Blog Post #3 Ecological Survey

                                            Flowing Lake

For my ecological survey, I visited Flowing Lake in Snohomish. I had been there several times before, but it was interesting to really take in the nature and study the land. The first thing that caught my eye when I got there was a bunch of geese, but they were too far away for me to get a closer look. I have always known flowing lake for having tons of geese (mostly because of the gross amount of goose poop on the beach!) The lake has a beach area, where I saw lots of rocks, sand, and clam shells. Also, there were quite a few logs in the lake, and lily pads growing. Much of the land is native, but there is a park area and a ton of grass that has been planted, as well as camp sites and trails.

After exploring the beach area for a bit, I decided to go on one of the trails to do the survey. One of the biometric vegetation types that I identified was the Hemlock, based on their needles and tiny pine cones scattered on the ground. The trail was also full of sword ferns, and what appeared to be red huckleberry plants. The organism I chose to survey was a group of fungi on a tree, which after researching I believe to be the clam mushroom. (Pictured below). These were the only clam mushrooms I saw on the site. The mushrooms were white and orange and all over one side of a tree.

Below is a picture of the park (based on a picture of the map I took). I labeled the spot on the trail "survey" where I did my simple transect sample. I chose a relatively straight part of the path to do my survey. I walked along the trail and placed my hula hoop along the side of the trail. The organisms were fairly distributed throughout, I would say. The most common organisms were ferns and blackberry bushes. On my 10th trial, I ran into a giant log, though the log had moss and plants growing around it. Here is the data I collected!

1) 5

2) 5

3) 6

4) 3

5) 5

6) 5

7) 3

8) 4

9) 3

10) 3 - giant log!

11) 3

12) 4

The average number of organisms was about 4.083. From the beginning to the end of the transect, the number stayed fairly consistent, and I think that was because I was going along a straight path where a lot of the same organisms were growing. I didn't face a ton of challenges, except it did take me a while to find the right place to survey. This exercise taught me that while there are a ton of different plants in the park, (especially near the lake), many of the plants are the same if you are only looking at one chunk of the land. I think there are a couple different populations in the park, because there appeared to be such a difference between the organisms I observed on the lake and the organisms on the trail. I do think they are connected, though, because a lot of the animals and insects that inhabit the park roam throughout the beach area and the woods. I noticed that it is a very effective way to learn what organisms inhabit a particular place. I see now how this method could very well be used for threatened/ endangered species because it is a way to measure populations without having to find a way to study an entire piece of land. I think in that case, repeating the sampling a few times in different locations would give even more accurate data.