Nature in my Neighborhood - Sarah

 

    My “neighborhood” is more of a collection of apartments squeezed together, but there is a trail behind the parking

lot used for people to take their dogs out that has a lot of different plants. Besides the trail, there are sections of plants

strategically planted as decoration around the apartment buildings. 

Firstly, there are a row of strawberry plants that surround my apartment building. They haven’t bloomed yet, but there are visible flowers that make them identifiable. The sidewalk next to the plants appears green because it has moss encroaching over it as well as growing between the cracks of the sidewalks. 

The trail behind my apartment has a dirt path with lots of clover grown throughout. After looking it up, this plant is native to Europe but is now considered a common weed in the U.S. There is also an assortment of thorny bushes including ones we saw throughout campus during our first field trip that have clusters of white berries. I found out these are called Snowberries, which is native to the pacific northwest. There were also a variety of trees, including a few that stood out to me because they were covered in ivy. They only appeared to be on the largest trees with higher branches. As gorgeous as the ivy is climbing up the trees, it is invasive in Washington state as it is incredibly adaptable and can damage plant life around it as it becomes overgrown. There were also some alaska cedar trees that appeared to be somewhat recently planted, which makes sense because the apartment buildings nearby were only recently built within the past several years and replanting some of these trees seems beneficial to the aesthetic cohesiveness of the forested area and trail behind these buildings as well as benefitting the wildlife and biodiversity of this area after most likely have caused some damage throughout the construction of these buildings. 

Unfortunately I didn’t catch any wildlife on camera during my photoshoot, however I have seen black squirrels in that trail before and deer crossing the street in the neighborhood of houses up the hill from where I live.