Pack Forest

Lat: 46.8402028, Lon: -122.294231
Day, 2012
3/31/2012

This afternoon we explored Pack Forest. The weather was quite overcast and slightly rainy and misty at times but still comfortable (maybe around 50 degrees F). Upon walking into the forest (around 11:30-12:00), we entered a predominantly coniferous area. The trees were all fairly tall with leaves and branches mainly on the upper halves of the trees. They may have been Redwoods but I'm not sure. Going deeper into the forest, we walked into a much more boggy and deciduous area. There was significantly more lichen species and moss around most of the deciduous trees. There were also more downed trees and understory which made it feel a lot like an old growth forest. We walked through a lot of mud when not on the wooden bridge walkway, and there were many puddles as it had been a fairly rainy week. One of the interesting species we encountered was Indian Plum (or osoberry). Josh explained that Indian Plum is a summer fruit and people use it to make jam. Then we started talking about why fruits like Indian Plum come out in the summer and contain so much sugar; it is in order to attract animals and get them to eat the fruits fast. This helps the animals fatten up before winter but also makes sure the berries get eaten rather than attracting bacteria (which are really attracted to sugar).

On our second trip into pack forest (1:00-2:30pm) we went straight into a predominantly deciduous area. Previously, Josh explained that the phenology of Pack Forest is a little behind that of Seattle because of the higher elevation. When we were out with Kat, we looked at a lot of smaller ground plants such as mushrooms, fringe cup, coltsfoot, stinky Bob, plantago, etc. We also looked at a lot of lichen such as Usnea wirthii, Leucolepis acanthoneura, gold crust lichen, etc. Lichen was especially interesting to me. Kat explained that lichen are a fungal cell that prefer deciduous species. That explains why there was so much of it in the more deciduous areas of Pack Forest. Also, on this particular outing, we saw a Long-tailed Vole! Originally we classified it as a Red Tree vole (which made sense because it was right be a Western Red Cedar). But, upon looking at the books, Kat determined that it must be a Long-tailed Vole because of the geographical constraints. The vole was particularly exciting to see because it didn't seem to mind that we were all so close trying to get good pictures of it. It only ran away after sniffing someone's leg.

Species List:
Winter Wren
Lichen
Salal
Huckleberries
Fringe Cup
Sword Fern
Red Flowering Currant
Western White Pine
Plantago
Cardamom
Douglas fir
Western Red Cedar
Big Leaf Maple
Sweet Coltsfoot
Long Tale Vole
Gold Crust Lichen
Oregon grape
Herb Robert
Ant hill
Aquatic Horsetail
Stair step moss
Morale

Posted on April 19, 2012 05:39 PM by lisad22