While the rest of the class was on a field trip to the coast, I was at home and sick. Instead of studying the beaches of the Olympic Peninsula, I conducted a field study of the Evergreen campus. I studied a small area of the 1,000 acres of forest, as well as the beach and creek. While it was disappointing to miss the field trip, I enjoyed getting to study the school’s forest. Spending time investigating an area that I already spend my time in was a great experience. The full posts of my experience can be found here.
I began by observing the creek off of Driftwood Road. I was interested in it because of the combination of the man-made structure that guided the campus runoff water into the beautiful, natural riparian area deeper into the forest.The longer I observed the creek, the more I began to notice. I was startled by a crawdad near my toes while I was wading in the creek, and I was surprised to see a fish swimming in the water as well.
While observing the Evergreen beach, it began to rain on me. This is an area that is frequented by families and children and dogs on the weekends, and the rain scared them away. The tide was lower than I usually see it, and I could see more rocks and shells than usual. I thought of how the water in the Puget Sound is changing and becoming more acidic, and wondered how different our beaches would be without the sea creatures we expect.
I found a place in the forest that I hadn’t found before, and I was fascinated by how the nurse logs decayed into the ground and new life sprang out of it. The soil here was clearly rich with woody debris and nutrients. During my observation here I saw many living things like slugs and snails and even two barred owls. I was amazed by the old growth trees I saw, and it made me think of the past use of this land. By researching afterward, I learned the Squaxin tribe inhabited this area, and then European settlers came and began to log and farm the land. In the future, climate change may affect forests with a lack of water, increased pests, and forest fires. It will be interesting to see how the Evergreen forest changes.