Plants

Yellow and Purple Irises are just the start of the wild flowers you may encounter in the spring and summer along our trails.

Irises like the one pictured are often near water fronts. This particular photo was taken on the Skipanon Trail.

Many commercial flowers planted in other states grow wild here, Daffodils, Phlox, Columbines, Irises, Sweet Peas, Poppies, and Lupines (Blue Bonnets).

Additionally the trails are lined with berry bushes that put out a plentiful harvest for most of the summer. Raccoons and Brown Bears are known to have a special affinity for the berries as well as many species of birds who rely either on the fruit or dense well guarded nesting area.

Another local berry plant are low growing small creeping Strawberries. Look for these along the sand dunes heading up toward the beaches or anywhere that is low and sandy. They look much like cultivated strawberries but smaller.

Three types of large timber trees (aka Christmas Trees to the kids!) grow in our area and are harvested for lumber. The Eastern Hemlock, the Douglas Fir and the Siskin Pine Tree. The hills you may see driving in that have been cut are littered with pieces of trees, stumps and branches. Although this may seem untidy or hasty lumbering it is actually part of a law put into place to protect the forests. The Forests relies heavily on old stumps, rotting timber and the rich mulch it produces to grow new trees.

When the trees are cleared the settlers of the cleared area are typically Red Alders which have a pale bark and are skinny tall trees. The coniferous  forest takes longer to grow back and eventually emerges to take over the Alders.

The soil is very sandy on the peninsula and without consistent rain provided by the rainforest the area would quickly become a desert. Even though there is so much rain per year forest fires are a real danger during dry spells because the sand drains quickly and does not hold water.