Walking Tour : Ravenna Park

VIRTUAL TOUR OF SITE IN RAVENNA PARK

Welcome!  You have found the online-guided tour to a secret nature location in Ravenna Park!


For 10 weeks this Autumn of 2014 I have been visiting this spot, and observing everything possible, and you are about to become very familiar with it as well after enjoying this online walking tour!

Follow the green line from the right up to the boxed nature spot on the map and then you are there!

Tour Stations:

1.  A Lesson in the Land-use History 

2. Geology and Geomorphology 

3. Birds

4. Plants

5. Invertebrates 

6. Lichen / Fungi

7. A Visual Ecological Interaction Between Species

8. A Visual Effect of an Ecological Disturbance

9. Animal Behavior

10. The Ravenna Creek


                                   NOW LET'S START THE TOUR!

1.) Land-Use History:

At this first station you will be receiving some very important historical background to this beloved park in Seattle. Read on and learn all about it!  Ravenna Park is known as one of the oldest parks in the Seattle area.  It was opened in 1887, and originally called Ravenna Springs Park.  Just as it does today, this park features great trails and a community atmosphere.

The close by Green Lake Park, with a lake left over by the melting of the Vashon Ice Glacial Sheet over 50,000 years ago, the outflow from this lake creates the Ravenna Creek that flows down to what we know as Union Bay.  As the towns around Ravenna Spring Park developed so did the logging operations in the area.  You may think that this means that a lot of the old growth Douglas firs and Alders, Cedars, and Willows were chopped down, but you'd be wrong. See told you you'd learn something.  This privately operated park was one of the few areas that "escaped the logger's axe in the late 1800s." (Ravenna).  The owners of the land that is now Ravenna, changed hands several times before it became a park.  It was named after a "famously beautiful pine-tree-forested ravine town of Ravenna, Italy" (Ravenna) in 1887 by George and Oltilde Dorffel.
Come the 1900s, the park began to be marketed as "Big Tree Park" because of some of the towering trees.

First Image: From 1894 and courtesy of UW Special Collections (IMG no. SEA1073) 

Visit the second image here:http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/seattle/id/1990/rec/10IMG no. SEA2036
Citation:  Blecha, Peter. "Ravenna Park (Seattle)." HistoryLink.org. The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, 23 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

2.) Geology and Geomorphology:

Some of the leftovers of the Pleistocene era from 16,000 years ago are in of the Pacific Northwest.  Many leftovers are in the forms of adapted trees and forever changed landscapes after the ice melted away after a few thousand years.  But the leftovers that are closer to home then that, are that of this glacial period they even lie within 10 miles of most of us here in Seattle, meaning they are very close to where a lot of us call home.  In Ravenna Park there is an example of an erratic, which was left when the Cordilleran Ice Sheet melted leaving behind large rocks.  This erratic is the first station of this walking tour because as you enter the park from the north end, you come across this wonderful example of natural history and you can be reminded that there was once a very long period of time when there was not much life, and you are reminded that each person holds such a small space on earth, but when you know what is around you and what the history is, you can find that it helps you hold so much more of a position in our world of nature.  If this sound intriguing in anyway please read on to the rest of this online tour because there is so much more you can learn. 




Image from: Herzog, Meghan. Digital image. Geology. Blogspot.com, 10 June 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Citation:  Tucker, Dave. "Northwest Geology Field Trips." Northwest Geology Field Trips. N.p., 06 May 2011. Web. 10 December 2014.

3.) Birds:

I have been so pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed looking for, watching, following, listening the birds this Autumn.  It has been one of my favorite things, and now I do it all the time.  And after you have experienced this station you will be feeling the exact same way.  Some birds you can find at this station are the black-capped chickadee, the golden crowned kinglet, the american crow and sometimes, only sometimes the pacific wren.  All of these birds have been ID'ed in my iNaturalist link so feel free to start studying which is which before you go visit my cite.  There are many different nature guides specific to birds and if you are starting to love this station as much as me, I recommend you look one up!

4.) Plants:

The Environment 280 Natural History of the Puget Sound Region class's largest focuses are Birds and Plants of this beautiful region that we call home.  We have taken lots of time outside of the classroom and dedicated it to learning these plants.  Having a nature spot that I could return to in Ravenna Park, or a place that the class repeatedly came back to to learn plants and trees and birds what a great advantage.  I was able to identify many and many of the plants in my nature site thanks to the time we spent in the field practicing our identification skills.  Here is a list of plants and tree life that our class learned in Ravenna Park and that were in or very near to my nature spot.  Western White Pine, Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Snowberry, Lady fern, Sword fern, Thimbleberry, Salmon berry, mosses and Lichens, Mycelium, Beaked hazelnut, Red Huckleberry, Salal to name a fair few.  At this site you will have the best view of some of the plants that I have identified through iNaturalist and from my experience in class and help from my guide book.  Enjoy your time at this site trying to find different plant species, or trying to find the species listed above. 

5.) Invertebrates:

Invertebrates are animals that do not have backbones and this collection of animals all have some similar traits.  Some of the groups classified under inverts are: sponges, flatworms, mollusks, arthropods, insects, and segmented worms.  Something that is an interesting fact about inverts are that they were the first animals to evolve, which explains why there are so many different groups and different species.  Inverts also account for 97% of all known species.  Now that we know a little about invertebrates we can talk about what we are seeing at this station!  This station is located along the side of the creek closest to our central spot.  Here you will be able, if you wait, to see almost all of the inverts in this nature spot.  Here I have seen many in and along the water and some also on parts of the land that are dry!  Above is what I found on a leaf of the nearby tree, these little millipede like guys.  I wasn't able to observe much of them because they didn't do much more than just sit there on the leaf while I sketched.  But I believe if you spend some time by our lovely creek side you are going to be able to spot some pretty cool invertebrates!



Citation: Klappenbach, Laura. "10 Facts About Invertebrates." About. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

6.) Lichen / Fungi:

Mycena and Mushrooms are very common on the ground floor of Ravenna.
Several of the observations below show the different kinds that can be found at this station and a little information about them!

Unidentified Fungi: The orange one to the left was found further from the creek, growing in the soil around some of the smaller bushes.

Mycena: A fungi species that is very common in Ravenna Park.  It grows on the ground and whenever I've seen it, it's always been in pretty wet areas.  In my nature spot they grow near the trees that are near the creek.  (This one is pictured above on the right)

Turkey Tail:  (above to the right)  Found growing on a broken off branch of a tree aka grows specifically on wood.  This fungi is pretty tough and hard.  When I went to pick one of the heads of the mushroom off the wood, it took some effort to complete.  The bottom is very white around the edges, has rings along the top of the mushroom, and seems to be not too young of a mushroom. Different coloring in the middle compared to the edge of the bottom. 

White Mushroom: This thin flowery looking mushroom was found growing in the soil, and was surrounded by moss and fallen leaves as you can see above. (left of the station title)

Lichen:  Can be found growing on the douglas fir in my natural area.  Possible ID's of rag lichen and many leafy mosses, and crustose, fruticose, and foliose lichens in this nature spot in Ravenna.

lichen image from: www.freezingblue.com

                                                           7.) A Visible Ecological Interaction Between Species:

I love these pictures above for this station and let me tell you why. Because this station is all about the trees interacting with trees.  It has been something that I slowly began to notice more because of the changing of the seasons.  Above are pictures of what I am talking about here and you will be able to stand at this station and observe how these trees are working together.  There are several fallen trees of different species, both are still unknown to me because it was hard to ID something that was so difficult to access and tell what had been growing before it fell.  In the pictures above you should be able to see what I am describing.  They have all fallen together and have made a sort of new ecosystem and for the birds in the area a type of playground to find new possible homes and nooks to hide food in.  Its trees falling onto trees and together creating something for the animals and life around it. 

8.) A Visible Effect of Ecological Disturbance:

My central spot, as I have shown you in the stations above is, pictured here to the left and shows you what I see when I look directly down.  The fallen tree has had ivy on it since the beginning of my time observing in Ravenna, and this is the station that I am going to be teaching you all about invasive species.  Invasive species are species that have been introduced to an area, and these species ecologically do not interact with native species very well.  Some invasive species cause environmental harm to the area and most really difficult ones like ivy and blackberry species cause economic harm.  It takes a lot of energy, effort, time, and money to remove invasive species from areas that we want to not cause this inevitable environmental harm.  The main reason that this ivy is not wanted by this environmental steward is because invasive species tend to always outcompete native species for food or room to grow.  There isn't a go to easy way to identify an invasive species unless you recognize that something is clearly taking over a certain area.  Even so, investing in an outdoor guide to your area is a good way to start having a clear image in your head of some of these annoying organisms.  Maybe after that you can walk around head held high with the information of what is not a kind guest to our Puget Sound Region!

9.) Animal behavior:  

One of the most key interactions to my nature spot, and this tour, happens when you are nearest the trees or at my central spot, on top of the fallen tree over the creek.  This is where all the bird magic happens.  Every time I have observed interactions between 2 animals or 2 animal species, it has been from this spot.  Animal behavior, if you do not know, can be defined as the scientific study of the wild and wonderful ways in which animals interact with each other, and with other living things and things in the environment.  I dedicated an entire blog post on my homepage to the birds that I have seen in my nature spot.  The most outstanding was several golden crowned kinglets that flitted in and out of the fallen tree branches around me.  At this station I encourage you to spend sometime sitting on the log or standing in the creek by these trees and wait for the birds to come closer to you.  It will happen and it usually happens once you have started connecting yourself to nature.  Waiting for the birds to come, try to find them with not just your ears but your eyes too.  Following them around the sky above brings you closer than you would think.  


For my detailed experiences with birds in my nature spot this Autumn see my main blog page and my Week 8 post.

Image: Lane, Penelope. Web log post. Accidental Birdwatching. Penelope Lane, June 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

10.) The Ravenna Creek:

The Ravenna creek is the constantly flowing string of water that winds its way around the shoulders and corners all the way in and out of the park.  This station can be found snaking its way through the middle of my nature area in Ravenna Park because it is the greatest and most impressive natural piece of this nature spot.  Right in my central spot is the best view of the creek and incidentally is where I have observed most about this creek and other features of my nature this Autumn.  The creek has a cool and melodic trickle.  The creek is the final station of this online tour because it gives you a solid ending to your journey throughout Ravenna Park today.  So far you have learned that Ravenna Park is a very old establishment that will continue to grow in biodiversity and life through the next 200 years and on.  The creek in Ravenna can show a lot of diversity, it just takes some patience and passion.  Some of the smallest visual natural history and life can be found in the creek and taking some time at this final stage to either brave the cold water without shoes, or donning your rain boots to see what you can feel from the current will be a refreshing finish to this online led tour.

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To see the full images from the UW archive and more about the Seattle/UW area consult the following citation:

University Libraries: Digital Collections. University of Washington Libraries, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

Cassie Maylor