On May 17, six volunteers joined TLC in monitoring the Barer / Kinghorn Covenants located within Mt Work Regional Park. It was a mild cloudy spring day; comfortable hiking weather. We were interested in the wetland sites we had monitored in the winter to compare their hydrological states.
Upon entering the covenant, everyone noticed how lush the forest appeared. Mosses were observed to still be thriving on the wet mild spring weather – even still reproducing (this is typically a winter activity for moss). After the obligatory photo at the abandoned car we arrived at the marsh monitoring site.
The marsh was still with about a foot of water and had a heavy amount of skunk cabbage – however not smelling too skunky! These are underappreciated plants. I like their other name: Swamp Lantern for their beautiful yellow flowers. We collected our photopoint monitoring data and continued on. Along the trail we found a Yellow-spotted millipede, also known as the Cyanide millipede, famous for its almond scent. Torrey and the team had to confirm this, so we all took a quick sniff. The results were positive! (Note: these are not edible).
We arrived at our second photopoint monitoring location near the Barer / Kinghorn Covenants and began our species inventory. The list was long! The location is in a depression, the lowest point between two hills, which typically holds more moisture and often has a stream running through it as weather events send rain down the adjacent hills. The stream that was babbling in the winter was no longer present; instead a dry stream bed was dotted with little yellow jelly fungi. In the area we identified many tree, shrub, herb and moss species typical of riparian zones and on the grand scale; Costal Douglas Fir biogeoclimatic zone. This is a great sign for the health of this covenant!
We took a lunch break at the Kinghorn cabin and found an abundant amount of Fairyslipper orchids! Spring is always a great time to get outside because the forest floor is lush with color. Other wildflower species we found included Sea blush, Monkey flower, Blue – eyed Mary, Western buttercup, strawberry, Miner ’s lettuce, Oregon grape, Twin flower and a White shooting star!
We continued our trek around the Kinghorn Covenant, the trail was cleared of the blow-down from winters storms. We stopped for one more monitoring point, captured photos and coordinates of the site and realized it was already time to head back. On the walk back we found young coralroot and rattlesnake-plantain. Suddenly, TLC’s Covenant Manager Torrey spotted a Black morel! This is really exciting because these little brainy-looking fungi friends are a pretty rare find. After a few photos to prove it’s’ existence we finished our visit feeling very positive about the abundance of diversity in this healthy forest.
