Saturday June 4th, 2016
1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Temperature in the high 80s
Sunny

Because it was my last day observing Ravenna Park for this class I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and try to find as many new species and note as many phenological changes as I could. When I got to my sit spot I looked over to my right to see that the giant horsetails were flourishing. I found this phenological change special because the horsetails were the first species I had a hard time identifying. I remember walking around my house asking my roommates if any of them knew what it was and all of them replying "I don't know, maybe a cattail?" It seems silly now because whenever I see the long green stalk with hairs poking out of the sides, I immediately know that it's a horsetail. I was delighted to see how the horsetails in my original sit spot have grown from barely 12 inches to almost 3 feet.

Original horsetail observation

Latest observation of Horsetails

One of the most obvious phenological changes was the Salmonberries. At the beginning of the quarter, during my first weekly observations, I noticed a patch of Salmonberry next to the stream at my sit spot. I didn't know what they were until I got home and looked in my "Plants of the PNW Coast" nature guide. I remember not really thinking all that in depth when I first spotted the pink flowered shrub. I remember thinking "Oh there's a pretty pink flower. I'll try to identify that for my blog." Now when I identify the shrub I know there are three alternate leaflets, that are dark green and sharply toothed. I know the pink flower will eventually fruit into a orange-yellowish berry that birds and other animals in the area love to eat.

Week one Salmonberry 

Last observation

Reflection
At the beginning of the quarter I remember really disliking the walk to Ravenna, having to spend multiple hours a week there, and having to pick a "sit spot" to observe the species surrounding me. I can now thankfully say, that has drastically changed. At the beginning of the quarter I didn't really put much thought into my sit spot, I mostly just walked to Ravenna, started on the trails, got bored and decided that the place that I was standing would be my sit spot. I ended up being incredibly lucky because I had unknowingly picked a spot with incredible biodiversity within just 4 meters from where I was standing. What I thought was just one large shrub was actually Salmonberry, Thimbleberry and Huckleberry all competing for the same stretch of land. I saw that there was easy access to the stream, not knowing that I would have the chance to get in there and find leeches. I saw that there was a log crossing over the stream and I thought to myself "oh that will be helpful for crossing over the stream to look at those smelly plants on the other side" (Skunk Cabbage). I later found out that the log was actually a nurse log, retaining water during the colder months and providing moisture to the surrounding plants during the summer months. When I first looked at my site I remember thinking that it was really green and there wasn't much variation in color. Now when I walk through my original sit spot I can very easily spot the different colors poking out of the greenery. Whether it's the orange salmonberries or the white flower on the thimbleberry that just bloomed, there's always color to be found.

Since joining this class I have learned numerous things about plant species, wildlife, species interactions, but most importantly to me I have learned about the history of our region. I was most intrigued during the beginning weeks when we learned about what the Puget Sound region looked like pre-industrialization. It was really quite heartbreaking to learn how we cut off and diverted rivers and bodies of water, destroying the native lifestyle in the region. I was reminded of this every time I would go to my observation spot and see the Ravenna stream that used to be a strong river. I found it inspiring that the Seattle area has realized what mistakes we've made and how they're taking active steps to restore some of the land. For example, we learned quite a bit about Union Bay Natural Area and the steps the university and surrounding community are taking to try to reverse some of the effects industrialization and ignorance of natural systems has had on that habitat. One of the more beautiful aspects of the curriculum, at least for me, was learning about the Puget Trough glacial melt and how it shaped where we live today. I spent way more time than I should have searching for the erratic that was left behind in the glacial melt. As you can probably tell from the multiple weeks it took me to find a massive boulder, I wasn't born with the most acute observational skills. After finding the boulder I felt a much greater connection to the natural history of where I have lived my whole life. I stood in awe starring at something that has withstood industrialization, the river turning into a stream, and much more than I could ever comprehend.

I think that the greatest thing I've been able to take away from the class is the intimate bond I have formed with my sites in Ravenna Park. For me at least, to intimately know a natural area you have to know more than just the history of the area you're learning about. From this class and other classes I've taken at UW I know the history of Ravenna when talking about the family that privately owned it to help protect the trees. I know that once the land was sold to the city those trees were cut down. As I said before, I know that it was once a thriving river and after the effects of mankind it has been turned into a stream. But all of that knowledge only allows me to have a surface level understanding of Ravenna Park. To intimately know that natural area, I was required to spend hours on end observing it, feeling it, and experiencing it. Because I spent those hours there I know which territories belong to the song birds and where you can find the crows bathing in the stream. Because I endured cold weather and getting my feet wet when I would have normally preferred to have been at home in a blanket, I know which parts of the stream are strongest, which are weakest, and which stream invertebrates you'll find accordingly. Having an intimate relationship with a natural area means knowing more than what history books and websites can teach you, having an intimate relationship with the natural area means that for a certain period of time you got to experience it's natural history and be a part of it. I think I gained much more from going to my sit spot in the middle of a city weekly than I did going on field trips over the span of a day or a weekend. I did get to experience aspects that I wasn't able to in the city. For example, seeing the prickly pear cactus growing on the side of a beach on the Olympic Peninsula. I do think that if I spent as much time there as I did in Ravenna I could learn more just due to the fact that those areas have been much less affected by industrialization and mankind. I would love to have the opportunity to observe old growth forests in the olympic rain shadow and see how the trees have grown over time. But overall in this class I feel like I've learned much more from sitting in Ravenna than walking around the forest across the peninsula.

I've always appreciated nature but I feel as if this class has equipped me with a skill set to better understand and admire it. At the beginning of this class I could genuinely not tell the difference between a Douglas Fir, a Grand Fir, and a Western Red Cedar. Now that we're in the final days of the course not only can I tell you the difference between the three, but I can also tell you what each can be used for in daily life. A very large personal growth that I have experienced because of this class is the observational skills you use while identifying birds. At the beginning of this class I strongly disliked birds, at the end of this class I'm still terrified of them, but now I can at least identify them. I am not kidding when I say that I could only name about 5 birds before this class. Now I can tell you all about how Song Birds have territories, how they are supposed to be monogamous, and how if a male loses his territory to another song bird, he will likely lose his mate too. Although I'm still scared of birds, I now have a greater appreciation for their systems and how they live. I find them a little less terrifying and a little more intriguing every time I learn something new about them. I think the observation skills I've learned in this class have opened up new pathways for me to appreciate and learn from nature.

My perception of nature has changed quite a bit in this class, but mainly just my understanding of it. This class hasn't really painted nature in a new light for me because I've always loved nature. I've had the privilege of growing up less than a mile away from a state park my whole life so I've always loved and appreciated plants and their delicate ecosystems. This class has changed my perception of nature by deepening my appreciation of it more than I could have ever imagined. When I signed up for the class I thought "natural history" meant I would be sitting in Condon learning from a powerpoint about the Puget Sound, which I did, but most of our learning was outside of the classroom. I now know that natural history can be seen with the trained eye in everyday life. I've always known where humans stand in nature and where they should. This class further reinforced that so far humanity's role in nature has mostly proven destructive, as we very quickly learned with the destruction of the ecosystems and rivers in the Puget Sound area. I also know that since we have done such an expedited job in destroying nature, it is our job to restore and educate others on how to protect what we have left. This class has provided me with the tools to see past what just seems like a forest full of conifers and to see the life beneath the canopy of the trees, and most importantly how to use those identification skills to protect it.

My last walkthrough where I showed my friend some of what I have learned