I've fallen way behind in my goal of describing the park on a daily basis.  Today, the new growth on all the plants raced ahead.  Some berries are beginning to form on the salmonberry.  Little white moths are flitting about everywhere.  The alders have leafed out and the maples are dropping flower clusters.  The vine maples have their tiny little flowers.  Very few trees or shrubs still have bare branches.  The garry oaks are the only ones I can think of that haven't put forth their first leaves.  The spruce trees have bright green paint brushes of new growth.  Even the bindweed is starting to shoot up.  Many little insects are appearing, and I fear I am missing opportunities to catalog them. 

Today is the 103rd day of the year, and I have 99 species photographed and identified on Project Noah.  I have certainly seen and identified more than 103 species even though I haven't fully documented them.  I had better get cracking because I did all the easy species first. 

Tonight we came up through the park right around sunset, and I searched the canopy for owls.  While I was looking around, a barred owl blasted us with hoots directly overhead.  He was invisible to me until he spoke up.  The barred owl will be added to my list of species that I have seen and identified definitely, but I can't submit to Project Noah because getting a picture is difficult if not impossible.  There are other species that I can photograph but not definitely identify so far.  If I reach my goal of 365 species this year, the final Project Noah numbers might not reflect that. 

The tide was -2.3 feet today.  I saw strange creatures in the tide pools, and managed to photograph a few.  Pictures from today can be seen here.  The seep had skunk cabbage, stink currant, horse tail, lady fern, and Indian plum, all bursting forth.  I may have gotten a bit of a sunburn.  The wild cucumber is sending forth its new shoots.

This evening I saw Venus before sunset.  At sunset, I took this picture of Venus, but you can't really see it with the iPhone.  Zoomed in and cropped, Venus is about the size of one pixel, seeming to rest on the branch.  As we continued our walk, I saw Jupiter, Mars, and Sirius.  I eventually saw Orion come out as the sky got darker.  It was a calm, clear night, with just a few clouds.  The dogs seemed not to notice the pure blue sky, the graceful arc of the alder branches, or the coppery color of Mars.  The sniffed urine and nibbled on grass, and they thought that was a bunch of fun.  So much beauty goes to waste.  Or perhaps I don't properly appreciate the art of urine.

A hummingbird zipped around the currants near the parking lot.  I didn't have my good camera.  I stood still for several minutes and watched as he sipped a tiny amount from each of dozens of flowers.  It's hard to imagine that the minute quantities of nectar supplied enough calories to zip around like that, but I guess weighing about the same as a nickel makes it easier.  He flashed green and ruby in the afternoon sun.  I looked around, hoping to see his nest, but I couldn't find one.  Some of the currants, the ones that weren't butchered, are covered in blossoms.  The ice storm in January does not seem to have harmed them.

We went to the beach at sunset, but it was a uniform, featureless gray-blue.  We did see Venus, very bright in the hazy blue sky.  The moon also came up as we were hiking back up the trail. 

The rocks of ELP have been through hell.  Many times.  These rocks might be as young as 100 years old, as in the case of petrified wood, but most of them are millions of years old.  I would venture that none of these rocks are billions of years old, in their present form.  The location on Earth where ELP now sits was once the middle of the ocean.  These rocks were once molten magma deep inside the Earth.  The actual atoms within the rocks may have started in the Earth's mantle, been spewed out as lava, been churned back into the mantle by plate tectonics, and gone through that cycle hundreds of times.  Before that, the atoms in these stones, as well as the atoms in your body, were forged in the furnace of a distant star that exploded.  Although these stones are millions of years old, on average, they are constantly renewed and recycled by the Earth. 

In comparison, the forest at ELP is very young, at about nine or ten thousand years.  Over the centuries, Puget Sound will become a lake, and it may even become a desert if the Olympics grow into a mountain range like the Cascades and cut off the flow of moisture from the ocean.  If North America is moving southwest at a pace of 1 cm per year, and the accretion of material from the pacific plate builds up at about the same rate, then in a million years, the Pacific Coast will be six miles further west of ELP than it is today.  (Maybe.  Who knows if my math is right.)  ELP can't last forever as a healthy forest.  Maybe thirty or forty thousand years would be a lot to ask.  My hope is that it could last at least five thousand years, and the yew trees I've planted could live their entire natural life spans. 

Will anything we do today matter in a million years?  Most definitely.  Species are going extinct at the fastest pace in the history of the Earth.  Human are causing the Sixth Extinction.  It's already too late for millions of species, but other species might survive if we change our ways.  Millions of species will never evolve if we kill them off today.  Locally, ELP can't survive for a million years if we don't improve its health today.

Fifteen people took a tour of Seahurst Park today, to see the trilliums and skunk cabbage.  We saw about 400 trillium flowers on a two mile loop of the upper portion.  We also saw a portion of the park about the size of Eagle Landing Park that was completely free of invasive species.  That is my goal for ELP: free of invasive species and hundreds of trilliums.  It would require a different ethos of the visitors to the park.  The trilliums in Seahurst Park survive because relatively few people expend the time and energy to walk that two mile loop.  Fortunately.  Trilliums near the trail in ELP have mostly died out.  It would be a sign the ELP was headed in the right direction if the trail could be lined with beautiful native flowers, and visitors wouldn't take them or trample them.  Although I would love to walk a flower-lined trail, I don't plant wildflowers beside the trail because I know it would be a waste.  I should say, I don't plant them any more.  Previous efforts to beautify the park have been destroyed.  Now, I plant tough native species that can handle abuse, and I don't plant anything near the trail.

As we approached the top of the stairs, the heron announced himself as he landed at the beach.  Many birds were noisy today, like the flicker, a blue jay, lots of Bewick's wrens, robbins, crows, and many others I couldn't quite identify.  Other than the birds, the park was very quiet.  I imagine that people all along the shore, on both sides, from West Seattle to Three Tree Point, were enjoying the tranquility.  A jet sky zipped along from Three Tree Point to West Seattle, shattering the tranquility.  I'm sure that was one of his main sources of pleasure, knowing he was ruining a peaceful moment for everyone else.  This sort of freedom is held up as an American ideal, the freedom to destroy someone else's peace.  Where we are is such a long way from where we need to be that I can't see a path from here to there.

I caught a hummingbird today.  This is so close to being a perfect picture.  If I had just a little more sunshine, I could have frozen the action a little more and increased the depth of field.  If the bird and the flowers were just a bit sharper, this would be a perfect picture.  As it is, this picture illustrates the importance of native plants.  Hummingbirds love red flowering currant and salmon berry.  Last week, I saw a hummingbird down near the beach that appeared to be catching bugs, not sipping nectar.  I often hear them dive bombing from over one hundred feet above, making that chirp with their wings as they skid to a halt near me.  The hummingbirds have been around all winter. 

The eagle soared below me today.  I often see him soaring overhead, but today I was at the top of the stairs, above him as he flew south along the beach.  Lately, eagles have been flying through the area quietly.  Usually, during mating season, they are conspicuously noisy.  Maybe they are being noisy around their nest, half a mile north.  Around here, they are so silent that you have to be lucky to see them at the right moment. 

Wind and rain kept most people out of the park today.  More trilliums are coming up in their secret locations.  Almost every plant has broken dormancy and shown some sign of life.  The only plant without a hint of spring so far is the wild cucumber.  I have pictures from previous years of the cucumber blooming in mid-May, so that's 45 days to go from nothing to five feet tall and blooming.  The eagle flew right over my head, silently.  I wonder how many times he has flown right over me without my knowledge.  Lady ferns are unfurling. 

Komu helped me free two trees from ivy.  The ivy grew 30 feet up one tree and 60 feet up the other.  The ivy stem seen in the lower picture measured about four inches wide and had at least 16 growth rings.  Unfortunately, the alder with the most ivy also had the most decay, and it may not enjoy its freedom very long.  Hopefully the ivy will be completely dead before it falls, so it won't spread any faster than it already does. 

skunk cabbage flower destroyed by casual vandal

Graffiti and trash filled the park today after the first sunny weekend of the year.  By law, graffiti must be removed in a week or less.  I would bet this graffiti stays up indefinitely if I don't remove it myself.  The park receives about 100 visitors a day, any one of whom could report this graffiti to the City, or just clean it up themselves.  We'll see, I guess.

A recent trial about Tyler Clementi's suicide has bullying in the news.  As several pundits pointed out, the roommate who violated Tyler's privacy wasn't the only one to blame.  The people who received that private information and did not stop the bully are equally to blame.  Eagle Landing Park is the victim of bullies who pick on nature because she can't fight back.  Not only are these individuals truly horrible, but the rest of the 100 visitors a day who come to the park and do nothing to stop this abuse are not such great people either.

If you see someone abusing the park, you could say something.  You could object.  You could ask them why they are doing this.  You could take their picture and possibly call the police, although the police won't actually show up.  If all of the 99 other visitors to the park told this one person to stop vandalizing the park, chances are he would stop.  Only by the apathy of the many can this person get away with it.

I saw a bumblebee, a hummingbird, and a Douglas squirrel.  I can't count any of them in the Project Noah mission because I could not get their pictures with an iPhone.  I should be keeping two lists, in order to get to 365 species.  The Project Noah would be one list, and the other would contain those species that I positively identified without photographing them.  Bombus vosnesinskii, Calypte anna, and Tamiasciurus douglasii.  I am also seeing the begininnings of things like Cooleye's hedge nettle and sticky weed, but I can wait on those and get their pictures eventually. 

This is why humans will go extinct.  Five days ago, I first noticed this trillium beside the trail.  There used to be a large cluster of trilliums here, but over the years they had been abused down to nothing.  This year, one managed to struggle back.  When I saw it, I figured it wouldn't last long.  It lasted five days before someone plucked the flower off of it.  Most likely, it won't last too much longer before it is trampled by dogs or kids.  During those five days that people had a chance to see its flower, probably several hundred people walked by the flower, and probably several dozen noticed and admired it.  One person took the bloom, simply because it was there. 

The flower thief will suffer no consequences for her action.  Hundreds of other people who might have seen the flower will be deprived of its beauty, but the flower thief won't be punished.  The flower thief does not care that this flower was taken away from everyone else who came after her.  The flower thief may not even know why she took it.  It was there, she made up some excuse why it was okay to take this flower, and she took it. 

It is this way with everything else in nature.  If 95% of the people are willing to protect and preserve a natural resource, it doesn't matter.  The 5% who are willing to ruin everything for everyone else can demolish nature with impunity.  The 95% will not enforce laws that protect nature. 

In the neighborhood around Eagle Landing Park, hundreds of large Douglas-fir trees contribute to the environment, providing ecological services to us all.  Every year, 99% of the people in this neighborhood don't cut down their large trees, but 1% does.  They suffer no repercussions, even if it is illegal to cut those trees.  Within a certain radius of the eagle's nest tree, you need a permit to cut a significant tree.  No one ever gets that permit, and no one is ever fined.  The houses are bought and sold, and that 1% moves around the neighborhood.  In a few decades, all of the large Douglas-firs will be gone.  The people who cut them will suffer no consequences. 

We all rely on the biosphere, whether we think so or not.  Most of us degrade the environment as a byproduct of daily living.  Our way of life is using resources at an unsustainable rate.  A small portion of the population degrades our environment at a much higher rate.  This man drives a car that puts out 100 times as much pollution as the average car.  His car is even prohibited by law, but the law is never enforced.  This family has a fire in the fireplace, burning wood.  It creates pollution that is much more damaging than car pollution, and it provides little or no actual heat to the house.  It actually sucks warm air up the chimney, and may make the furnace work harder than if there were no fire.  Another neighbor uses pesticides and fertilizers on his lawn, over-waters his lawn, and washes the chemicals into the storm drain.  A small minority, like the flower thief, know they can degrade the environment as much as they want, and they will not suffer any repercussions.  This is how humans will go extinct.  The flower thief is killing us all, and no one cares.

The dogs and I reached the beach just before sunset.  At fifteen minutes before sunset, the sky and water were solid gray with just a couple of light patches in the sky.  I saw a black Labrador retriever swimming about 300 feet from shore.  Anyway, it looked like a black Labrador retriever, but given that it dove down to the sea bed looking for dinner, it must have been some other seagoing mammal.  I couldn't get a sense of the size from that distance, but it might have been a river otter or a harbor seal.  An otter can weigh up to 30 pounds and a harbor seal can weigh up to 300 pounds, so my guess is that this was a river otter.  At one point, I imagined that he was floating on his back, resting something on his chest, and manipulating it with his hands.  I took a video of him with my cell phone, but he ended up being about three dark pixels undulating in a field of solid grey. 

In the woods, it was so quiet that the faint gurgling of my hungry stomach was the loudest sound.  Down at the beach, it would have been just as quiet, but freighters sent breaking waves onto the beach.  It hadn't occurred to me before, but this is noise pollution. You think of waves as being natural sounds.  This evening, nature would have been perfectly silent.  It was unnatural commerce that created those waves.  I wish I had the inclination and habit of coming to the beach at dawn, so I could enjoy the silence as if all other humans had vanished. 

When I reached the beach today, I kept looking over my shoulder, wondering what plant or animal might swallow me next.  I was relieved when the alien just came strolling down the beach, with a hat on.  We sat down on a driftwood log.

I said, "No buttons today?"

"I thought it might be more efficient just to get your thoughts on a few things before I wasted any more time.  As you might have guessed, I came to you for this fateful decision because I read on your blog how much you hate people."

"Why does that matter?  You obviously have the technological capabilities to do anything you want with us, regardless of permission."

"Yes, but if I eradicate a species by force, I have to fill out a ton of paperwork.  If it's your decision, then I'm off the hook, and we get to save the other species without a lot of fuss."

"I already told you, I'm ready to hit the red button.  What are we waiting for?"

"I guess it just caught me off guard.  Tell me again why you hate people so much."

"Mostly, because they make me guilty by association.  I don't want to be a member of that generation of people that chose to ruin the Earth.  More than any other generation before us, we have the power to wipe out millions of species and entire ecosystems, permanently.  We also have the power and the technology to heal the Earth and make it the paradise it once was.  We can do all of that without much inconvenience to ourselves, and we would benefit in the long run. 

"Look, humans are going to wipe themselves out.  There can't be much doubt about that.  There are no political solutions.  Everyone votes his pocketbook, and the environment doesn't get to vote.  Our economy, our way of life is based on the rape of the Earth.  If you can provide me with a virus that will accomplish the job in a few weeks instead of a few decades, it will just be accomplishing the inevitable with a lot less pain and drama."

The alien took off his hat and looked at me with all three eyes.  "But wouldn't you feel sad?  Don't you see good in people?"

"I see good people every where I look.  People are capable of great kindness and sacrifice.  When it comes to stopping that small minority of people who are driving this unsustainable way of life, all of the good people are willing to just stand by and let it happen.  Plus, even the good people are complicit in our crimes against ourselves.  Almost every aspect of daily life makes the problem worse."

"Couldn't you persuade the people of Earth to do more of the good and stop destroying their own planet?  You said they have the capability.  They only need the will."

"I will keep trying to persuade people until the day I die, but no one listens to me.  If one man says that every other human is living life wrong, and that he knows the answers to all of life's problems, no one is going to listen to him.  Maybe they would listen to you, what with the third eye and the ability to travel between stars and engineer viruses inside the belly of a whale."

"Maybe, but of course, I am just a product of your imagination."

"Of course.  I guess I should have seen that coming."

I woke up again, in a bed full of dogs, smelling of dogs, mostly. 

I went to the beach again and looked out across the water for any sign of a whale.  As I searched, the alder tree behind me bent down and grabbed me, stuffing me into a small cave beneath its roots.  I tumbled down the rabbit hole and ended up in another control room, scratched and dirty.  I walked over to the metal table with two buttons and sat down. 

To the alien, I said, "You know, you could just come to my house and discuss this problem.  If you are able to disguise a trap as an alder tree, you could easily cover up that third eye.  A hat would do the trick just fine."

He said, "This gives me plausible deniability."

I looked at the buttons, which were red and orange this time.  I held my hand over the red one and looked at the alien.

He said, "Of course, they aren't active yet.  Today, the red one still wipes out all humans.  The orange one releases a virus that increases the intelligence of all humans.  By tweaking a few gene locations, we can stimulate the body to release endorphins and oxytocin whenever people read books or learn new information or skills.  Humans would value knowledge above all, and they would logically conclude that the health of the planet was in their own best interests.  Would you be at all inclined to press the orange button?"

"I don't know.  I mean, I score much higher than average on IQ tests, and I still do stupid things.  Plus, I haven't been able to figure out how to convince people to do things that are in their best interests.  Intelligent people often delude themselves.  I'm not at all sure the orange virus would work.  I suppose you could try it for a year, and have the red virus as a backup.  Why do you care so much about Earth's biosphere when the people who live here don't care?"

"Your form of evolved life carries a wealth of information.  Molecules have been synthesized by nature that we could never have imagined.  There are processes and relationships that we could study for centuries in order to increase our own knowledge base.  Once those life forms are gone, most of their data goes with them.  Of course, we don't feel these species should die based on the arbitrary whims of people, but the lost opportunity as just as great as the loss of life itself."

"Well, I hope you find the right formula, because we are running out of time."

Again, I woke up in a bed full of dogs, wondering if I smelled like fresh earth.