2018 Snap Shot

SPRING 2018 SNAP SHOT Elevation in feet of the highest summit on Opal Creek’s ridgeline 1,385 5,556 (Battle Ax Mountain, above) Number of participant nights Our Opal Creek Expeditions 925Number of outdoor scholarship program is growing school participants by leaps and bounds! This summer we’ll be Number backpacking with 23 budding wilderness of schools leaders supported by the Juan Young Trust and Columbia Sportswear, as our 14 Expeditions 26 programs head deep into the Opal Creek, Bull of the Woods, and Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Areas. Juan Young TRUST I was really shown the importance“ of letting nature be.” — West Albany High School student 4,695 Outdoor school meals served Green Comma butterfly New Additions coming to Jawbone Flats! We are thrilled to announce that we are embarking on a new construction project this year: an outdoor classroom and interpretive kiosk in the meadow! This project is made possible by the generous support of the Oregon Community Foundation, Green Hammer, and REI. Tailed frog This fall, Portland-based Green Hammer will take the lead in designing and constructing a covered wooden pavilion in the meadow. The pavilion will add a new teaching space for students during the school year, and covered seating for the public on weekends and during the summer. The existing kiosk will be transformed into an open-air interpretive center, with exhibits about Opal Creek’s unique natural and cultural history. Bike hooks will be added to the outer wall of the kiosk so that visitors on mountain bikes can safely store them while exploring the trails and creeks beyond Jawbone Flats. We can’t wait to add these new facilities to make the Opal Creek experience even better for both our program participants and the hiking public! Volunteers50 picking up trash on National Trails Day Promoting conservation through educational experiences in wilderness. I especially liked the quiet/no talking “ Number of parts of our hikes. It forced us to really Opal Creek take in everything around us — sights, staff inside the gate sounds, smells.” — Bolton Primary School chaperone 10 Number of Opal Creek staff outside the gate 4 Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center is a founding member of EarthShare Oregon Oregon farmers and producers supplying the Jawbone kitchen (from Portland to Junction City!) 11 SAECHAO SENG Thank you to these fabulous Oregon businesses whose donations helped make our spring season a success! Thank you to these funders for Rose E. Tucker supporting this year’s outdoor CHARITABLE TRUST school tuition subsidies! NATURAL HISTORY SPOTLIGHT colored goop (the bright yellow Fuligo septica or ‘scrambled egg SLIME MOLD slime’ is common at Opal Creek). But slime molds are actually single-celled organisms that can communicate with each If you came across these other chemically and move around together as a unified body. friendly-looking gray and Congregated slime molds have even been able to accurately pink puffballs on a hike, solve mazes in search of food! you would probably think Much like a fungus, slime molds reproduce by putting out a you were looking at some fruiting body, or aethelia. Slime mold aethelia are often brightly- kind of fungus—but it’s colored and look a little fantastical, like these gray and pink balls actually a fascinating from Lycogala epidendrum (also known as wolf’s milk). type of ancient organism When slime molds are not congregating or fruiting, they move called a slime mold! around alone as microscopic amoeba-like organisms, feasting You can find them on on bacteria, fungal and plant spores, and tiny pieces of organic the forest floor or on matter. So even though most of the time we can’t see them, rotting wood, often slime molds play an important part in the nutrient cycle of the appearing like a splotchy, old-growth forest. n Lycogala epidendrum C Printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink. OPAL CREEK ANCIENT FOREST CENTER | WWW.OPALCREEK.ORG.

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