Field trip!

My Environmental Science class has five field trips, in addition to the regular class hours, as a part of its curriculum. The first one happened Friday afternoon and took place at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. The purpose of this field trip was to learn more about and see in person some of the invasive species in this area. Our lecture from the day before had a little in it about invasive species and we watched the OPB documentary The Silent Invasion which is a great short (56 minutes) video about invasive species in Oregon. I had seen this show about a year ago and paid closer attention to it this time. The trip to Oaks Bottom the next day was really helpful in that we could actually see some of them in person in the "wild". Our guide was a Parks & Recreation employee and was very knowledgeable and had obviously given these tours many times. I took some notes and learned a lot. We started at the north parking area and made it about halfway down the northern arm of the refuge. There was a lot that we didn't see. I want to go back there again soon. Some of the invasive species we saw and learned about are Locust trees, Geranium Robertianum (Herb Robert), starlings (the birds), English Ivy (outlawed! in Oregon), Butterfly bush, Clematis, Queen Anne's Lace, Dipsicus (teasle), and reed canary grass. We learned that all invasive species were native species in other parts of the world and not a problem where they came from. It's kind of a crap shoot when you introduce new species. An invasive species gets introduced to environments and climates that may or may not tend to make them more invasive in their new surroundings. This is a big problem in many parts of the country. If you've been down south you may have seen the kudzu covering everything and killing the trees and native plants. Another example is the rabbit problem in Australia, although they managed to finally get rid of them on Philip Island.

This first link is the Portland Parks & Recreation page, but this link for the PDX Family Adventures page has a lot more information on it.

So, a fun, easy, windy January afternoon at a small wildlife refuge on the Willamette River inside the city. Life is good.