Environmental Study Of Lechtenberg Park

[DougF]

Well, Well, Well that Eagle really hit that bear hard did you see how fast he got out of that tree (he must of been getting to close to a nest or just messing up the Eagles hunting area.) and you are right in the fact that Eagles do eat on the ground in fact they are always on the lookout for a free meal ( scavenger ) but I was thinking of the size of the Beaver and the lifting power of the Eagle and I was thinking it was thinking it was a mis-match. :shrug: :shrug:

 

Beaver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beavers continue to grow throughout life. Adult specimens weighing over 25 kg (55 lb) are not uncommon. Females are as large as or larger than males of the same age' date=' which is uncommon among mammals. Beavers live up to 24 years of age in the wild. [/quote']

 

American Bald Eagle - diet and feeding habits

A bald eagle's lifting power is about 4 pounds. They do not generally feed on chickens or other domestic livestock' date=' but they will make use of available food sources. Bald eagles will take advantage of carrion (dead and decaying flesh). Because of its scavenger image, some people dislike the bald eagle. Other people do not care for powerful and aggressive birds. Still other people object merely on the grounds that it is a bird of prey, which kills other animals for food.

Once an eagle spots a fish swimming or floating near the surface of the water, it approaches its prey in a shallow glide and snatches the fish out of the water with a quick swipe of its talons. Eagles can open and close their talons at will. If an eagle is dragged into the water by a fish too large for the eagle to lift, it is because the eagle refuses to release it. In some cases this is due to hunger. An eagle might drown during the encounter with the fish or if it's unable to swim far enough to reach shore. The eagle can not fly again until it's out of the water, so it uses its large wings to swim. The eagle is a strong swimmer, but if the water is very cold, it may be overcome by hypothermia.

 

[/quote']

[modest]

found it! over in the Wildlife Tracks thread. :singer: black bear? oui y no. :singer: (no scale, but as i recall, the track was ~ 4" across the central pad area there.) :D

 

 

I've seen a good deal of bear tracks in Colorado in my youth, which I would now assume were black bears, but what seems odd is that there are no claw marks on the print you have there, and that looks like a deep print. I think I recall the claws as always being prominent... I very well could be wrong though.

 

~modest

[Turtle]

I've seen a good deal of bear tracks in Colorado in my youth, which I would now assume were black bears, but what seems odd is that there are no claw marks on the print you have there, and that looks like a deep print. I think I recall the claws as always being prominent... I very well could be wrong though.

 

~modest

 

jm sent me an id image & it shows claw marks as you suggest. they are pretty far forward of the end of the toe though, and if i squint at my photo i can see where there may be some impressions there, but a little smeared. :singer: ? just nothing else that big around here that has a print anything like it. the close 3 toes all nearly lined up at the ends look nothing like cougar or coyote, which are the only other large animals i think are likely. once i decided it was black bear i was always on the alert in the park-in-name-only. i didn't use a bear bell because i was intentionally being quiet so's not to scare everything away. :singer:

 

Animal Tracks - Black Bear (Ursus americanus)

 

[Turtle]

Well, Well, Well that Eagle really hit that bear hard did you see how fast he got out of that tree (he must of been getting to close to a nest or just messing up the Eagles hunting area.) and you are right in the fact that Eagles do eat on the ground in fact they are always on the lookout for a free meal ( scavenger ) but I was thinking of the size of the Beaver and the lifting power of the Eagle and I was thinking it was thinking it was a mis-match. :singer:

 

seems the eagles, golden eagles at any rate, do kill large prey. then they rip out their livers & such to carry off. :eek: if you haven't seen cedar's & my recent posts in the birding thread, there is some dramatic written description, photos, and video of golden eagles attacking deer. one failed; one, not so much. link at bottom of my post there (#357) has the description of coyote carcases gutted. >>Birding

 

thanks for the material here ; i used some of it in my post. also wanted to note i never heard/read before that eagles can swim. :eek: fascinating! :Alien:

 

on another note, i was talking to someone about lechtenberg park-in-name-only and they asked how i would be able to prove it was listed as a county park if they took it off the lists. well...i uh...because i...ehrm...good question. maybe i couldn't. :hyper: anyways, went & found one officiallyish looking listing so will post the text & a link. i grabbed a screen shot too in case this is accidently lost. :eek2:

 

ID: 1521984

 

Name: Lechtenberg Park

 

Class: Park (Definitions)

 

Citation: U.S. Geological Survey. Geographic Names Phase I data compilation (1976-1981). 31-Dec-1981. Primarily from U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000-scale topographic maps (or 1:25K, Puerto Rico 1:20K) and from U.S. Board on Geographic Names files. In some instances, from 1:62,500 scale or 1:250,000 scale maps.

 

Entry Date: 10-Sep-1979

 

*Elevation: 190/58

 

*Elevations in feet/meters from the National Elevation Dataset

 

Counties

 

Sequence County Code State Code Country

 

1 Clark 011 Washington 53 US

 

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:3415110726501655::NO::P3_FID:1521984

 

"Park" is defined as:

Place or area set aside for recreation or preservation of a cultural or natural resource and under some form of government administration; not including National or State forests or Reserves (national historical landmark, national park, State park, wilderness area).

Feature Class Definition

 

if any of you have google earth, would you see if they have taken the park definition (a green tree symbol) and the park boundry outline (also green) off their maps? i can't tell on mine because i have altered/added so many layers & placemarks in that area. :doh: thanks. :) here's those coordinates again: 45º 38' 50" N 122º 27' 37.35" W

 

have a nice day. :D :singer:

[Turtle]

looking further, i find the county park list is sans lechtenberg. >> Parks - Public Works - Clark County Washington

 

going from there. i linked to this: Parks - Public Works - Clark County Washington

 

then to this: Vancouver-Clark Washington Parks & Recreation: Park Planning & Design

 

then to this set of maps:http://www.cityofvancouver.us/parks-recreation/parks_trails/planning/pdf/compplanmaps.pdf

 

lechtenberg is conspicuously absent, but interestingly Green Mountain is coded as "Regional Parks". :singer:

 

then probing deeper, :Alien:, i find this of particular interest:

 

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/parks-recreation/parks_trails/planning/pdf/compplanopenspace.pdf

Priority Habitats

 

Oregon White Oak Woodlands

 

Stands of pure oak or oak/conifer associations where canopy coverage of the oak

 

component of the stand is 25%; or where total canopy coverage of the stand is <25%, but oak accounts for at least 50% of the canopy coverage present. The latter is often referred to as oak savanna. In non-urbanized areas west of the Cascades, priority oak habitat consists of stands > 0.4 ha (1.0 ac) in size. East of the Cascades, priority oak habitat consists of stands > 2 ha (5 ac) in size. In urban or urbanizing areas, single oaks or stands < 0.4 ha (1 ac) may also be considered a priority when found to be particularly valuable to fish and wildlife.

 

Criteria: Comparatively high fish and wildlife density, high fish and wildlife species diversity, limited and declining availability, high vulnerability to habitat alteration, dependent species.

..

 

Birds

 

Clark County provides habitat for more than 240 species of birds. These include relatively

 

common species such as European starling, California gull, barn swallow, great-horned owl, and American wigeon, as well as relatively rare species such as great egret, purple martin, snipe, green or green-backed heron, and black-crowned night heron.

 

we have positively id'd Great Blue Herons nesting in lechtenberg park-in-name-only, takk racoon san for the photos :D ,

 

however, on my first trip i videographed what we tentatively id'd as a Black-crowned Night Heron. may as well see that again, eh? (yes i have some steadiness problems; life's a biotch, aint it? :hyper:) > . . . . :singer: :eek2:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmouaHmnVqk

[modest]

Wops! I must be off my meds :singer: You're right about the bear track—both about the claws being quite possibly present and that:

Claw marks do not always show.

Animal Tracks - Black Bear (Ursus americanus)

From your link :singer:

 

~modest

[Turtle]

Wops! I must be off my meds :D You're right about the bear track—both about the claws being quite possibly present and that:

 

Animal Tracks - Black Bear (Ursus americanus)

 

From your link :)

 

~modest

 

there's writing at the link!? :eek: :doh: :hyper: i totally missed that while i focussed on the drawering. turtle down! :singer: so i'm confident enough on the id now that i have added black bear - Ursus americanus, to the running index of species in post #1. i wonder if black bears eat beaver? :eek2:

 

anyway, did some looking and found the last report of a black bear killing a human nearby was in 1974 and ~65 miles east of the park-in-name-only.

 

 

List of fatal bear attacks in North America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

4 year old girl]Mauled to death while playing 200 yards from her home in Glenwood, Washington

 

 

found what may be the last image from the last trip. i suspect a buttercup, and there was a lot of it coming up all over the forest floor. we earlier id'd creeping buttercup -Ranunculus repens, and on review i see it is introduced & not native. :) who ya gonna call?

 

possible buttercup:

 

:shrug:

[DougF]

Earlier I was cruising the web and ran across this video, and sense we were talking about Eagles and there hunting habits I thought you might like to see it.

 

YouTube - Big Eagle attack sheep http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEau4wC51m0&feature=grec

 

Have you heard anything new about Lechtenberg Park in name only?? :)

[freeztar]

Nothing stops one from walking along the road and snapping some footage, with the appropriate safety measures of course.

[Turtle]

Nothing stops one from walking along the road and snapping some footage, with the appropriate safety measures of course.

 

:evil: if i wrote what i'm thinking, i'd be banned. i have heard nothing from any county authorities and don't expect to. maybe we can't blame them; would you answer an e-mail from a turtle? :eek_big: i have however heard through the grapevine that other interested parties have contacted the state authorities about this bamboozle, so maybe something will come of that. i don't take the paper so likely wouldn't know if they followed up or not. :( in the vulgar vernacular, screw 'em all. :lol: when push comes to shove around my neck of the woods, everybody just runs. the only future photos you can expect from me of lechtenberg will be of it dead with my caption "I told you so.". no good deed goes unpunished. :shrug: :(

[Turtle]

preferring not to dwell on the future of lechtenberg-park-in-name-only, i'll take us back in the past. :eek_big: please keep your arms & legs inside the shell or the big black bird with the blood-red head will pop down & peck them off & eat them in front of us. :evil: :shrug: :(

 

 

Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le3aT5dY_OA

[Turtle]

alrighty thens. first up, i will be going through the thread & replacing malfunctioning images from the old Gallery with new malfunctioning images in the new Gallery. say beaver!

 

as i'm easily steered to action, i did as freezy directed me to do, sorta, & drove by lechtenberg park-in-name-only yesterday but took no photos. the lot on the east boundary is mowed and the large sign declaring the coming development and warning to keep out is completely gone. could mean development is off, or could mean thery're done advertising it. time will tell.

 

so, revisiting the past some more, here's garry oaks girdled & killed by a beaver or beavers back in 2007 in lechtenberg park-in-name-only. the trees are still dead. :doh:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4yrAGJRrIA

[Turtle]

well thens, not a word from any authority on the matter of managing lechtenberg forest. they have however been very efficient in removing any mention of it as a park from all the official web-pages and other documents. they can run, but they can't hide. :hihi: :) got my eye on the sitch. :boy_hug:

 

 

. . . . . :( . . . .

[DougF]

Keep up the Good work, Turtleson. :) :hihi:

[Turtle]

Keep up the Good work, Turtleson.

 

danke schön doug. :) on that note, for anyone with permission of the property owner(s), or state, county, or other responsible/concerned authorized authorities, now is the time to go to lechtenberg park-in-name-only to witness & record officially, as well as personally, the bloomings of the rare, status ranked, state Sensitive, small-flowered trillium, Trillium parviflorum Soukup, a member of the lily family of plants. . . . . :bouquet:

 

clickable link:

 

Washington Department of Natural Resources Small-flower Trillium, Trillium parviflorum Soukup, Official Authoritative Listing/Description

[DougF]

It would be a travesty to loose such a rare and Sensitive member of the lily family of plants (Trillium parviflorum Soukup) To a subdivision or strip mall. It is truly a shame that would close down lechtenberg park ["in-name-only NOW"] as I would personally like to witness & officially record as well, the boomings of the rare, status ranked, state Sensitive, small-flowered trillium, as I'm sure many others as well.

[Turtle]

It would be a travesty to loose such a rare and Sensitive member of the lily family of plants (Trillium parviflorum Soukup) To a subdivision or strip mall. It is truly a shame that would close down lechtenberg park ["in-name-only NOW"] as I would personally like to witness & officially record as well, the boomings of the rare, status ranked, state Sensitive, small-flowered trillium, as I'm sure many others as well.

 

make like a symbiont, climb on my shell, and live vicariously with me in the past as i re-document my enounters and add some new information. :lol: i have read, but not verified, that unlike other trilliums, the small-flower's flower has an odor, and is described as "clove-like". :shrug:

 

small-flowered trillium - Trillium parviflorum Soukup

bloom: april 17, 2008

lechtenberg park, clark county washington -native -ranked sensitive

 

bloom:

 

smallflower Trillium - Trillium parviflorum Soukup

july 19,2009

lechtenberg park, clark county washington -native -ranked sensitive

 

fruit:

 

...Trillium parviflorum varies from very short, slender, small-bracted plants to tall, broad, umbrella-bracted giants. Regardless of plant or bract sizes, flower and petal sizes are remarkably constant, all plants having small, linear-lanceolate petals. This is not usually the case with T. albidum, the species with which this plant is most likely to be confused. In T. albidum also the plants can be enormous, but when they are, the petals are very long, broad, and conspicuously obovate-diamond-shaped. In large clonal clumps of T. albidum, the larger and more mature offsets show the typical petal shape, while the smaller and presumably youngest offsets sometimes produce smaller, narrower petals, more like those of T. parviflorum.

 

Some western botanists, more experienced with local populations than I, do not consider Trillium parviflorum to be distinct from T. albidum. They point out that since there is an extensive region of apparent intergradation (as indeed there is, well supported by herbarium vouchers), there exists a morphological cline from the long- and wide-petaled T. albidum to the narrower- and generally shorter-petaled T. parviflorum, and that T. parviflorum, therefore, should not be considered a separate species but rather a subspecies or a variety. Since no one to date has treated T. parviflorum at the subspecific or varietal level, and since in my own limited experience it does appear as a distinct species in Washington north of the Columbia River, I include it here as treated by Soukup. I have seen populations of considerable variation north of Corvallis, Oregon, and agree that there is much overlap with T. albidum. Obviously there is need for a much more extensive study of this situation. A factor that exacerbates this problem (and many others in Trillium), is that nutrition, age, and even favorable position in the habitat can greatly influence plant and floral organ sizes. In many species, including T. albidum, when a single vigorous clonal clump produces many offsets, the oldest offsets may have flowers with very large petals, sepals, ovary, etc., while the younger offsets may have organs only half the size. In most sessile trilliums particularly, population averages are often more useful than isolated individual measurements, a difficult situation, indeed. ...

Trillium parviflorum in Flora of North America @ efloras.org

 

the boldenation is mine, as lechtenberg harbors at least 2 populations that i have seen, making it all the more valuable a resource. one last bit then, & off you go.

 

status info:

 

Trillium parviflorum small-flowered trillium Liliaceae G2G3 S2S3 S

Vascular Plants Tracked by the Washington Natural Heritage Program

 

the "G"'s refer to global rank as follows:

 

G2 = Imperiled globally (6 to 20 occurrences).

 

G3 = Either very rare and local throughout its range or found locally in a restricted range (21 to 100 occurrences).

 

 

the "S"'s refer to state rank as follows:

 

S2 = Imperiled (6 to 20 occurrences), very vulnerable to extirpation.

 

S3 = Rare or uncommon (21 to 100 occurrences).

 

the last "S" is state status as follows:

 

S = Sensitive. Vulnerable or declining and could become Endangered or Threatened in the state

 

no federal status is listed for this species.