@olympic_nps

THERE'S NO BETTER PLACE TO FIND YOURSELF THAT SITTING BY A WATERFALL AND LISTENING TO ITS MUSIC. Roland R Kemler

You likely will not have to walk far in the park’s lowland and coastal forests before stumbling upon clusters of the gem-studded puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum). Unlike gilled or pored mushrooms that regularly eject their spores into the air, puffball mushrooms store their spores internally and only release them after their fruiting body has degraded, a hole forms on their top and they are disturbed by rain, wind, wildlife or hikers. Perhaps you’ve stepped on a puffball and saw a visible cloud of dingy spores waft out of the mushroom. Such a visible profusion of spores could fall upon favorable conditions and eventually produce more puffballs. Be careful not to inhale these clouds of spores as they may be looking for a new home in the human body. Some humorous and poetic mycologists decided that this spore dispersal was akin to wolf farts and so brushed up on their Greek and named the genus Lycoperdon. In its early stages, the flesh of the gem-studded puffball is a creamy white. In fact, all mushroom guidebooks advise that you split a gem-studded puffball to make sure that you have not found a destroying angel (Amanita ocreata) in its immature “button” form. If you see the outline of a mushroom inside your presumed puffball, you’ve discovered a dangerous surprise. Also check the gem-like studs on the top of Lycoperdon perlatum to separate it from other puffballs. Unfortunately, in older specimens these “studs” can fall away. You can find the gem-studded puffball everywhere from lawns to mature forests. It often grows in impressive clusters. Maturity of puffballs can vary considerably within a cluster. Gem-studded puffballs are only edible if their interior is white and not yellow or blackish brown. They have a mild flavor and some utilize them much like tofu. Mushrooms come in all shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and scents. Some are edible and some are toxic. It is very easy to incorrectly identify a mushroom, and a wrong guess can be a fatal mistake. While you can collect up to one quart of mushrooms in Olympic National Park, always be sure you’ve carefully identified your fungal finds.

In the wilderness, my soul strums to the rhythm of pure bliss. Angie Velland-Crosty 📷 NPS Megan Juran

With persistent dry conditions, right now you will be hard pressed to find great mushroom diversity in Olympic National Park. One currently fruiting fungal gem is the mica cap (Coprinellus micaceus). It is so named because flecks resembling mica (the mineral) glisten on its lovely yellow-orange cap. Though it is a small mushroom, it grows in great abundance. Search out decaying logs either below or above ground to find mica caps. Mica caps don’t just make their home of fallen logs. Their mycelium, underground root-like structures, obtain nutrients by decomposing wood. Therefore, they do an amazing job recycling nutrients back into forest soils. Perhaps what’s most fascinating about mica caps is that instead of ejecting their spores like most other gilled mushrooms, they release an ink-like chemical which slowly consumes the mushroom, carrying away its spores. This process of dissolution, known as deliquescence, forces the mica cap forager to race to pick the freshest caps before they begin their rapid decay. Intrepid foragers utilize the mica cap’s deliquescence to make a homemade ink. Mica caps are an edible mushroom purported to have a delicate flavor. Its fragile fruiting bodies warrant careful cooking. As always, be absolutely sure of your identification when collecting for the table. Deadly wood rotting mushrooms do also grow in the park. You can legally harvest one quart of mushrooms per person, per day in Olympic National Park.

Happy Friday! here to remind you that part of is practicing principles!! A big, gross issue we have been seeing this summer is people not taking care of their waste properly, both garbage & bodily. what you is an essential part of ! YOU are responsible to get everything you brought with you back to your car & disposed of properly (don't forget, many trailheads don't have trash receptacle so don't throw your trash anywhere but in a proper bin!) I have seen more tp blooms this summer than I have seen in my lifetime! Use tp for ? Bring a bag to carry it out in or think of switching to a reusable cloth. Not burying your 💩💩💩 6-8 inches deep, 200+ feet from a water source is not only unsightly but also unsanitary 😡🤢😱 Be prepared to deal with your waste whether you are going for a day hike or an extended backpack. Nobody likes a 🤮 Don't forget that this is going to be a busy weekend, so expect midday waits at popular entrance stations. And if proper parking is not available please move on until you can find something or come back during less busy morning or evening hours. Have a safe weekend out there. 1 Graphic: National Park Service 2 📷 NPS Megan Juran A stream running through a mountain meadow

Mushroom of the Week: The Deer Mushroom (Pluteus cervinus) = (Pluteus exilis)  Even with dry conditions in much of Olympic National Park, a few mushrooms are still fruiting. Search around snags and decomposing logs and you may find the deer mushroom (Pluteus exilis). Though its cap can be deer pelt brown it ranges to dull gray. Its often curved white stem (stipe) is interspersed by thin black fibrils. It can grow singly or in clusters. Many mushrooms share these characteristics. One key to identifying the deer mushroom is taking a spore print.   To take a spore print, merely slice of the mushroom’s cap and place it gills down on a clear plastic surface. Cover it with a bowl. Wait overnight and see what color of spores the mushroom yields. Many mushroom taxonomic keys start with spore color, so best start off on the right track.  The deer mushroom has a lovely pinkish spore print, which few genus of mushrooms have. If you combine its radish-like odor, stipe characteristics with its pink spores, you narrow it down. While some consider the deer mushroom a decent edible, the large genus Entoloma also has pink spores and some seriously poisonous mushrooms, making the deer mushroom a poor choice for the novice’s table.  Challenge: Go out in the forest, a nearby park or your yard and find a mushroom. Take a spore print and post a photo of both the spore print and the mushroom. We’ll try to help you identify them!

Suffragette Rosalie Edge and Olympic National Park Signed into law on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment guaranteed that the right of citizens to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Women and men worked for more than 90 years to see the 19th Amendment passed and ratified. One such woman was Rosalie Edge. A New York City native, Rosalie became active in the women’s suffrage movement in 1915. She served as the secretary for the New York State Woman Suffrage Party under the brilliant suffragette and strategist Carrie Chapman Catt. Once the amendment was passed, Rosalie used the organizational skills she had learned under Catt to support the emerging conservation movement of the 1920s. Rosalie joined with writer Irving Brandt and wildlife biologist Dr. Willard Van Name to form the venerable Emergency Conservation Committee in 1929. This small committee of three would become a powerful voice in support of preserving wildlife and the ecosystems that support them. With Rosalie leading the charge, the ECC was responsible for creating the grassroots campaign that persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to establish Olympic National Park in 1938. Rosalie Edge was a force to be reckoned with. She was called “a hellcat for conservation” in New Yorker Magazine in 1948. ---- Forward into Light! The fight for women’s suffrage was complex and interwoven with issues of civil and political rights for all Americans. National parks across the country share the stories of women who fought for a different future. After the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, suffragists like Alice Paul knew that their work was not finished. Many women still faced discrimination, but the passage of the 19th amendment was a historic moment of progress with a continuing legacy throughout American history. Learn more at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/womenshistory/women-s-access-to-the-vote.htm Photo of Rosalie Barrow Edge

"I may not live to see our glory, but I'll gladly join the fight."  Do you ever find, when you walk in the woods, that the questions and troubles swirling around in your head suddenly seem to crystallize? I had one of those moments recently. I was thinking about something Phoebe Robinson said: "Truth be told, systemic racism most likely will not be dismantled in our lifetime. While I would like things to change so that all of my Black brothers and sisters and I can live in a better world, I know that's not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is for those who come after me won't have to experience even a 1/10th of what I have...We need folks willing to do the work even if they may never see the fruits of their labor." I was feeling discouraged because I thought I didn't have a framework for doing work that is more like a relay, where one generation passes the baton to the next, rather than getting to cross the finish line ourselves. But walking on a mountain ridge it hit me: Of course I have a framework for that. I work for the National Park Service. Our mission is about working in service of future generations. We've made mistakes, and we're constantly learning how to do better and carry on toward that goal. As a park ranger, fellowship broad and deep connects me to the conservationists who came before us and the descendants we will never meet. Doing my job today means that maybe a hundred years from now, someone else will have a moment like I did on that same ridge, because the land will be preserved and protected for them. It's inspiring to be part of something so big, beautiful, imperfect and evolving. And it reminds me that it doesn't have to be discouraging to work for racial justice, even if the progress is slow. That work connects us to ancestors like Harriet Tubman and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who now have National Park Service sites to honor them, as well as the future generations who will walk in a more just world if we keep striving for it. On this day when we commemorate the founding of the National Park Service, I hope that all of you can find moments of inspiration, and dream about the legacies you will leave for future generations.

If you’ve recently been out walking some of Olympic National Park’s hundreds of miles of forested trails, there is a good chance you will came across Amanita gemmata. The gemmed amanita’s lovely yellow cap is covered by delicate white dots/warts that often fall off from rain. The dots are the remnants of this mushroom's development inside a universal veil. As it grew, it broke out of its egg-like veil leaving behind its dots. Also note its tightly packed white gills and stately white stalk (stipe) with a thin ring, and a slightly bulbous base. It is most common in summer to early fall. You can find it throughout the lowlands as it forms mutually beneficial mycorrhizal relationships with different conifer trees. But don’t let commonness or its beauty fool you. The gemmed amanita is a toxic mushroom. It contains two toxins, muscimol and ibotenic acid. The latter causing a host of unwelcome symptoms, starting with extreme drowsiness, then confusion, loss of muscle control, delirium and visual hallucinations, all lasting up to four hours. Worse yet, 1-5% of cases result in death. Even if we should never consume any gemmed amanitas, we can always admire them for making the park’s forest healthier and for adding delightful splashes of color to forests. Please post any photos here of this mushroom, or other interesting fungi you find in the park!

When we get ready to go into the wilderness we all need to be practicing the Seven Leave No Trace Principles (lnt.org). . It has been weighing heavily on me that I am seeing, hearing & reading, that an increasing number of people are not following 2 of these principles (see earlier post for Part 1). . Part 2 BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS Too many times I have been enjoying the quiet of nature when I can hear voices like someone is sitting next to me! . Sound travels far around lakes, in meadows, in open bowls & on the trail. Be considerate of others by keeping your voice down & your conversation to yourself (although I will admit, my favorite thing I heard this summer was: I can't believe I shaved my legs up to my knees for this 😂). . Check out lnt.org to read up on these 2 principles & the 5 others. . Have fun out there but don't forget to be safe, be considerate & be a good steward of the land. .

When we get ready to go into the wilderness we all need to be practicing the Seven Leave No Trace Principles (lnt.org). . It has been weighing heavily on me that I am seeing, hearing & reading, that an increasing number of people are not following 2 of these principles. . Part 1 DISPOSE OF WASTE PROPERLY This is a very important principle that protects the water you drink, the animals you have come to see & the aesthetics of nature. . If you use tp you NEED to by taking it with you & disposing of it properly. Or, if you are like me, you can invest in an antimicrobial pee cloth that you wash when you return home. . Sadly I have seen more tp blooms at trailheads, along the trail & at campsites than ever this summer. . We all gotta go & sometimes it is when we least expect it, like on a day hike. All hikers going on trail should be prepared to properly dispose of their 💩 200 ft from a water source or camp in a hole that is 6-8 inches deep. Nobody likes a surface pooper!! . & how could I almost forget dog doo 🐶💩!!! Not only have I been seeing a lot of people with dogs where they don't belong, but I have been seeing loads of dog doo & even worse, bagged doo left for others to pick up. I am sad the way that humans are giving dogs a bad rap. Be a responsible pet owner & know where you can go & . Now, onto food & other waste (aka trash). I have hear & read about people not being clean campers, leaving half eaten food & abandoning gear in the backcountry. . Before you leave your campsite check around & make sure you haven't left any trash as well as grabbing & hiking out trash that was already there. As for people deliberating leaving food I gotta say making just enough is crucial for following principles. To help avoid this I would suggest planning on smaller portions of cooked food & supplementing with snacks to avoid waste. Lastly, if your gear malfunctions or breaks you NEED to carry it out & dispose of it properly!! . Stay tuned for Part 2 cuz I have more to say!!

Planning a backpacking trip along the Olympic Wilderness Coast? The Olympic Wilderness Coast is a beautiful and rugged landscape with much to explore, but because of its uniqueness requires special planning before heading out. The terrain along the coast is variable and a number of conditions under foot will be encountered including but not limited to - fine sand beaches, pebbly/rocky beaches, slippery moss/algae covered boulders, driftwood logs, rocky headlands, rope & ladder assisted overland trails, forested and brushy overland trails and sections of well-maintained trails. Overland trails aid hikers in navigating sections of the coast that are not feasible or safe to hike at shore level. Certain sections of coastal routes are only passable at mid-to-low tides; these sections should be identified and planned out prior to any trip. For example, the Diamond Rock tidal restrictions approximately 1.5 miles north of Oil City are the most challenging tide restrictions along the whole coast. This is due to the fact that there needs to be a tide lower than 2’ to pass by safely, there is no overland route and during certain tidal cycles this tidal restriction will not be passable for consecutive days on end. Definitely ! ✅ Be sure to have an accurate map that shows where the overland trails and tide restrictions are and at what height. ✅ Be sure to consult and bring a tide chart with you so you know the high and low tides of the day (ONP uses NOAAs tidal charts based off of Destruction Island) ✅ Plan out your hiking distances and approximate hiking times so that you are able to pass through tidal restrictions ✅ Bear canisters are required for any overnight backpacking along the coast and are available for pickup at the Port Angeles, Quinault and Hoodsport Wilderness Information Centers Need helping planning your Olympic Wilderness Coast trip? Visit the webpage in the profile for more information or call one of the Wilderness Information Centers. Staff are still available over the phone to help you plan. Be safe out there and enjoy! – Ranger Michele [Image description: Diamond Rock tidal restriction approx. 1.5 miles north of Oil City]