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  • Author Author: ralphjy
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Happy Earth Day 2025 to the E14 Community!

ralphjy

Technically Earth Day here in the US is on April 22 but it is generally celebrated for the whole week.   Reminded me of it this morning because I need to watch my son's dog while he participates in a cleanup activity in downtown Portland (OR) with his company and others.

I'm still making my small contribution with my solar system,  It just got past 39 MWh of production.  Hopefully much more to come.

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I also noticed that iNaturalist is doing their City Nature Challenge 2025 which encourages people to make observations of wild plants and animals 25-28 April, and take part in one of the largest community science events in the world while helping us better understand – and therefore, take care of – nature that lives in and around urban areas.

I've been trying to observe the native bees and plants in my neighborhood so I'll try to document some observations this weekend.  I have some pics from earlier this week but need to submit new ones to satisfy the observation window.

Trillium

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Skunk cabbage

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Camas

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Happy Earth Day!

  • in reply to genebren

    I'm not sure how it can ever be fixed,  I've always appreciated that Oregon has tried to preserve forests and trees within the suburban areas and that's one of the things that attracted us to this area.  But it is clear that nature never intended the population density that we have which makes it difficult to mitigate the effects of climate change and loss of habitat that you mention.  Having lost a neighbor in last year's ice storm due to a falling tree and seeing hundreds of other fallen trees including watching two fall next door makes it obvious that you should never live next to a large 40-60 foot tree. Not to mention the issues of wildfires...  Of course, there are trees that could hit my house.

    My neighbor whose dog has been frightened by the coyotes sent me this picture.  The female coyote (circled) is in her front yard and the male is across the street in another yard.  Clearly not bothered by traffic on a residential street.  The guess as to sex is that the female is usually smaller.  Another neighbor flagged down my wife as she was driving by and asked her to honk her horn to get them to leave.  If they are really protecting a den and hunting for food for the pups this behavior could persist through most of the summer.  I'm not sure that will be tolerable to the people on that street.

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  • in reply to ralphjy

    The balance of nature has been so affected by the continuing loss of habitat and climate change.

  • in reply to genebren

    Wow, that’s sort of what I would expect it to be like in our neighborhood now with so many flowers blooming.  Something is amiss - not just in our yard but in the surrounding neighborhood.  I encounter a few bees where I would normally expect dozens.  The community honey bee hive that is doing well is a couple of miles away.  I will need to start checking with others in the area that do bees (mainly mason bees).  I would normally see lots of honey bees and bumblebees and smaller numbers of mason bees in this area.

    And our coyote problem is getting worse to the point of people fearful of walking their dogs or letting them outside alone to potty.  I think they have determined that it is a mating pair.  The city is hesitant to interfere with them but they could be dangerous to children in this situation.  I’m away from home this week so I’ll make sure that my wife does not take my grandson or granddog out alone.

  • The other day, my wife took this short video inside our garden.  Make sure to turn up the sound for a greeting from the birds and the bees.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/nJzDX0f9w1s?feature=share

  • I remember the first Earth Day.

    I was a senior in HS.