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    • Partnerships
    • Staff and Volunteers
    • Contact
    • Find Us
    • Get Involved >
      • Donate
      • Our Partners
      • Our Supporters
    • Galena Creek Volunteers
  • Park Resources
    • Trail Info
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    • Christmas Tree Permits
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    • Learning Resources
    • Wildfire Information and Safety
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Guided Hikes
    • Special Events
  • Youth Education Camps
    • Great Basin Naturalist Camps
    • Camp-in-a-Box
    • Teacher Resources >
      • Alternative Field Studies Program >
        • Alternative Field Studies Committee
      • Field Trip in a Box
      • School Field Studies
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    • Kids and Family Programs
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  • Galena Creek Blog
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3/31/2020 1 Comment

Marmots!

PicturePhoto Credit: Inklein via Wikipedia
Today was our first siting of an animal burrow at Galena! Although we don't know for sure, this hole appears to be some sort of rodent recently awakened from hibernation! Spring must be here! 
 
Marmots are one such rodent that hibernate through winter, or sometimes even up to 8 months of the year. Since winter in the mountains has such limited amounts of food, marmots enter a deep sleep in order to conserve the precious fats they’ve built up during the previous summer and fall months. Marmots are able to “sleep” for so long because their heart rate drops from 100 beats per minute, to 4 beats per minute. They also reduce their breathing to just one breath every few minutes!
 
Marmots are also the heaviest species in the Squirrel family, and so, need an impressively sized hole to keep them safe. Some marmot hibernation dens have been to found to be over 20 feet deep!
 
Imagine how you would feel if you didn’t eat for 8 months and only took a deep breath every few minutes! Now imagine doing all that while curled up in a hole, 20 feet underground!
 
Nature is so cool!


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3/31/2020 0 Comments

Trail Highlight: Jones Creek Loop

Our most popular hike is the Jones Creek Loop, a 1.7 mile trail that follows Jones Creek on the north and takes you through the forest in the south. The trail is shaded by large Jeffrey Pines, accompanied by Aspens, Mountain Mahogany, Douglas-firs, and Cottonwoods. Though it is very popular, the trail maintains a small environmental impact, being unpaved and relatively narrow; the perfect size for a pair of hikers or a hiker and a pup. This is also a great connector trail, taking hikers to the Jones-Whites Creek Loop, the Whites Creek Trail, and down to the Bitterbrush Trail in the southern part of our park. The signs posted throughout the trail make it hard to get lost, but fellow hikers will always lend a hand in directing you where you need to go.
Because this trail is mostly along a creek, it’s a great place to see wildlife (or evidence of wildlife) and many of the plants we have in the park. It’s also a great place to splash around and check out aquatic invertebrates in the summer. This is a great trail to do with rambunctious kids; the hiking will keep them physically busy and the ecology, geology, and natural history will keep their brains busy. When they (finally) need a break, you can stop at one of the picnic areas right off the trail or plop down on a log and eat some snacks and drink water. If you haven’t done the Jones Creek Loop, check it out the next time you are here!
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3/30/2020 1 Comment

Our Watershed

We all live in a watershed, the one for our area (Reno, NV) is the Truckee River
Watershed. A watershed is the land area that drains to a common body of water.
Watersheds provide drinking water, habitats for wildlife, water to grow our food, and
places to recreate such as fishing, swimming, and boating. The Truckee River is the only
outlet of surface water for Lake Tahoe; the river then flows 120 miles where it ends at
Pyramid Lake. Most of the stream flow for the Truckee River comes from snowmelt from
the Sierra Nevada’s. But not all of this snowmelt goes into the river; it is also absorbed
into the ground, this groundwater is called an aquifer. The meadows and forests are also
an important part of the watershed. Meadows help remove pollutants and prevent soil
erosion that interferes with aquatic life. Forests also help prevent soil erosion and absorb
carbon dioxide in the watershed. Our watershed is necessary for us, animals, plants,
and everything else to live here. It is working hard for us so we need to also care for it.
Pollution runoff from fertilizer, oils, road salts, household chemicals, mining materials
and more can enter the watershed. With climate change and the overuse of water
droughts occur in watersheds and can lead to lowering the amount of water in the entire
watershed and the flow of water as well as changing the chemical composition that
supports the life in it. What we can do to help save our watershed is to prevent pollution
in the first place. We can be conscious of where our used water goes and how much we
are using. We are all in this together; let’s show our Truckee River Watershed that we
love it!
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3/30/2020 0 Comments

Early Bloomers

Even before the official “start” of spring (the Vernal Equinox on March 19th), flowers were budding and blooming in Galena Creek Regional Park. Along the Lower Thomas Creek Trail, which is at a lower elevation than the Visitor Center and on a south-facing slope, flowers were spotted at the beginning of March! Flowers pop up here first because lower elevations get warmer and drier quicker than higher elevations, which means conditions are right for plants to bloom earlier in the season. At higher elevations, it is still too cold and there is too much snow for these plants to start growing for the season. In addition, south-facing slopes get more sun because the sun is in the southern part of the sky (because we are in the Northern hemisphere). Even at the same elevation, the plants on south-facing slopes are going to bloom earlier than those on north-facing slopes because it’s warmer and drier earlier. 
The first plants blooming on Lower Thomas Creek Trail were:
Beckwith's Violet (Viola beckwithii)
Sagebrush Buttercup (Ranunculus glaberrimus)
Buscuitroot (Lomatium sp.)
Keep a look out for these plants and other things in bloom on your next hike!
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    This blog is managed by the staff and volunteers of Galena Creek Visitor Center. We write about parts of the natural world that we find fascinating and want to teach others about, as well as keeping you updated on the Visitor Center and park. If you want to learn more, please sign up for our monthly newsletter, where we share upcoming events, updates on the ecology of the park, and highlights from each month.

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