalk where he took time to explain lichen age. 

“There are lichens that are 50, even 100 years old,” he said, before pointing out a rock with a lichen that had been there since the 1970s, to nearly everyone’s fascination. 

He then explained that some of the oldest living lichens were over five thousand years old. Subsequently, he passed around samples of a common type of lichen so the group could observe how it attached to the bark. 

On the third stop, he took some time to discuss the spread of lichen, explaining how lichen covered 7-8% of the entire surface area of land on Earth.

There were a couple more stops where the group was able to observe some other lichens and how they were almost everywhere as a by-product of almost always being one of the first species to enter an ecosystem (a pioneer species). 

By the time the group made it over to the 5k trailhead, it was clear everyone was captivated. Finally stopping at the end, there was one final thing he showed the group, and it was incredibly impressive. He had compiled dozens of samples of lichen, all labeled and framed in a three-panel display. 

He also had encased different types of lichen in resin to make keychains, and gave one to each person who came along.

The walk wrapped up a “Summer Series” of nature walks sponsored by Four Valleys, free “walk and talks” that, besides Earl’s talk, featured the topics: “The Building of Alyeska: A personal perspective of 39 years”, by Larry Daniels, “Wings Over Girdwood: A summer bird walk & talk”, by Becky Jones, “See the Forest for the... Bugs?: How insects impact our forest ecosystems”, by Jessie Moan, and “The Flora of Forested and Peatland Plant Communities in Girdwood”, by Kate Mohatt.

Girdwood resident Andrew Gates is a sophomore attending the Alaska Native Science And Engineering Program (ANSEP).