The members of the 75th Ranger Regiment -- a U.S. special operations force -- were training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord when they jumped from a plane and got entangled in towering evergreentrees that canvass the sprawling military installation between Tacoma and Olympia.
Plants fight for space: ponga (silver tree fern), cabbage trees, manuka (tea tree), and pohutukawa (a coastal evergreen tree), which cling to the land at the sea's edge.