Knowing Nature with Denny

REI volunteers help out Discovery Park

Discovery Park is one of the treasures of Seattle. Overlooking Puget Sound, this retired army fort is being converted to a sanctuary for wildlife and a place for Seattleites to get to know nature through personal experience.

 
Upkeep and maintenance does not happen by itself. Fortunately, the park staff has a robust volunteer program. Recently REI teamed up with the park to clear seven acres which had become overrun with invasive ivy.

 
REI has its own volunteer program. On a sunny February Saturday they showed up in mass ready to battle the vines. It was quite an impressive sight as this army deployed and got down to work. Anyone who has encountered ivy in their yard or garden knows that the vine's tenacious roots must be thoroughly plucked out of the ground or the ivy will just grow back.

 

  
 
 
I have spent many years visiting Discovery Park but have never been to this ivy infested area. It is hidden off the main trails in a corner of the park that few people visit. So why do we care if ivy grows there?

 
It turns out that this section of woods is prime habitat for mountain beavers and piliated woodpeckers. Ivy ruins the habitat for these animals, so eradicating this non-native plant benefits the ecosystem of the park.

Mountain Beavers are considered to be the world's most primitive living rodent species. They are not really beavers, but are so named because they gnaw bark and cut off limbs in a manner similar to true beavers. They live in moist forests, on ferny slopes, and are occasionally found in damp ravines in urban areas.

 

 

Pileated Woodpeckers are the largest woodpeckers in North America (with the exception of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which probably no longer lives within the borders of the United States). They are crow-sized and black, with bright red pointed crests, the red more extensive on the crests of males.

Any forest type (broadleaved, coniferous, or mixed) can sustain Pileated Woodpeckers as long as there are trees large enough for roosting and nesting. Pileated Woodpeckers are often associated with mature and old-growth forests but can breed in younger forests if they contain some large trees. In western Washington, they typically roost in western hemlock and western red cedar.

Be amazed, Denny

Bears, Salmon, Forest and Insects

Do these seemingly unrelated members of the ecosystem depend on each other for survival? What could they possibly have in common?

Somewhere in the Northwest a stream flows through a forest of old growth timber. The age of these trees is measured in hundreds of years and their height is measured in hundreds of feet. This stream is filled with high quality water. Rainwater that has been filtered by the billions of roots of the old growth trees as it trickles into the stream. Take these trees away and the stream would be a muddy mess from an unchecked runoff of water.

It is late summer and the salmon are struggling to swim up the stream to spawn and then die. A generation of salmon carcasses litters the stream. The next generation of salmon eggs lay on the streambed. Both the returning salmon and next spring’s hatchlings could not survive unless they have high quality water that is rich in nutrients and oxygen.

Somewhere in the old growth forest roam the bears. It is the time of year that bears hyper-feed, spending all day eating. They must pack on the pounds before retiring to their den to hibernate. Each bear will lose 30% to 40% of their body weight during the winter. Some must gain 100 to 200 pounds. The bears drag the salmon carcasses into the woods and feast. Research has found that each bear can eat more than 15 salmon per day, yet not impact the salmon run.

 

Plants, as you know, need nitrogen to grow and produce their green leaves. The Northwest soil is nitrogen deficient due to the constant rains that wash the nitrogen back into the stream. It is from the bear scat, loaded with the nitrogen from the salmon that they eat, which is spread around the forest to fertilize these old growth giants. Without this nitrogen, these trees would not thrive to filter the water to sustain the fish to feed the bears to fertilize the trees.

Spring arrives and the spawning salmon have long been eaten or have decomposed. But their nutrients remain. They are suspended in the water of the stream and feed a host of aquatic insects that provide food for the young salmon who are beginning their journey down the stream to the sea.

Take one element of this cycle away and the whole thing collapses. Shoot the bears or catch the fish or log the trees or pollute the stream or allow pesticide runoff to kill the insects and you have a recipe for disaster.

Many have said that all things in nature are interconnected. Are you interconnected with nature? Go to a garden, local park or the wilderness and find a quite place. Maybe it’s just your backyard. Sit quietly for 15 minutes. Focus on nothing, yet become aware of everything. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually you will get outside your mind and feel this inter-connectivity of nature. Then you will know through direct experience that it is so.

Be amazed, Denny

What’s in your ‘Neck of the Woods’?

Have you ever walked in the woods and asked yourself, where is all the wildlife? Do you think that it is only a landscape of plants and a few birds? Well, think again! Perhaps you may not be aware of the wildlife, but the wildlife is aware of you.

Pat has a cabin in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. He set up remote cameras to see if wildlife was around when he was not. The edited results were a big surprise. Can you identify all the animals in Pat’s video?

Why don’t you see wildlife when you are in the wild? To a bear, it is you who stinks. You are covered with soap, deodorant, perfume and hair gook. If you are upwind, every animal downwind has you on their snout radar and is giving you a wide berth. Most animals have a much better sense of smell than humans.

Are you being quiet? Animals have a keen sense of hearing. You are traipsing around in your clodhoppers, rustling branches and stepping on sticks. You are yapping with your friend and yelling at the dog to “get back here and leave it alone”. That cougar heard you a long time ago and has vacated the area.

What about your movement? Do you walk slowly, with awareness and scan ahead before you move? Are you picking your route to keep your silhouette hidden by the terrain features ahead of you? Deer may be color blind but they pick up on the tiniest motion. They flee pronto, before you are aware of them.

Remote cameras provide an opportunity to spy on wildlife. Until recently most were very expensive, only utilized by research professionals and government agencies. Now many models have become available for under $100. They can take photos or videos and operate at night with infrared technology. Cabela’s has a full line of remote cameras.

The eastern Washington house is located in a biodiverse area and is home to the ‘Lookout Pack’, the first breeding wolf pack in Washington since the 1960s. The area also has a population of wolverines, an elusive and rarely seen predator. Conservation Northwest (CNW) has cooperated with the state wildlife agency, WDFW, to place a network of remote cameras, capturing photos of these elusive animals.

 
  

'Lookout Pack 2008 litter, the elusive Wolverine, photo credits CNW'

I wanted to know my neck of the woods so I went to Wal-Mart and got my own remote camera, $99 plus change. Placed out back where I normally walk the dogs and seldom see any wildlife, the results were amazing.

 

  
 

  'my remote camera photos, yes that is my dog caught night pooping'

You do not have to live next to the wilderness to use a remote camera. The secret lives of animals around your neighborhood and in your back yard might surprise you. If you go on a camping trip you might not believe who visits camp when you are asleep and when you are away. Get your own remote camera and ...

Be amazed, Denny