WREN Blog Officially Archived

 Hello,

This Blog is no longer active. All of the exciting information can now be found at WREN's website wewetlands.org. 

We appreciate your ongoing support, and we are maintaining this blog as an archive for one calendar year. The blog will be permanently deleted in September, 2023. Thank you for following us, and we look forward to all that WREN will do in the coming years.

WREN Education Director,

Jeremy Clothier

WREN Sun-setting the Blog. Last Day September, 1, 2022

 Hello Everyone,

The blog has served WREN for many years to help us distribute exciting news, upcoming programs, and vital information. Over the past few years, WREN has set up a website and it will now serve the purpose of the blog.

The blog will remain, but only in an archived state. All announcements, starting September 1, 2022 will be made exclusively on the WREN website. If you have not visited the website yet, the address is wewetlands.org. 

WREN thanks you for your continuing support, and we look forward to many more years of WREN in the West Eugene Wetlands.

Best,

WREN Board and Staff

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management Conservation Work in the West Eugene Wetlands

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) works to protect and restore wet prairie in the West Eugene Wetlands in partnership with the City of Eugene, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps. The West Eugene Wetlands Plan, created in 1992, formally acknowledged the importance of wetlands and set forth a plan to protect the unique qualities wetlands possess. Wetlands play a vital role in flood control and storm water purification and are also home to endangered plant and insect species, one of which is the Willamette daisy (Erigeron decumbens).   The Willamette daisy has been a focus in the West Eugene Wetlands for years. Over the past three weeks, I have gone out with surveyors from the BLM to count Willamette daisy populations at one of their restoration sites. Researchers from the Institute for Applied Ecology planted Willamette daisy at this site back in 2000 for a small experimental study to determine the best reintroduction method; plugs or seeds. Luckily, many of the transplants did survive and in 2016, the BLM planted more Willamette daisies. Since then, three more plantings have taken place at this site in the years 2017, 2018, and 2021. The BLM monitors Willamette daisy populations annually to see if the plants have grown and to learn how many transplants survived. Through this work, it is hopeful that Willamette daisy may one day be taken off the endangered species list. Currently, the Willamette daisy is both federally and state recognized as endangered. Since 2018, the BLM has planted over 11,000 Willamette daisy plants in the West Eugene Wetlands. The BLM manages 1,340 acres of land within the West Eugene Wetlands and conducts conservation work at many of its sites.   Past BLM conservation work has proven effective. The once endangered Bradshaw’s Lomtium (Lomatium bradshawii) was able to be delisted in part thanks to the BLM work in the West Eugene Wetlands. By participating in the Willamette daisy monitoring this year, I have seen the thoroughness and care of the BLM surveyors while out in the field. I am proud to contribute my time to a meaningful project that works to restore native species in the wetlands. The BLM of the West Eugene Wetlands has worked for years to enhance and protect our local wetlands and will continue to do so for years to come.   Article by,  Ellen Thompson; Environmental Education Specialist with WREN References: Christine Calhoun, Biological Science Technician, Bureau of Land Management “Wetlands.” The City of Eugene, www.eugene-or.gov/644/Wetlands.

WELCOME, ELLEN!

Environmental Education and Communications Specialist 

with WREN

Ellen grew up in Arcata, California surrounded by redwoods and close to the ocean. During her free time, Ellen enjoys exploring the forest and surfing the waves of the Pacific. She loves visiting National Parks where she has seen amazing rock structures, giant trees, and the deepest lake in the United States. She is glad spring is here and she can start planting in her garden again. She loves cooking with fresh veggies that she grew herself. Ellen double majored in Environmental Resources Engineering and Studio Art at Humboldt State University. She is passionate about renewable energy as well as printmaking.

Ellen hopes to share her passion for nature and art with others while working as an Environmental Education and Communications Specialist for WREN. She looks forward to learning more about wetland ecology and meeting other outdoor enthusiasts during her AmeriCorps internship. She wants youth to know that creativity plays a vital role in STEM subjects. It is her goal to inspire creativity and ignite curiosity in her students. 

 Art, Tours and Tales of the Willamette River

In celebration of the 5^th Annual Willamette River Festival (August 21-28^th), WREN is  coordinating efforts with eight community partners and watershed leaders to tell the stories of the Willamette River through the lens of self-guided tours of watershed systems (both natural and human-engineered) and natural art installations.

Tour routes will take place in Springfield and Eugene. The purpose of each tour is for visitors to learn more about the systems around us that support a clean Willamette River and to deepen the connection of people to our local waterways through an exploration of storm water projects, Native stories, and a celebration of natural art.

Each tour route will incorporate stops where participants can scan a QR code leading to a webpage with information about the featured artwork, water system, or natural area. The routes will feature 2-3 art pieces created and developed by summer art camp students in Springfield, Fern Ridge, and Eugene and led by Alex Ever, our resident artist for the installations. 

Alex's specialty is in natural dyes and temporary organic art installations. Alex and their student’s will be creating banners, colorful cotton ropes, and smaller fabric pieces to be hung or woven together into dynamic art pieces hung from trees, woven into bridge bannisters, or installed along fences. There is also the potential to expose students to Native traditional practices to further their connection with this land and its People.

Project partners include WREN, the Lane Arts Council, the City of Eugene, the City of Springfield, Willamalane, the Long Tom Watershed Council, the Boys and Girls Club of Emerald Valley, and Connected Lane County.

Special thanks goes to Marta Clifford and Theresa May for sharing their traditional knowledge and stories, Jim Bronson for providing valuable resources about the many benefits of wetlands, and Laura Allen from Greywater Action for her assistance with Spanish translations.

Sponsorship for this project have been provided by the GreenLane Sustainable Business Network, Connected Lane County and Boys and Girls Club of Emerald Valley. 

https://willametteriverfest.org/

https://greenlane-sbn.org/

http://lanearts.org/

 

Today's Wander took our dynamic group of Wetland enthusiasts on a walk through Springfield's historic Mill Race area by Booth-Kelly trailhead. Originally constructed in 1852, the Mill Race and Mill Pond powered Springfield's first grist and saw mills. Covering an area approximately 3.5 miles long, the Mill Race flows along the southern edges of the City of Springfield. In 1985, after this historic property was donated to the City of Springfield by Georgia-Pacific, local officials began the next steps to assume the responsibilities of managing the waterway. 

Since then, the City and partners from the Willamalane Parks and Recreation District, have made steady progress in their efforts to manage and restore the Mill Race and Mill Pond as well as efforts invested in telling the story. Every summer since 2016, the City of Springfield hosts the Upstream Art project and commissions local artists to paint inspirational murals to help depict the story of stormwater near drains and on sidewalks. These beautiful creations raise awareness of the connection between city streets and local waterways while supporting artists and beatifying the city.  

The Mill Pond was constructed as a Stormwater treatment pond and was completed in 2015. Native plant communities were established to take-in trace minerals such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and others running off of the surrounding impervious surfaces. These plants work together with the hydric soils, to which heavy metals stick, and the microbes from the pond to filter water coming in from the neighboring mill.

The City and co. have tested water coming into the pond and have found that the water coming in is much 'dirtier' than the water flowing out from the other end of the pond, proving that these wetland plant and animal communities are vitally important in the process of cleaning and filtering the water! The pond also has created excellent edge habitat for local wildlife living in an urban environment. In our short visit, we observed American Coot, Ring-necked ducks, a Northern Harrier, Pied-billed Grebes, and Hooded mergansers. 

WREN would like to thank Brett Parsons, Natural Resources Specialist with Willamalane, and Meghan Murphy, an Environmental Technician with the City of Springfield for leading today's adventure!

We hope that you can join us next month on Tuesday, December 8th for a tour of Delta Ponds with Rick Ahrens.

 

WREN would like to thank Elle and Alex for their efforts in designing this year's Letter to our Readers.

Elle Weberling is an advertising major with minors in Spanish and entrepreneurship at the University of Oregon. She has a passion for small businesses and believes they are at the heart of our local culture. She hopes to utilize her skills to help build a stronger and more inclusive community for all.

Alex Shakerin is a senior at the University of Oregon. His major is advertising with minors in multimedia and comparative literature. His focus is on design and brand development. Alex loves advertising that celebrates diversity and brings people together. In the future he hopes to help businesses expand their reach by creating stylish and meaningful content.

If you are interested in signing-up for our e-news letter, or to receive our mailing, please email your name, e-mail address, and mailing address to Laura Maloney, WREN Education Director at info@wewetlands.org.

Thank you for working with us, Alex and Elle!

City Nature Challenge: i-Naturalist Tutorial

Don't forget to join in the fun, this weekend for 

the City Nature Challenge: Backyard BioBlitz!

Follow this link, provided by Middle Fork Watershed Council,

to learn how to use the i-Naturalist tool at home:

https://bit.ly/2yYZFsv

For more tips on finding backyard specimens for the bioblitz, explore this PDF:

https://citynaturechallenge.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Exploring-Nature-in-and-around-your-home.pdf

As a reminder, since sightings are reported from our own backyards, make sure that you mark the observation as "cultivated" or "captive."

In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, organizations across the Upper Willamette watershed invite you to join your community in documenting our local nature during the 2020 City Nature Challenge!

As we stay home and stay safe to stop the spread of COVID-19, we can still observe and document the natural world in our backyards, on our sidewalks, and even in our homes!

The City Nature Challenge is a community science bioblitz with the goal of observing and identifying as many species as possible in urban communities. Participants from more than 200 cities worldwide will contribute and so can you!

You may be wondering - what is a BioBlitz? ‘Bio’ means ‘life’ and ‘blitz’ means ‘to do something quickly and intensively’. Together they make ‘BioBlitz’, a collaborative race against the clock to discover as many species as possible, within a set location, over a defined time period. Plants, animals, fungi, it all counts! Even tracks and other evidence of a species can be recorded.

Find out the name of that mystery plant growing nearby with iNaturalist, a free and easy to use app and website with a community of experts helping you identify what you found. If you are in the Eugene-Springfield CNC area and you make an observation on iNaturalist from April 24th-27th, it will automatically contribute to our total. How many species can we find?

Please follow all travel and social distancing guidelines as we bring technology and nature together to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day. Discover the nature around you during the City Nature Challenge!

Lomatium Meditations: A Virtual Wetland Wander Experience

Long Tom River

BLM Long Tom Site

In the spirit of WREN’s Wetland Wanders held the second Tuesday of every month, I recently embarked on a West Eugene Wetlands adventure with two of my BLM colleagues, Forestry Technician, Colin Sayre, and Plants Biological Technician, Christine Calhoun as well as BLM’s GIS Specialist and Acting Assistant Field Manager, Bernie Hoffman. Our journey took us to a spacious, 5-acre, mixed oak savannah and wet prairie nestled along the Long Tom River between the towns of Cheshire and Veneta where we settled in to monitor the recently down-listed species, Bradshaw’s lamatium.

Brandshaw’s lomatium, or Bradshaw’s desert parsley, is a low lying, perennial species that grows from a slender tap root. Its pinnate leaves are reminiscent of delicate carrot fronds and its small, yellow flowers are arranged radially in clusters called umbels. Bradshaw’s lomatium is generally found in wet habitats where the soil is clay-rich, near creeks or small rivers. Threats include habitat loss due to agriculture, commercial and residential development, encroachment by shrubs and trees, and competition from weedy invasives.

(Above) Christine and Colin mark the 'x' axis of the plot
(Below) Colin records the number of leafing and flowering plants

The best time to survey and monitor this species is from mid-April to May when the plant is in flower. I learned from experience that this is due to the fact that the short, delicate carroty leaves can easily be overlooked or confused with any number of plants that make up the green, vegetative expanse of the wet prairie. We began by finding one of the four, 30+ square meter plots on site with a GPS. Then, Colin and Christine attached a large tape to one end of the transect point and unrolled it to the other end of the transect line to mark an ‘x’ axis. Two additional measuring tapes were used on the ‘y’ axis to create a system of monitoring the plots one square meter at a time. Searching for the Bradshaw’s lomatium brought to mind memories from childhood spending hours meticulously looking through a field of clover for the one with 4-leaves. The process was slow and meditative, allowing the observer ample time to appreciate the other Spring wildlife that inevitably appears when one is patient and looking closely, such as young Northwest garter snakes, small orb weavers and crab spiders, voles, eagles, and Pileated and Acorn woodpeckers. One can’t help but appreciate in these moments all that Spring has to offer! After the data has been collected, it is recorded on a series of sheets used by Technicians to input into Long-term data files and will provide evidence for restoration measures.

It wasn’t very long ago that Bradshaw’s lomatium, or Desert Parsley, was listed as an Endangered species. A number of factors are required in order to reclassify a species from Endangered to Threatened. Most importantly is evidence to support that the species population is growing and that it has  high quality habitat to support its growth. Yearly monitoring is the best way to document how well a plant species is doing so that a plan for protection and management can be put into place. This requires the dedication of restoration ecologists who have an interest in protecting these important resources and a supportive community. Plant monitoring programs, such as the one I experienced this Tuesday with my BLM colleagues, help us allocate land management resources and plan restoration efforts. Monitoring efforts also give us an understanding of the occurrence, distribution and status of plant populations in vital wetland units. The data collected through plant monitoring helps make sure that threatened and endangered species receive continued protection and assistance and ensure species biodiversity.

Thanks to monitoring programs and the efforts of my colleagues and other Wildlife Technicians, the West Eugene Wetlands is now down to three threatened and endangered species; the Fender’s Blue butterfly, Kinkaid’s lupine (the nectar plant for the Fender’s blue butterfly), and the Willamette daisy. After participating in monitoring efforts, I see the value in the work and have renewed hope that, with continued efforts and support, all of our West Eugene Wetlands species will be considered common, once again.

Article by WREN Program Coordinator, Laura Maloney

City Nature Challenge: Backyard Bioblitz

City Nature Challenge: Backyard BioBlitz
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, organizations across the Upper Willamette watershed invite you to join your community in documenting our local nature during the 2020 City Nature Challenge! As we stay home and stay safe to stop the spread of COVID-19, we can still observe and document the natural world in our backyards, on our sidewalks, and even in our homes!
The City Nature Challenge is a community science bioblitz with the goal of observing and identifying as many species as possible in urban communities. Participants from more than 200 cities worldwide will contribute and so can you! You may be wondering - what is a BioBlitz? ‘Bio’ means ‘life’ and ‘blitz’ means ‘to do something quickly and intensively’. Together they make ‘BioBlitz’, a collaborative race against the clock to discover as many species as, within a set location, over a defined time period. Plants, animals, fungi, it all counts! Even tracks and other evidence of a species can be recorded. Find out the name of that mystery plant growing nearby with  iNaturalist , a free and easy to use app and website with a community of experts helping you identify what you found. If you are in the Eugene-Springfield CNC area and you make an observation on iNaturalist from April 24th-27th, it will automatically contribute to our total. How many species can we find? Please follow all travel and social distancing guidelines as we bring technology and nature together to celebrate the   50th anniversary of Earth Day. Discover the nature around you during the City Nature Challenge!

A Spring of Some Significance

This Spring has been a season of historical significance in more ways than one.  With local, governmental authorities asking citizens to distance themselves socially, school children on an extended leave from school, and many others in isolation, we are challenged to rethink how we can continue grow and be involved in our community. We also recently experienced the earliest first day of Spring in 124 years. At the equinox, where the hours of daylight are equal to that of the hours of dark, nature reminds us that it's cyclical rhythms will continue to turn and to pass even in evolutionary challenging times. We are also entering into a period of increasing light where the days are becoming longer than the nights. In the spirit of all that is happening, I am excited to share a plethora of resources to keep you engaged in hope  that you remain happy, healthy, and in good spirit.

Warm Regards,

Laura Maloney

WREN Program Coordinator

FREE Self-Guided Activities and Resources

Self-guided Bike Tour of the West Eugene Wetlands:
In celebration of Spring time and in the spirit of health and modified community involvement, I mapped out a bicycle adventure through the West Eugene Wetlands and captured some signs of Spring for you and your families to enjoy. CLICK HERE to access the 12-mile, self-guided, interpretive bicycle tour. I hope that you enjoy the adventure as much as I did!

Sensory Scavenger Hunt:

Spend an afternoon outdoors exploring the sites, sounds, and smells of nature in this Sensory Scavenger Hunt friendly for younger children and families. 

Dragonfly Learning Activities:

Dragonflies are engineering marvels! Learn about the dragonfly life-cycle, dragonfly flight, and design your own dragonfly in these learning activities suitable for upper Elementary and Middle School students. Bonus dragonfly mask craft! You can access the learning materials, craft templates and activity instructions HERE

VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE!

To learn more about WREN's mission, history and programs, visit WREN's new website at 

http://wewetlands.org/

We are currently seeking volunteer board members, volunteer Environmental Educators, and a Social Media volunteer. If you are interested in helping out and would like to learn more about one of the opportunities, please contact us at info@wewetlands.org

Beavers Help People in Creating Dynamism on Green Island

Elizabeth Goward, Volunteer Coordinator
for the McKenzie River Trust talks about beaver monitoring program

12/10/19, WREN Wetland Wander participants explored beaver activity and learned about the beaver monitoring programs on Green Island with Elizabeth Goward, Volunteer Coordinator with the McKenzie River Trust.

Weighing in at 60 lbs, which is the approximate weight of a Golden Retriever, beavers are among the largest rodents in the world. With iron-clad enamel wallpapering chisel-like teeth, beavers eat and use trees like it’s their job, and it is! Though, no other animal is quite as accomplished in their work as the beaver. Beavers are the only animal to be listed three times as being an adaptive management tool for climate change and are one of most relevant keystone species.

Even though beavers can live up to 40 years in the wild, the females cannot reproduce until they are about three years old and have one litter of, on average, six-kits a year. As the kits get older, they help mom and dad with raising the youngest kits. Even though beavers can produce larger litters, only about 1/3 of the kits make it to adulthood. That’s because beavers have a reputation of being quite tasty and experience high predation. Predators of the beaver include coyotes, hawks, and even mountain lions!

High predation is the reason why beavers are adapted to build an environment where they can be safer. They do this by building the water table up to bring them closer to their food source. This in turn creates ponded areas that become an attractive habitat for more wildlife. This adaptation makes beavers an important keystone species meaning that their environmental impact is so large that it supports a wide-array of wildlife, including species of animals that can only live in beaver ponds, such as the Trumpeter swan, who is often seen nesting on top of beaver lodges.

Beavers eat the cambium layer of trees, which is very nutritious. They build up larders of cut down and branches and trees in mud underneath the water to help them through the tough, winter months. Since beavers have the habit of taking down trees, it is a common misconception that the work they are doing is destructive to the environment. One of the goals of the Beaver Believers, a monitoring program with the McKenzie River Trust, where volunteers use smart phones to conduct stream-watch surveys and to document and record beaver activity in the Upper Willamette watershed. This project helps scientists better understand the benefits of beavers on local aquatic ecosystems.

Observations from the field have shown that beavers are excellent land managers, who are adept at creating a rich mosaic landscape and mitigating risks to the surrounding ecosystem. Data has also shown that beaver ponds in the Upper Willamette improve juvenile Coho salmon habitat rather than causing conflicts for migrating salmon. The McKenzie River Trust see beavers as helping them achieve their vision to restore historic habitat types, including those that support a good habitat for little fish, and since the beavers have moved back to the island, fish numbers are no longer declining.

As people living off of the land, there are many restoration strategies we can learn from beavers who have a 100% track-record of creating more environmental dynamism. With the help of neighbors, partners, volunteers, and over 600,000 native tree and shrub plantings, Green Island is an excellent model of humans and beavers working together in land restoration.

To learn more about beavers, check out the book Eager by Ben Goldfarb and the documentary Leave it to Beavers. To learn more about Green Island, about volunteering with Beaver Believers, or to become a member of the McKenzie River Trust, visit https://www.mckenzieriver.org/ 

OSTA Conference: SPLASH!

On Friday, October 11th, WREN's Environmental Education Specialist Annie Carter attended the 2019 Oregon Science Teachers Association Conference at Lane Community College. This event brought together teachers from around the state to share lessons and ideas and discuss ways to better integrate innovative teaching standards into the classroom. Annie led a session at the conference about SPLASH!, a stormwater curriculum WREN has been updating for the City of Eugene. She was accompanied by Jeffrey Flowers from the City of Eugene Public Works Department.



When it rains in a natural, undeveloped landscape, water is absorbed into the ground and taken up by plants. Only a small portion of that water travels across the ground, picking up debris before it reaches surface waters like lakes and rivers. This is known as stormwater, runoff, or non-point source pollution. Due to a much higher proportion of impermeable surfaces in urban environments, only a small fraction of water gets absorbed into the ground and the rest becomes runoff. Everything from loose trash to complex chemicals can become a contaminant in the runoff of developed environments, and these pollutants negatively affect water quality for humans and wildlife. Teachers participating in the OSTA session learned how runoff affects recreation safety and habitat quality, ways to limit the negative impacts of runoff, and specific activities in the SPLASH! curriculum. Using materials like coffee filters, crushed oyster shells, and gravel, teachers constructed water filters using the engineering process. Their filters addressed specific water quality parameters like turbidity, dissolved solids, and pH.


WREN is still in the process of revamping SPLASH! curriculum for elementary and middle school classrooms. Lesson and activity plans, worksheets, and activity materials will all be available for teachers on request, free of charge, from the city. From designing and testing filters to analyzing their own school yards, SPLASH! teaches students that in order to protect our local waterways, we must all think of ways to reduce our impact on the landscape and make choices that keep pollutants out of our waters.

National Public Lands Day 2019

Saturday, September 28th

9:00-12:00 p.m.

West Eugene Wetlands Project Office; 751 S. Danebo Ave.

FREE

National Public Lands day aims to get people connected with the public lands in their community and is the largest single-day volunteer effort in the nation. This year, WREN is partnering with the BLM to highlight the resilience of public lands.  

Bring your family, friends, students, and coworkers to spend the morning giving back to our community spaces! Volunteers will help paint a mural, clean-up garden beds, plant natives, pick up trash and more. 

Attendees will receive a coupon good for a free entry to any public land managed by one of the federal partners, a t-shirt and snacks and beverages.

This September, celebrate something we all share: our public lands!

Family Exploration Day 2019

Saturday, September 14th

10:00am-2:00 p.m.

West Eugene Wetlands Project Office; 

751 S. Danebo Ave.

FREE

In celebration of our partnership with the BLM and the Every Kid Outdoors program, WREN will be hosting a very special FREE Family Exploration Day focused on engaging kids and their families in recreation and stewardship of our public lands.

WREN experts will be leading short, interpretive walks through the wetlands, facilitating an art project using inks and dyes derived from natural sources, and checking out backpacks filled with goodies for self-guided exploration. Drop by anytime between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. WREN staff and volunteers will be leading walks on the hour. Light refreshments will be provided.   

August Wetland Wander

Thank you to Abby Colehour (in red) from the Long Tom Watershed Council for leading a lovely Wetland Wander at Coyote Creek South! 

This wet prairie restoration site is now home to streaked horn larks, a federally listed threatened species, and will hopefully provide critical habitat for endangered red-legged frogs too. Abby toured us around the site and described the construction and seeding involved in the project, and pointed out interesting plants with medicinal properties such as gumweed (yellow) and a species of epilobium (pink). 

As we were leaving we chanced upon a European mantis (Mantis religiosa)! Seconds after this photograph was taken she decided to use her raptorial forelegs on the fingers holding her, but fortunately neither man nor mantis were harmed in the exchange. 

Stay tuned for details about our upcoming Wetland Wander in September!

Winecup Clarkia and Queen Anne's Lace 

decorate the trail leading to our new interpretive panels, highlighting the importance 

of the West Eugene Wetlands. 

Come out to the Tsanchiifin Trail and enjoy the splendor!