There is no container to find at an EarthCache. To earn your smiley, email your answers to the questions below through my Geocaching.com profile. The answers can be found below and at the information sign at GZ.
Don't forget! International EarthCache Day is October 11, 2015. In 2014, for the first time ever, a special souvenir was awarded by Geocaching.com to anyone who logged a "Found it" for an EarthCache on International EarthCache Day!
Located in Federal Way, the Hylebos Creek and eventual park was named after Peter Francis Hylebos, a Catholic priest born in Belgium, who established schools and hospitals in Washington Territory.
The West Hylebos Wetlands is equal parts wildlife refuge, ecological and hydrological conservatory, nature trail, and just plain natural wonder. This 120-acre preserve offers a big payback for a local trip. Not only does the park display four types of wetlands well-explained by interpretive signs, the primeval environment, unchanged for millennia, includes towering trees, overhanging drapes of moss, peat bogs, shelf fungi and spreads of lichen, and a vast array of ferns.
The wetlands began its formation soon after the last glaciation of the Puget Sound. When the ice retreated some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago it left a large lake that over thousands of years filled in with sediment and plant material. At some point it became dry enough to support forest growth.
Eventually, the plant matter was unable to fully decompose due to lack of oxygen and the layers of sediment built up forming a peat bog. In some places the peat is 30 feet thick and the boardwalk through the park floats on it. The West Hylebos Wetlands is one of the few ancient bog wetlands left in the Puget Sound Region. Most bogs were lost to urban growth or mined for their peat years ago (peat can be used as a fuel or as a soil amendment to increase the soil's capacity to retain moisture and enrich the soil).
Peat bogs are time capsules that serve as historical preservation in that they preserve ash records of past volcanic eruptions, pollen samples of ancient flora, and even the hair, hide, and tissue of prehistoric peoples and creatures. If you took a core sample of the soil here, it would show fragments from plants that died thousands of years ago.
In nature, bogs perform pollutant-cleansing, water-absorbing and flood-regulation functions. West Hylebos Wetlands, and the entire Hylebos Watershed, serves as a massive natural water drainage and purifying system. The area acts as a sponge, storing water for streams during dry summer months and preventing flooding during heavy rains. The bog purifies surface water by filtering out sediments and pollutants. The water from the Hylebos recharges the Redondo-Milton Channel Aquifer that supplies water to Federal Way, Milton, Fife, and Puyallup. The West Hylebos Creek flows south, ultimately draining into Tacoma's saltwater Hylebos Waterway six miles to the south in Commencement Bay.
Additionally, peat bogs like the one found in the West Hylebos Wetlands store carbon more densely than rain forests. If the peat decayed or was destroyed, carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere.
Deep in the wetlands bog is a deep water-filled hole that looks like a large, innocuous puddle. When facing the Deep Sink information sign, the Deep Sink is directly in front of you. The origin is unknown, but it is speculated that the Deep Sink most likely formed by decomposition of the peat soils in this area due to the addition of oxygen rich water. The Deep Sink used to be two holes, each over twenty-feet deep, but it has gradually filled in over the past twenty years and is now fairly shallow and appears to be just one hole. (I have memories of visiting the wetlands before it was a park when you could walk on the spongy bogs and use a long stick to measure the depth of the sinks.)
While you’re walking along the boardwalk, be sure to take in the biodiversity you’ll find here. Hidden along the boardwalk is a staggering diversity of life; from the tiny — 27 species of moss, 37 species of lichen, 30 fungi, and 6 liverwort species — to the gigantic — cathedral-like Douglas firs, western hemlock, red cedars, and rare ancient Sitka spruce that began life around the time the Mayflower reached Plymouth Rock. You may also see some of the over 100 species of resident and migratory birds that frequent the park, a red-legged frog or a Coho salmon swimming upstream from Commencement Bay. If you visit near dawn or dusk you will surely spy brown rabbits on your stroll to the boardwalk.
To log this EarthCache, please answer the following questions from the description above and the information sign at ground zero and email the answers to me through my Geocaching.com profile within 24 hours of logging your find. Please do not put your answers in your online log. When answering the questions, please just try to do your best. It’s more important that you learn about a new aspect of our earth and apply your new-found knowledge to the local area, than it is to have a precise answer.
1) Why was plant matter unable to fully decompose, thereby creating the peat bog and wetlands?
2) If you poured out a bottle of water at this location, what would happen to the water?
3) What role do you feel the West Hylebos Wetlands is providing to the surrounding environment?
4) Why do you think the bogs of the West Hylebos Wetlands should be preserved?
Once you email the answers feel free to log your find online. Your log will be deleted if I do not receive an email with the answers to the questions. I do not respond unless there is a problem with your answers. In your "found it" log feel free to write about your experience and share a photo, but don't include the EarthCache answers. Thanks and Happy EarthCaching!
The above information was compiled from the following sources:
Interpretive signs at the park.
http://www.earthcorps.org/hylebos.php
Congratulations to Kurdogso for being FTF!