As the snow starts to melt you might notice a stark contrast in the landscape. Maybe you were driving down the highway and noticed one shoulder was covered with snow while the other side was bare with a faint tinge of spring green shoots. The cause? Slope and aspect. Slope refers to the steepness of the land and aspect refers to the direction the land is facing. Slope and aspect determine how much sunlight a given piece of land receives. The landscape isn't equally endowed and that's most evident this time of year. The best place to see this contrast is an east-west highway. Imagine you're on Route 4 east. Out the passenger side the embankment faces north. It remains snowy this time of year because it's just not getting sunlight. Trees cast shade while the sun is streaming from the southern horizon. The embankment on the driver's side gets more of that direct sunlight. The snow has melted and some plants are beginning to stir. In the spring, the first places that green up are flat,