We recently took a vacation trip to Mount Rainier National Park and Mt. St. Helens National Monument in WA state.
As we went through the Mt. Rainier entrance gate, the ranger gave us a newspaper called The Tahoma News (pdf here). That first evening, I skimmed the paper and found an article (on page 9) asking visitors to contribute to a University of Washington study on the effect of climate change on the the Mountain's famous wildflower meadows by submitting dated and geo-tagged flower photos to their website. This project seemed right down my alley, or more appropriately, my hiking trails. This had the effect of changing our vacation into a "project."
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Snails, fish, insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers. All are worthy additions to the bucket. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located.
The UW project is called MeadoWatch. Its goal is stated as follows:
The goal of MeadoWatch is to gain an understanding of the biological impacts of climate change and give Mt. Rainier National Park visitors the opportunity to engage in scientific research. Participants collect important information during the summer each year on the potential impacts of climate change on flowering phenology that could aid resource managers in making decisions around the park.
My camera body is too obsolete to record the GPS locations of the photos I take with it. So, I enlisted Mr. Watt to take a geo-tagged smartphone photo to match up with batches of my wildflower photos. Between us, we took over 800 pictures on our 1-week trip. I've spent the days since getting home IDing flowers and matching up geotags to enter manually at an
iNaturalist page for the project. Here are some screen captures of information from their site.
Map of observations submitted to MeadoWatch
Observations submitted to MeadoWatch
With the low snowpack last winter, the meadows melted off and the wildflowers peaked earlier than in past summers which will be evident in the observations submitted this season. This will clearly need to be a long-term effort. I look forward to learning how these observations will be analyzed and turn into conclusions. Meanwhile, let's just enjoy some July wildflowers from Paradise.
Magenta paintbrush (Castilleja parviflora)
Subalpine lupine (Lupinus arcticus ssp. subalpinus)
Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) and bugs
Cascade aster (Aster ledophyllus)
Pasque flower (Anemone occidentalis) seedhead, known as Mouse-on-a-stick
Closeup of Lewis's monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii) - the flowers in the creekbed shown in the first photo
With 800 photos, you can bet that I'll be doing more buckets from this trip.
If anyone else is planning a trip to Mt. Rainier, remember this project and consider contributing to it. And I encourage everyone visiting any national park to read their newspaper right away and not save it for when you get home (like I usually do). You may find something you really want to do while you are there.
Your turn! What are you seeing in your immediate or extended backyard?
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"Spotlight on Green News & Views" will be posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time and Wednesday at 3:30 pm PT on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.