Ecology class up a mountain

For class yesterday we hiked up a mountain. Our teacher explained all about the natural history of the area- for example, because of how long this area was under a glacier, and how huge the glacier was, the ground is STILL expanding upwards, released from the pressure, by about 1-2 mm a year. We also learned that native peoples have inhabited this area for at least 6000 years. That’s a long time, especially for the cyclical, intergenerational accumulation of ecological and cultural knowledge- which, due to the extremely rapid colonization of the Eastern United States, is not documented- compared to California, where a much larger indigenous population still survives in many ways.