Today, Lili Allala (New Restoration Coordinator) toured several key Hylebos sites, including Lower Hylebos Marsh, Spring Valley Ranch, West Milton Nature Preserve and the Spring Valley Open Space. While I thought we would likely get rained on hard like the day before, the weather let up, and we were treated to sunshine and relatively warm, dry conditions.
Here is Lili at the Lower Hylebos Marsh. You can find out more about Lili on our Staff page.
Also, Wednesday's paper has a front page article on the forest health problems in Federal Way. It's nice to see the word getting out about this challenge.
I'll get some photos up later in the day from Lower Hylebos Marsh. The beavers appear to have been busy (surprise!). I counted at least 5 structures on the mainstem and around the marsh area. Water flow, though, was high and all dams were overtopped. Also, the beavs are taking out some of the excess alder trees on the site, so I'm very pleased with that. If we can just get them to focus on the alders, they'll actually do us a big favor.Remarkable Day in The Hylebos
At the Spring Valley Open Space, we surprised a great blue heron that must've been in a nearby tree. I didn't notice him until I heard a repeated sqawking and looked up to see the bird flying over us, insistently sounding his displeasure with our intrusion on his private Hylebos.
Usually herons are rather reticent with people, but this guy was so mad, he circled back to land in a tree nearby and casatigate us. I told him that we were sorry to have surprised him, and would leave shortly, but this didn't satisfy the heron. He blew a a few more rasberries our way, then took flight and headed south to Spring Valley Ranch.
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