Park Newsletter May 2009

At the base of her den tree, a female fisher pauses while moving one of her kits. 

National Park Service

Fishers Born in Olympic Wilderness
After a lengthy and arduous search, park biologists succeeded last week in documenting four newborn fishers. By carefully tracking a female fisher's radio collar signal for three weeks, biologists finally found what they suspected was her den tree. Three motion-activated cameras were mounted near the tree; when biologists returned to the cameras over a week later, they were rewarded by a series of images showing a mother fisher and four kits.

Read more, with links to more photos.

 

Clad in reflective safety vests, four park employees pause along Highway 101 during a recent roadside litter clean up.

NPS Photo by Dave Colthorp

Lake Crescent Roadsides Cleaner
On a sunny Sunday morning in mid May, over 40 Olympic National Park employees combed the Lake Crescent roadsides, collecting litter and trash from the Highway 101 corridor and East Beach Road. Staff from all park disciplines joined the effort, along with members of the Washington Conservation Corps crew that's assigned to the park.

Several pick up trucks and a trailer were filled with trash bags, and park staff, visitors and commuters can have a cleaner and more enjoyable drive through the Lake Crescent area.

 

Students from a Port Angeles fourth grade listen as Ranger Tracy introduces the game 'Olympic Jeopardy.'

Education Rangers Bring 'Ecosystem Olympic' to Peninsula Fourth Graders

“They loved it! They were excited & energetic, yet focused”
– Teacher, Mountain View Elementary School

The park’s outreach and education staff is receiving comments like this from teachers across the Olympic Peninsula about the 'Ecosystem Olympic' fourth grade program.

Rangers Josh McLean and Sherilyn Seyler have spent the past six weeks visiting fourth grade classes in peninsula schools, connecting students to the amazing ecosystems in their backyards.

Rangers have visited nearly a thousand students at 22 schools from Shelton to Neah Bay and from Port Angeles to Forks. With one more week of programs scheduled, rangers hope to visit every school on the peninsula.

-- Dean Butterworth, Outreach Education Specialist

 

New Wayside Exhibits in Sol Duc Valley
Four new wayside exhibits have been installed at parking pullouts in the Sol Duc Valley, each one highlighting a different aspect of the valley -- the Sol Duc River, old growth forest, the historical hot springs resort, and the valley by night.

Text by the park's visual information specialist Janet Scharf is combined with historic photos and original art by Port Townsend artist Larry Eifert to help valley visitors learn and enjoy the area's special attributes.

 

This exhibit panel about old-growth forest is one of four recently installed in the Sol Duc Valley.  Visitors are invited to first notice the hidden details of the painting, and then to venture into the park itself to explore and discover its own hidden treasures.

Artwork by Larry Eifert; text by Janet Scharf

 

The park's greenhouse and nursery operation is made possible by the support of park volunteers.

From a Student's Perspective ...
As a high school intern here at Olympic National Park, I've had the chance to job-shadow several park employees.

One of the jobs I've experienced is working in the park greenhouse. I started off by meeting Dave Allen, who is in charge of the greenhouse. After receiving an orientation and tour, the work began -- transplanting snowberry plants from the Elwha Valley from the small yellow tubes in which they were growing to bigger, rectangular containers.

Although a simple, repetitive task like this may not seem like it makes much of a difference, in the grand scheme of things it is very important. All of the plants at the greenhouse are parts of restoration projects that will revegetate different areas of the park. Without these particular snowberry plants for example, the ecosystem of the Elwha region would remain damaged. Even though I did not transplant a tremendous number of snowberries that day, I do know that I made a difference.

-- Emily Gorman, student intern

 

Coming Soon ....

June 26 - Summer Ranger-Led Programs Begin
Summer brings wildflowers, long days for tidepooling and an explosion of green in Olympic's forests ... and the summer schedule of ranger-led programs. Learn more about Olympic's wonders by joining a ranger-led program, offered at most park areas.
Summer program schedule.

 

Visitation Update
Through the end of April, Olympic recorded a total of 478,495 recreation visits. April's visitation represents a 3.7 percent increase over April 2008.

For more information, and monthly visitor use updates, check the National Park Service NPS Stats website.