These are images of Gates Canyon on April 16, 2021, photographed by Rob Fernau.

High Sierra. Subalpine and alpine vegetation; tree-line of Mountain Hemlock, Lodgepole Pine, Western Whitebark, and White Pine; persistent snow fields, boggy seeps, and wet meadows.

High Sierra. Montane communities with local subalpine elements; granite balds with herbs and low shrubs; mature Red Fir forest; large wet and dry meadow complex with a few boggy spots, fringing Willows and Mountain Alders.

Inner Coast Range foothill canyon. Vegetation includes: Interior Live Oak woodland, Blue Oak woodland, Chaparral, Gray Pine, and riparian forest of Cottonwood, Bigleaf Maple, and Alder.

West-slope Sierra Nevada. Mosaic of xerophytic vegetation (Goldencup Oak and Manzanita) and moist slopes with mixed mesic forest (including Douglas Fir, Ponderosa, and Sugar Pines); site also includes a large wet meadow with boggy areas.

Central Valley Floor. Valley Oak woodland; riparian Cottonwood and Willow; annual grassland.

Eastern edge of Central Valley. Interior Live Oak-Gray Pine woodland, Valley Oak-dominated riparian forest, and annual grassland.

East side of Sierra: Wet and dry meadows with Juniper-shrub steppe and irrigated alfalfa fields.

Tidally-influenced complex of brackish and freshwater marsh. Plants include: halophytes, sedges, rushes, cattails, reeds, and herbaceous perennial composites.

Sierra Foothills. Deep canyon with mixed serpentine and metasedimentary geology. Canyon Live Oak woodland with mesic mixed lower-montane forest including Douglas Fir, Incense Cedar, and Ponderosa Pine.

Central Valley Floor. Dense riparian Cottonwood and Willow forest with Valley Oak and Ash.

Willow Slough is the name for the sampling route of my Fourth of July Butterfly Count (program ru