Snow and Bunchgrass in the Okanagan, or This Ain’t Mexico

Okanagan Okanogan

Look how the wind that takes the Okanagan’s water away in the summer creates drifts around the bunchgrass in the shape of its mounds, effectively concentrating the snow where the plants can gather it most efficiently.

This is not a chance event. The grass evolved to harvest these effects. Snow is no stranger to this country, nor is water. It is only a stranger to people who spend the wet season in Mexico. Here, the water and the grass are wind.

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~ by Sable Aradia on January 7, 2015.