Field Trip

31 May 2014
Hot, sunny, breeze
Yakama Canyon, Umtanum Ridge, waterfall trail (East of Cascades)
Low-mid 70's

On the trail, looking for birds

Our first stop at Yakama Canyon had a noticeably different landscape than what I am used to on the west side of the Cascades. It was very dry and shrubby looking and had many rock cliff formations that I associate with desert areas. We learned that the area gets approximately 10-15 inches of rain every year. As a result, the vegetation has had to adapt to low moisture levels.

Same area as above but with train in background;
it was interesting and somewhat surprising being in
 a place that felt so remote from civilization and then seeing
this train pass by. I had not realized that the train tracks were
in current use.

For some reason I had not expected to see so much green around. I have not been to Eastern Washington very much, and had only heard that it's very desert-y, so I had been expecting more sand and dark green shrubbery rather than light green shrubbery. That was was the type of landscape I had experienced on a trip to Jordan, and my mind had decided to connect the two. I think that there is a difference in photosynthetic efficiency between dark green and light green foliage, but I am not sure which one is more efficient. I wonder if this color adaptation may also be an adaptation for water conservation (dark colors attract more heat which would increase water evaporation; thus it would be advantageous for plants to be a lighter colored green).

Interestingly, while the landscape and feel of the place was different from Western Washington, we saw many of the same species that we see around Seattle. For example we saw willows, ponderosa pines, cottonwoods, barn swallows, and bald eagles. While some of these species may be slightly different in each region (for example, birds in Eastern Washington may have different dialects than the same birds in Western Washington) I thought it was cool to see familiar flora and fauna around. The cottonwoods and willows were actually in more moist areas of the place (near the river) and the increase in greenery was very noticeable 

At this site we saw various types of birds that I had not seen before- I learned that these are called life-birds. For example, we saw lazuli buntings, which have a blue head, rusty orange breast, and white stomach; Bullock's Orioles, which have an orange breast and face and black head and wings with some gray. One thing I noticed about the birds specifically though, was that their flight patterns seemed different than what I've seen before-mostly they were slower and seemed to move in slow motion, something that I thought would be interesting to experience if I were a bird. I figured out later though, that this was probably caused by wind currents, although I am not sure why this area is more conducive to those types of wind currents than areas around Seattle. Perhaps the open shrub lands and tall valley sides channel smaller wind currents into larger, stronger ones.

Tall sagebrush

My favorite part of this area was the tall sagebrush, since I have heard about sagebrush before but had never experienced it in real life. It was surprising to realize that it has such a strong scent that I can now identify as sagebrush. I also didn't know that this species grew so slowly- the plant pictured on the right (about 5-6 feet tall) is likely around 100 years old. Sagebrush has both deep taproot systems and shallow root systems, which allows for the plants to access as many nutrients and moisture as possible. Such adaptations are clearly useful for extreme climates and ecologies. With so much steppe (grasses) around, the root systems of such plants must be very useful to get moisture from, as grasses tend to quickly soak up any water that is present.

Tall sagebrush up close; you can see the three-pronged
leaf edges

Interestingly, sagebrush is very susceptible to fire, and I wonder why it hasn't adapted to not be, since a fire would be able to spread quickly in this area (sagebrush plants seem like easy fuel sources that would simply help the fire spread).

In comparison, we also saw bitterbrush, which is similar to sagebrush and also has three-pronged leaflet ends.

Bitterbrush 

Our second stop at Untanum Ridge also had a few species that I normally do not see around Seattle. For example, snakes, scorpions, and short-horned lizards. Short-horned lizards are also known as "horned toads" and are in the iguana family. Their color depends on the habitat's soil color in order to blend in. They have white spiny edges and are active during the day. Northern scorpions are a sort of brown color and are not dangerous to people. They eat insects and are mostly nocturnal, so it was interesting that we saw one on the field trip. Like other sites in Eastern Washington, this place had lots of shrubs and steppes adapted for hot climates. Not many plants grew very tall; likely because it would be disadvantageous to do so. I speculate that it takes more energy for plants to grow tall, and that doing so would only help the plants around it, which would benefit from its shade.

Areas like these receive less than 12 inches of rain. Shrubs like sagebrush are common in them, and a variety of reptiles, mammals, and birds rely on such plants for their habitats and for food. This is an example of how organisms have adapted to such dry areas and the vegetation found in them.

The waterfall trail was our last stop. On the trail there were lots of quaking aspen (I found out that this the the largest species in the world since they form connected communities through their roots) and cottonwood trees. Quaking aspen usually live in low areas where there is plenty of water; they are shade-intolerantOther familiar species included Doulgas-firs, red-winged black birds, and American Robins. We also saw mule deer, or black-tailed deer, which have black tails.

We hiked up the trail to the water fall and as the elevation increased, the vegetation and features did too. I commonly saw a plant that looked a lot like red huckleberry, but its leaves weren't alternate- they were opposite. I did not figure out what this was, but it was an interesting connection for me to make, and one that I would have not made before taking this class and learning plant identification.


We also saw/heard a snake in the bushes--multiple attempts are catching it failed, however, so I never found out what type of snake it was. A brief glimpse of it told me that it was brown though.

Up above the waterfall, I had a view of the vegetation above me and below me. Above me and above the waterfall, there seemed to be a significant increase in evergreens; I think they were ponderosa pine trees. Below the waterfall were more deciduous trees. In the waterfall's immediate surroundings, there was much more dryness than I expected. It seemed to be a little lacking in water, although perhaps the flow is stronger in the early spring, since this is when ice and snow begins to melt.



I also went up to the top of the cliff, which was mostly loose dirt and rocks. There were a few plants nestled into some rock nooks that I thought were cool, and I wondered what type of predators they had. The yellow flowers is an example of one plant I saw (picture above). It doesn't seem to be in my guidebook but perhaps that's because it's not native, or perhaps it's currently in a stage of life that looks different from the pictures in the Audubon. There were also some interesting rocks that look like they'd had holes drilled out by giant, heavy raindrops. This may be air bubbles that popped when the rock was forming and cooling, but I'm not sure. You can sort see one of these holes in the flat, light colored rock below the yellow center flower in the photo above.

Also in this picture you can see crustose lichen (possibly white paint lichen; it looks similar to the lichen I found at my site, although this one is located on a rock and not a tree branch)-- it really can grow anywhere! The location of the lichen here especially makes me wonder what makes it able to hold on to the rock so tightly that a colony of lichen can successfully grow. It seems like a small speck of lichen that was just starting out here could easily be blown away or brushed into the dirt by hikers or animals.