A Day At The Museum

Day 39: Everybody loves a field trip, and yesterday seven members of the Park's Interpretive staff took the day to visit the newly-reopened Burke Museum at the University of Washington. It gave us the opportunity to witness interpretation from the other side of the fence, as it were, and I think we each found some valuable take-aways from the experience. I particularly enjoyed the chance to see curation in real time, i.e., being able to view through floor-to-ceiling glass people at work cleaning and preparing specimens for archiving. I felt that it brought science closer to the visitor, helping them make a personal connection. As for the exhibits, I started on the top floor with paleontology and worked my way down through biology and contemporary culture, and it was in the last area where I spent the most time, intent on the textiles and basketry. I would have liked more detail about each specific item, since most were labelled with a minimum of information. The minimalist style of interpretation seems to be prevalent elsewhere these days as well, not just at the Burke. As far as I know, no detailed guides were available.

That said, the highlight of the day for me was to be able to meet David Giblin, Collections Manager for the Burke's Herbarium. We've corresponded by email for many years, but had never met face-to-face. I had intended to take an hour to walk across campus, visit for a few minutes and then walk back to join the rest of our group, but when I arrived at the facility, David greeted me with a huge hug and brought me in for a full tour. I spent the next hour and a half or so nosing into specimen boxes containing vascular plants, lichens and macrofungi, and talking shop with David. As a parting gift and thank-you for the photos I've contributed to the Herbarium's gallery over the years, David presented me with a copy of the newest edition (2018) of Hitchcock's "Flora of the Pacific Northwest." It was Christmas come early for this naturalist!

Seeking New Populations

Day 84: I am a regular contributor to the Burke Museum's Herbarium Image Collection. I've lost track of how many photos I've had put up, but they include vascular plants, lichens and the occasional fungus. A few days ago, I sent in two images, and when the curator notified me that they'd been posted on the spanking-new webpage, I wanted to check to be sure they were listed correctly. When the webpage loaded, the banner was displaying one of my photos of Usnea longissima, taken at Rainey Creek in Lewis County. The banner rotates through a series of images; I was very proud to see one of mine included. It inspired me to take a walk to Rainey Creek today, but I was not prepared to see that the Usnea-bearing tree had been undermined by the creek and its remains, bare of anything resembling green matter, were under mud and water. The discovery left me feeling very sad. It was one of the most lush Usnea longissima colonies I've seen. The lichen only grows where the air is purest, and fifty feet back from the creek, no more can be found.

I have not explored all of the Rainey Creek area by any means. For one thing, it's choked with reed-canary grass and strikes me as a prime location for collecting ticks. I don't venture off the path when the grass is high. Today, though, it was fairly well beaten down and the muddy paths usually concealed beneath it were open and visible. I decided to go on an Usnea hunt. My efforts were rewarded with the discovery of several other nice Usnea-bearing trees, and another pair of gems which will appear in this blog over the next two days, one of which has already been forwarded to the Burke. Government shutdown or not, I'm still hunting plants, albeit for different agencies.

Footnote: As of this date, I have 94 images in the Burke database (4 more are pending). The new site lets you browse by photographer.