As a Metro scientist, Kate Holleran sees nature's biggest challenges and most glorious surprises – and she has the muddy boots to prove it. Read her latest reflections on restoring the land protected by Metro's voter-approved Natural Areas Program.
By Kate Holleran, Metro Scientist
Conserving nature, one acre at a time
I was hiking across a rocky, brushy slope when my colleague Ryan pointed out a snake.
"Grab it," I said.
A wiser person than me, he did not grab the snake. And in retrospect, there is a remote chance that it could have been a northern Pacific rattlesnake, so his caution was merited. It was still early on a cool spring day, and the snake turned out to be a lethargic western garter snake. Reassured by our closer inspection, I picked up the snake. It didn't relax in my cold hand, and we left it resting in the leaf litter.
Many of the natural areas where I work receive very few early morning visitors. I am one of those lucky few. I get a chance to see early spring flowers and snakes seeking sun, and hear the rapidly buzzing wing beats of Anna's hummingbird males staking out their courtship territories. Every spring I refresh my memory with the names of emerging plants and the sources of the spirited bird songs, and I look with anticipation for the unexpected.
Finding a northern Pacific rattlesnake in this part of the Willamette Valley would make my day – my year, for that matter. They have not been sighted in this area for decades, forced out of their historical range by increased agricultural, logging and urban development of their habitats. But maybe, I hope, there are some tucked away in the rocky cliffs we walked a few weeks ago. The rattlesnakes were part of the dry Douglas-fir, Oregon white oak forest ecosystem that developed here over thousands of years. Perhaps they remain, to be unexpectedly seen again?