Our project to document the biodiversity in the LBA Woods is humming along, but it seems the right time to starting singing! The miles of trails in this 133-acre City of Olympia, Washington, park have been very popular during the various phases of the Stay Home-Stay Healthy orders during the COIVD-19 pandemic. We are lucky that our parks are open and that the LBA Woods is there to help restore and maintain our community's mental, physical, and emotional well-being. What would we do without all the trees, plants, and birds to enjoy day after day, season after season.

If you've been a regular visitor to the LBA Woods--joining our iNaturalist project is a great way to add purpose to your walks, sharpen your observation skills, "edu-tain" your kids, and help the Friends of LBA Woods Stewardship Group document the biodiversity in this mature upland forest.

You'll notice on this page that we've recorded over 100 different species so far (mostly trees and flowering plants) but there are many many more out there. We'd love your help with the lesser-known mosses, lichen, fungi, birds, and insects. The more we understand the lifeforms in this forest, the better we can protect it through restoration and stewardship activities.

Winter is a great time to enjoy the relatively simpler, quieter forest. It won't be long before the Osoberry begins to leaf out, the migrating songbirds appear, and the LBA Woods becomes the beautiful riot of life.

Join our Guided Nature Walk and LBA Woods iNaturalist Project on Sunday May 20 9-11:30

If you've never explored the network of trails in Olympia's LBA Woods, now's your chance to do so with two very talented scientists.

Ted Thomas, botanist/biologist/ecologist (USFWS, freshly retired) will be your guide. Ted is an extremely knowledgeable raconteur who has been walking in the LBA Woods for decades and knows the stories of the plants and the plant community well.

He'll be joined by Jawad Frangieh, who is savvy with iNaturalist app we'll be using to collect data on the plants we'll observe on the walk. Jawad is currently serving in AmeriCorps with the USFWS as a Conservation Educator and Scientist and uses iNaturalist for fun and for organizing citizen scientist projects like the LBA Woods Project.

If you would like to be part of the LBA Woods project, go to inaturalist.org to create an account, download the free app to your phone.

This walk will be on trails in the eastern side of the park--new for those of you who joined any of our last three guided walks. Meet in the east (main) parking lot of LBA Park on Morse-Merryman Rd. SE Olympia at 9 a.m. for this fascinating morning appreciating, understanding, and documenting the wonders of the woods.

Everyone is welcome and the event is rain or shine.

Join us on Sunday May 20th (9-11:30) for a guided data-collection walk with biologist Ted Thomas (USFWS, retired) and Maria Ruth (Friends of LBA Woods) as part of our LBA Woods citizen science project to document the biodiversity of the woods using the iNaturalist app. Our focus will be general--on plants and trees--and this walk is aimed at first-time or new-users of the iNaturalist app.

But...this is a perfect event for app-savvy naturalists who have not explored the trails of the 100+-acre woods behind the City's LBA Park (which is mostly ballfields and playground). We are just starting our data collection on this property and would love your participation.

We'll be meeting in the main (east) parking lot of LBA Park, which is at 3300 Morse-Merryman Rd. SE Olympia, WA. We'll be walking into the woods from there.

All walks are free, open to all, rain or shine.

Join us to learn about and use the iNaturalist app tomorrow, Tuesday, March 27, from 1-3 p.m. during a guided nature walk with wildlife biologist Marian Bailey (USFWS, ret).

Marian will be talking about the Upland Forest Ecosystem and will be focussing on 20 key native trees and understory plants that thrive together in the LBA Woods. We will take time during each stop to take photos and record our observations of species Marian covers (and some others along the way).

The walk is open to all and will be held, rain or shine. Dress for the weather--and warmly as we will be walking at the "naturalists' shuffle" pace over easy terrain.

We will be meeting near at the tennis courts at LBA Park, 3300 Morse-Merryman Rd. SE, Olympia. Use the Amhurst St. entrance. If you're late...we won't be far. Find your way to the skinny gate in the chain link fence in the southwest corner of the park.

We have two more walks scheduled in the LBA Woods--Tuesday April 17th at 10 a.m. and Sunday April 22 at 11 a.m. Both are guided nature walks with ample opportunities to use iNaturalist. More details soon!

The Friends of LBA Woods will be introducing an iNaturalists project on Saturday, March 17, during the Arbor Day events. We'll have fliers on hand with information on how to set up an iNaturalist account on your iPhone or Android and how to join the LBA Woods project. We may try a bit of practice data collection on the 9 a.m. bird walk or during the day on the self-guided nature trail. We'll announce upcoming iNaturalist walks here and on our Facebook page (SaveLBAWoods).

Join us!