Field Trip To Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

For a field trip, my 5th grade cohort went on a field trip to the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Olympia, Washington. Even though the weather was rainy and cold, we still saw a lot of animals. Part of the refuge is an estuary, which is a place where freshwater from streams runs out and mixes with saltwater from the ocean. In 1904, a lawyer named Alson Brown bought 2,350 acres of land next to the Nisqually River so that he could turn it into farmland. He started by erecting a four-mile-long dike, like a dam, to block the water from flooding. This blocked the estuary, which led to the loss of habitat for many animals. After Alson Brown passed away in 1942, people argued on what to do with the farmland he left. Some people wanted a deep-water port for ships, while others wanted to turn the land into a landfill. In the end, activists championing for the land to be preserved and turned into a refuge won out, and construction began to turn the land into the refuge it is today.

After a few minutes of walking down the trail, my group saw some deer foraging for food in the grass. However, it wasn’t a good angle, so I moved on to another angle, which is where I took the photo above. At first, we were just observing the deer from across the river, but then the deer cross a small river and walked straight in front of us. Following that, this deer and its calf disappeared into the woods.

Just after the deer left, a great blue heron flew down and landed in the river. The photo on the left above shows the heron flapping its wings as it lands in the river. The heron flew off after a few moments, so my group continued on. We walked near this huge marsh, which probably would have been full of wildlife on a sunny day, and there were only a few ducks floating by. Next to a gravel path leading to two barns, the blue heron in the photo on the right stood, almost as if it had been waiting for us.

As we crossed a bridge, I noticed something moving in the tall grasses. It turned out to be an eagle! From the way it prodded the ground it seemed to be eating something, and I took the top left photo just as the eagle’s head snapped up. The featured photo at the top of the post shows this same eagle about to take off and land on a branch jutting out into the water, which I capture in the top right photo. You can clearly see the pouring rain in this photo. For the last two photos, the eagle launched itself off the branch and flew away.

After about an hour in walking around in the rain, my group returned a pavilion overlooking water. There was grass and branches sticking out, along with trees on the opposite bank. Playing in some of the grasses were the two male and female mallard ducks above. In the photo on the right, the ducks stuck their heads underwater at the same time. I wonder if they’re looking for fish?

While global warming has been happening on a smaller scale during the past one to two centuries, disregard for the environment has led it to become an urgent worldwide problem. In fact, if global warming continues at its current rate, then a large part of the world is predicted to have snow-free winters by 2100. This is a huge threat to all wildlife because of declining habitats, less food, and more. There are some ways that you can help decrease global warming. One way you can take part is “reduce, reuse, recycle”. Using more eco-friendly products would help a lot since a plastic straw takes around 200 years to decompose, while paper straws only take around 90 days. Furthermore, using public and/or sustainable transportation can decrease global warming since they have a far less environmental impact than transportation that uses gas. Saving energy by using less electricity and heat is another way to help. A lot of our energy is powered by coal, oil, and gas, so using less energy would lower our environmental footprint. A different way you can lower global warming is by planting trees to make up for the 41 million trees that are chopped down on a daily basis. Just by doing a few of these actions you can help save wildlife like the ones we saw.