#olympicpeninsula — Public Fediverse posts

💁🏻‍♀️ TIL: 🐆🚗 On #Washington’s #OlympicPeninsula, camera traps and tracking collars show #deer shift their space and time use wherever #pumas roam, avoiding #roads and sleeping through the night hours when collisions are worst.

The result is a drop of up to 76% in deer-vehicle crashes where the #predators are most active. Notably, pumas deliver this benefit mostly by scaring deer, not killing them, essentially serving as free wildlife bridges.

👉 https://www.popsci.com/environment/pumas-prevent-car-crash/

#pumas #puma #cougars #mountainlions #wolves #predators #ecology #wildlife #roadsafety #deer #behavior #ecosystemservices #olympicpeninsula #conservation #science

As someone who’s wandered through the thick trunks of Vancouver Island his whole life, the Olympic Peninsula forest has been a bit of fantasy. I’ve never walked there. But I’ve seen pictures.
Now, with fascism rampant in the USA, I fear for those trunks. “Better in a mill or lumberyard, filling my pockets,” some logger crony is thinking or saying, right now.
I also fear for my safety. So I won’t be crossing the Juan de Fuca Strait anytime soon. I may never see these thick trunks in the bark, so to speak.

#thicktrunktuesday #olympicpeninsula #oldgrowth #forests #worthmorestanding #fascism #cronyism #economics

From: @memerman
https://mstdn.science/@memerman/115214472900639649