Dr. Polly Schiffman’s Conservation Biology class traveled to far eastern central California last weekend. They camped for two chilly nights, visited the gnarly bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva — the Earth’s oldest living trees) at more than 3200 meters elevation in the White Mountains, and made stops at the Owens River, the Los Angeles aqueduct, an enormous ecosystem engineering project at Owens Lake, and the distinctive desert landscape of the Alabama Hills.
