Kelly and tweeters,

My mistake in not being geographically precise. Not living out there,
I think of Vashon and Maury Island as one unit, and I was referring
to the Maury Island population of W. Fence Lizards when I wrote
"Vashon Island." I'll try hard never to make that mistake again and
hope all the lizards and people on Maury will forgive me!

I have received so much info now that it will take me a while to
organize it, but most of the important posts have been sent to
tweeters, and you know just about as much as I do now about non-avian
land vertebrates in Seattle. What is obvious is that many of them are
limited to the larger parks and that there has been a steady (or
precipitous) decline in the populations of most of them with
settlement. Not surprising but of value to document.

There is a lot of literature about how to enhance your yard for
wildlife, e.g., building ponds to attract amphibians and planting
native plants to attract wildlife of all kinds. I would conclude from
what I know now that these activities are most rewarding when you
live adjacent to a large park. Otherwise, you probably won't attract
many herps or native mammals. Fortunately, birds are one kind of
wildlife that disperse very readily because of that wing on either
side of the body, and at the very least you might have more birds in
your yard when you pursue these constructive activities. And they
enhance your yard for your own personal well-being.

Penny Rose pointed out to me that the all-encompassing list of
vertebrates of Seattle parks that was published in 1994 probably
included historical records rather than focusing on what was present
still, but it should be a good source of information. I haven't seen
a copy yet.

I was interested in finding out about land and freshwater species but
have learned something about marine species as well. There are no
marine herps here (sea turtles are off the outer coast), and I
suspect all the marine mammals that have ever occurred off Seattle
are still out there in Puget Sound, perhaps in altered numbers. At
least on superficial examination, the open saltwater habitat occupied
by marine mammals seems not to have changed as much as terrestrial
and freshwater ones and marine inshore habitats such as salt marshes.
And I don't know of any herp or mammal that was characteristic of the
salt marshes that we have lost.

It's great that we have to stop at the shoreline in our frenetic
development of the land, but there are less obvious changes going on
below the ocean surface that should concern us just as much. But
that's another story.

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net

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