Week 4

Date: April, 26th-27th 2013
Weather: Cloudy and slight rain at times
Temperature: 42-47 Degrees (Realtime feel=freezing)
Location: Lake Crescent/ Naturebridge/ridge?
Time: Weekend

This journal entry is going to be a little makeshift since my camera was missing during the trip. I took pictures on my phone but since my phone was nearly dying the whole time I took pictures of things that will end up being trivial pertinent to this journal entry. Anyways here is what I got!

Here is something that I was really exited about. I wish I could have stayed longer to just be in the presence of this tree. This I believe was said to be the largest Grand fir (Abies grandis) in the country. It was really amazing to be in front of this tree. 


Competition: Although I did not get a picture of the two trees next to each other, Hemlocks wait for Douglas Firs to die out so they can eventually take over. They are competing tree's in an old growth forest setting. A side not that I learned about hemlocks is that if you see a bunch of them, it means that the forests in which you see them has most likely been left alone for a long time.  I don't know why I highlighted that but for some reason it felt worthy. 

Douglas firs are known to have huge deep bark rivets. Old growth Douglas fir bark is typically thick. They are also resistant to firs, can grow large fat side branches, and are typically killed off by either old age or Fungus. Below is a picture of the thick old growth bark.

Some interesting things I learned regarding the characteristics of an old growth forest and how to tell if it is one are as follows:

BUNS:
1. Big tree's 
2. Understory
3. Nurse logs (a tree with another tree growing on it)
4. Snags (tall standing dead tree's and fallen tree's)

Here is one of my favorite shrubs. There was actually a lot of it on one of the hikes I went on when I had some free time to roam about. It is the Oregon-Dull/Dwarf Grape (Mahonia nervosa) I like this species because it looks like a type of Holly and it is easy to remember. It has serrated leaves (pinnately compound), and a total of 9. The leaves are opposite and are in pairs with the exception of the top leaf. I actually believe they produce a weird yellow flower, I have seen none thus far that has been flowering.

This was by far the best part of the trip. If you look closely at this picture you will find a Grey Jay. While hiking Mount Storm King Trail with Ross and my group we were able to get extremely close to two of them. They actually seemed very comfortable around humans. It may have only seemed that way though because we snuck them a few treats. :x

This was the best photo I took all trip. It shows the outline of the lake in bright blue colors. Below and to the left is actually our camp. You can't see it very well but in this picture I believe there is a Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia) on the bottom. 

Some other things that I saw that I do not have a picture for but I made a notes about were:

-Blue Forget Me Knots (Myosotis)

-Licorice Ferns (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)

-Wild Orchids

-Trilium Flower

-Elderberry (Sambucus)

-Salal (Gaultheria shallon)

-Twin Flower (Linnaea)

-Morchella

-Deer Fern (Blechnum spicant)

-Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus)

This one I did have a picture of!

Disturbances: There was quite a bit of disturbance in some areas of this national park. Mainly, I saw fire and what looked like to be windstorm disturbance. I wasn't able to take any pictures of these but there was a huge open area during my hike (almost like a valley) that was empty due to forest fire disturbance. There was also a huge Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) we saw that was consumed by a fire. It was interesting though because it was still alive. It still had live tissue under the bark that was transporting food down from the needles and water and nutrients were being brought up from the roots. I can add a sketch in later on. Also, I don't know if this would be considered a disturbance, but there was a dead Octopus along the shore. I guess you could consider the tides a disturbance to the wildlife because it puts them in places among the rocks that could end up killing them like this poor guy below..

:(

Facilitation: I also do not have a picture of this and I believe this would count as facilitation but I am not really sure. I remember Tim talking about Micro-Risey Fungi. He said that is connects underneath so that a tree thats trunk was cut short can naturally heal itself. On top of that there was a bunch of Nitrogen fixing trees that were explained by James that help fix the nutrients in the soil. Also, Dragon Skin Lykin (sp) helps with facilitation as well because it falls from the canopies and keeps the soil rich/fixes nitrogen balances.

Predation: I do not remember of the TA's I was with talking much about predation but I do know that there was predation present in this old growth forest and also on the shore that we went a saw. Specifically with the shore, there was gull predation. Gulls typically eat oysters. They try to crack them open and if they cannot achieve this, they then try to drop the oysters on rocks. I am almost positive about this. At least according to what I have learned from my dad I think this is accurate. Also, pointed out by James, was the predation of the sea stars eating barnacles. I did not know they did this, it would seem like they would have trouble digesting it! Below is a picture of the Blood Star (Henricia).

Such a rad looking Sea Star! 

This is a picture (that I am sure most of our class has posted on their blogs) of the waterfall. I love waterfalls but this one is especially beautiful because of the old growth moss growing all around it. 

Overall I learned a lot of things that I did not previously know during this trip. Overall it was a great just being outside and enjoying nature.