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Black Cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa)

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What does it take to earn a regional and national title? The Black Cottonwood of Willamette Mission State Park could tell you.

Black Cottonwood’s are native to Oregon and can be found from Alaska through northern California, and eastward into Montana. Cottonwoods are typically very tall and large trees and are the largest popular species in the Americas.

Image courtesy Oregon State University Extension

Typically, they will grow up to 164 feet and have a trunk diameter over 6.6 feet. Our winner, the “Willamette Mission Cottonwood,” measures 155 feet (47.26 m) tall, 29 feet around (8.8 m), with a crown that stretches just over 93 feet.

Cottonwoods live relatively short-lived trees. Some will reach 400 years old.

As they age, the bark hardens becoming thick and fissured. By age 20, cottonwood bark has thickened enough to help protect the tree from fire. At this point, the bark is hard enough to cause sparks when cut by a chainsaw.

Seedlings and saplings can be killed or damaged by fire. Repeated fire can completely eliminate all Black Cottonwood from an area.

This tree is a natural colonizer and after a burn may be able to colonize large areas with good light, moist soil, and bare mineral soil from seed.

What makes this an important tree?

The light-colored hardwood has a fine, even texture with indistinct growth rings and a fine grain. The wood is light weight and ideal for making a number of products (such as pallets, boxes, crates, furniture, high-grade paper, fuel pellets, and plywood). 

Cottonwoods are frequently used for windbreaks, shelterbelts, and road screening. The aggressive root system makes it an effective soil stabilizer and useful in riparian and aquatic restoration projects.

Research is continuing on species hybrids as potential sources of biomass. They grow faster than any other northern temperate region tree and are easily propagated.

They are fast to re-sprout, and quick to harvest. Some sites have so much existing seed, they don’t need to be seeded after harvest.

(This raises the question of ‘Could these hybrids become a future noxious and invasive weed?’)

Even the critters like it

Black cottonwood provides cover and food for deer, elk, beaver, and birds. Even rotten trunks are useful in areas with scarce shelter.  

Black Cottonwood male flowers (image courtesy Oregon State University Extension)

But…

Many people are, unfortunately, negatively impacted by the copious amounts of tree pollen. Male trees release pollen in late May and June, about three weeks before the females release seed.

Trees create an abundance of seeds every year. Seed release resembles a serious snow storm.

Cotton-like hair is attached to each seed. This hair keeps seed afloat on air or water for long distances. The seed can sprout one day after touching the ground!

Seeds and cotton-like hair (image courtesy OSU Extension)

Native Americans discovered that the tree resin was good for treating sore throats, coughs, lung pain, and rheumatism, and that the inner bark good for creating soap.

And then…

Perhaps the most perplexing questions about this large tree is how one would go about measuring a giant one. I guess you just have to climb to the top, drop a very long tape measure, and hold on tight…  

REFERENCES
–Heritage Trees, Oregon (https://oregontic.com/oregon-heritage-trees/willamette-mission-cottonwood/)
–Oregon State University, Landscape Plants, Populus trichocarpa (https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/populus-trichocarpa)
–USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Plant Guide, Black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera L. ssp. trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray ex Hook.) Brayshaw (https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=POBAT)
–King5 “Is cottonwood fluff causing your allergies? (https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/take-5/take-5-is-cottonwood-fluff-causing-your-allergies/281-557522159)
–Monumental Trees, Exactly Measuring Tree Height (https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/content/measuringheight/)

Western Skink (Plestiodon skiltonianus)

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Western Skink (Courtesy of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife)

Western skinks may look familiar. Did some of those old monster movies enlarged this modest five-inch lizard to fight Godzilla? Maybe they were hanging out in the garden.

Western skinks are just one of more than 2,500 lizard species in the world. Oregon has a variety of lizards, the most common of them being Western Skinks.

Where to find them

Western skinks can often be found basking themselves on a warm rock in a wide variety of habitats. They favor rocky areas, such as riparian zones, with some moisture. Western skinks are good burrowers and may constructs moist burrows several times its own body length. Standing water is not required.

They avoid heavy brush and dense forests but can be found in coniferous woodlands and forests, and grasslands to desert scrubs. Their region is fairly large and includes Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, Missouri, and portions of Texas and California.

Chow’s On

Western skinks consume a wide variety of invertebrates and arthropods including beetles, grasshoppers, sow bugs, moths, flies, spiders, and earthworms. The lizards forage and hunt through leaf litter, and are most active at night and in the early morning.

Drop Tail and Run

They belong to a special group of blue tongue lizards with smooth, glossy scales, and ‘racing’ stripes on its side (these lizards are fast and very agile). Juveniles are more vivid than adults and sport bright blue tails that fade with age to grey in adulthood.

When in a pinch, Skinks will literally ‘drop tail and run.’ They can detach their tail, which will whip and wiggle violently, giving the lizard a chance to escape. The tail will eventually grow back. Some lizards are known to break off their own tails and eat them when food is scarce.

REFERENCES:

–Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Lizards and Skinks (https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/lizards-and-skinks
–Wikipedia, Western Skinks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_skink)
–Burke Museum Collection and Research (https://www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/biology/herpetology/amphibians-reptiles-washington/western-skink)

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)

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What graceful bird has bright yellow feet that are rarely seen because they are in the mud?

Photo from ODFW.

The bright yellow feet of the adult Snowy Egret are typically hidden by the mud and shallow water. The younger birds have dull yellowish legs and feet. The distinctive foot (yellow) and bill (black) colors make this bird easy to identify compared to other herons.

Habitat

Snowy Egrets forage the marshes and wetlands along the Oregon coast. The bright white feathers make the bird easy to see particularly as it stands still, closely watching its prey and poising for an ambush.

Prey can insects and worms, crustaceans, fish and crayfish, reptiles, snails, and worms. They will also startle prey through movements such as head sways and wing flicks, or through sounds, stab prey with their beaks, and take prey stirred up by other animals (such as cows).  

Too beautiful

At one time, the distinctive bright white feathers growing along the bird’s nape and neck captured too much attention. Egrets were overhunted in North America for these stylish hat decorations until 1910. Populations have increased.

Check out the bright yellow feet. Photo from Unsplash.

On the rebound

The Snowy egret is an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species in the Northern Basin and Range ecoregion and protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The birds breed eastern Oregon and in several southern U.S. states from California to Mississippi and throughout Central America. Snowy Egrets can be found year around in South America.

Where to look

The Snowy Egret is native and very common on the southern Oregon coast and likes to hang out near estuaries (such as Haynes Inlet near North Bend and along the Coos Bay), salt marshes (Isthmus Slough), flooded agricultural fields (like along the Coquille River drainage near Coquille) and mudfields, pond edges, and other shallow waters. A full-grown Snowy Egret is about two feet tall and has a wing span of nearly 40-inches.  

Where to learn more:
–All about birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snowy_Egret/id)
–ebird, Merlin, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (https://ebird.org/species/snoegr)
–Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/bitterns-herons-and-egrets)