Port Blakely Tree Farms LP

• Environmental Education Headquarters

Young Forest

• Garter Snake - There are three species of garter snake in the Pacific Northwest, and each has their own color variation. Garter snakes like warm climates because they are cold-blooded. They use their tongues to "smell" for prey. One thing they like to eat is newts. Garter snakes release a musky scent to help protect themselves from other animals that might eat them.
• Clown Millipede - Clown millipedes have a bright yellow coloring that warns other animals they are poisonous. They contain cyanide poison, which gives them an "almond" scent. Millipedes eat leafy plants.
• Rough-skinned Newt - Newts are amphibians, which means they lay their eggs in water, but larvae soon grow legs and lungs and live on land. The newt is poisonous, and should be handled carefully by humans. The garter snake is one of few animals that can eat the newt.
• Banana Slug - Banana slugs are native to Northwest woodlands. They range in color from black, white, yellow, or tan with spots. Their blood is green, and they have more teeth than a shark! Unlike a shark, they like to eat leafy plants.
• Long-faced Carabid Beetle - The long-faced carabid beetle is only one of many types of beetles that live in the forest. It crawls on the ground, but also climbs plants and trees. It eats snails, slugs, insects, and fruit. Its long, narrow head helps it squeeze into tight places.
• Flying Squirrel - Flying squirrels don't really fly, but they do glide through the air using flaps of skin attached between their legs. They can glide over 300 feet at a time. They make their nest in cavities or holes in trees. Flying squirrels are nocturnal, so they sleep during the day. The flyin g squirrel's main predator is the northern spotted owl.
• Beaver - Beavers are the largest rodents in North America. Like other rodents, their teeth are continually growing, so they have to gnaw on wood to keep them from growing too long. Beavers may cut down hundreds of trees in a single year. They use the wood to dam streams, and create ponds that won't freeze in the winter.
• Raccoon - Raccoons use hollow trees as a den site for resting, sleeping, and rearing young. They spend most of their "active" time outside of the hollow cavity. They eat fish, rodents, insects, worm, nuts, plants, or pretty much anything they can find. Raccoons are very good climbers.
• Deer Mouse - You can find deer mice in a wide range of habitats. They may be the most common mammal in Washington. They like to make their nests in burrows, grassy places on the ground, hollow logs, or under debris. Mice are good climbers. They eat all types of fruits and seeds, and tree bark too.
• Coyote - Coyotes like to make their dens in borrows, hollow tree trunks, and thick brush piles. They hunt squirrels, mice, rabbits, birds, snakes, and many other small animals. They communicate through yaps, whines, barks, and howls.
• Little Brown Bat - Bats make their dens under tree bark, in caves and attics, or any dark, protected place. They hunt at night and can eat more than 900 insects in an hour. They need to live near water to survive.
• Northern Spotted Owl - Northern spotted owls live in tree cavities and hunt at night. Their favorite food is the flying squirrel. The great horned owl will often eat this smaller owl.
• Pileated Woodpecker - The pileated woodpecker has a longer neck than most woodpeckers, so it can reach farther and make larger holes. It eats insects, and makes its nest within tree cavities.
• Wood Duck - Wood ducks, unlike other ducks, have claws at the end of their feet. This helps them reach their nests inside tree cavities. The wood duck's young only stay in their nest for 24 hours, then they drop as much as 30 feet to the ground or to water to look for food.
• Porcupine - Porcupines have as many as 30,000 quills. These quills can not be shot out, as is commonly believed. But if the porcupine flicks you with his tail the quills it leaves embedded can be very painful or deadly for some animals. Porcupines like to gnaw on old bones and antlers for calcium, but their favorite food is young tree bark. They will climb high on small branches to eat leaves, buds, and twigs.

 

 

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