Early Winters Creek, 3/7/09, 1 mile
On a recent trip to Winthrop with our friends Dave & Heather to photograph the balloonfest, we arranged a trip with a local naturalist along the Early Winters Creek near Mazama.
He showed us several types of plant life that sometimes goes un-noticed in the summer and is usually covered during the winter. Marten tracks could be seen hopping through the snow. We also followed some coyote tracks to a fresh (within the day) kill site.
He also gave us a nice lecture on the arrogance of man in trying to "correct" nature - the creek had been straightened out long ago with the thought that is would ease flooding. What was neglected was that the turns, eddies, and dams are needed for a healthy stream and healthy stream-life. To correct the correction new dams and log jams were built. More work than really needed to be done. If only we could learn to live with the cycles of nature, maybe we wouldn't need to "correct" nature at all.
Running around with a well-educated naturalist can be truly eye-opening.
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