A Reminder About Fireworks
It’s the week before July 4th here in Corvallis, and we’re already starting to hear the booms of fireworks at night as locals ramp up for the big night. With warm temperatures and windy conditions likely this weekend, please consider the conditions and take extra care when dealing with fire or fireworks. For more on fireworks safety, check out this page from the Corvallis Fire Department.
And make sure to clean up any plastic trash from your fireworks, rather than letting them get into our streams, rivers and ocean. As if we needed more evidence, a study out this week should make it even clearer what a danger plastics can be to our waters and the species that live there.
Gray Whales are Eating Plastic Along with Plankton
Microplastics are a growing problem in the ocean. These tiny fibers come from several sources, including fabrics from clothing and the breakdown of larger plastic items. A team from Oregon State University wanted to know how this type of pollution was impacting the gray whales that migrate past Oregon shores twice a year, and the answer is worrying.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, estimates that pregnant and nursing gray whales that pass Oregon with their calves are ingesting up to 21 million plastic microparticles every day. They made this estimate by collecting samples of both the zooplankton the whales eat and the whales’ droppings to see what passes through them.
“It’s a wake-up call that whales are getting that much microplastic from what they eat,” said Leigh Torres from OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute, one of the co-authors of the paper.
If anything, the team believes that the 21 million number may be an underestimate, because it only takes into account the plankton the whales eat, and not the sediment they sieve to find their prey. It is likely that this seabottom dirt contains even more plastic particles.
Prison Program Gives Hope to Endangered Butterflies
The Corvallis-based Institute for Applied Ecology works year-round to conserve and restore endangered plants, insects and other species in our area. This year, they are taking over a program that acts as a lifeline to an endangered butterfly from the least likely place imaginable. Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, which is Oregon’s only women’s prison. It’s also home to a unique lab that is raising Taylor’s Checkerspot butterflies, an endangered species that only lives in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2017, the lab has produced thousands of larvae and led to several releases of adults that have added to the struggling wild population.
Learn more about this program and the unique partnership between IAE, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Coffee Creek here.
Sunday: Bug Walk at Ankeny
Butterflies are just one slice of the vast diversity of insects in our area, especially this time of year. This Sunday, June 2nd, OSU’s Bug Club and the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex invite you to a guided bug walk at Ankeny Hill. The event will run from 10 am to Noon, and the walk will start and finish at the Ankeny Hill Nature Center in Jefferson. More details are available here.
By Ian Rose
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