Squirrels.
The rodent that made it to ‘cute’ status. Well known for their antics and slightly manic nature, they are cute, energetic and a perfect mascot for this site.
This is a small nature park in Beaverton, Oregon- the Tualatin Valley Nature Park. It’s a beautiful little place with about 6 miles of trails through untouched woods. There are several different types of forest in this one park- large cedar redwoods in one section; alder in another, and oak in yet another. It’s the oak grove that made me realize what a perfect mascot these little critters are; this handy little info sign sealed it for me.
Specifically… this little blurb:
Yes indeed. Squirrels, in their manic storage of food for the winter, occasionally forget where they buried their nuts and giant trees sprout up.
This little guy
planted this:
and this:
The grove is filled with trees like that.
Now sure, maybe some of the squirrels who did the planting died before they could dig up their nuts or maybe they moved to the easy-living suburbs where there are fewer coyotes to dodge. Who knows? Bottom line, some of the little dudes simply forgot where they stashed their own dinner.
That would be similar to you or I forgetting where we set our cup of ramen and 20 years later, there’s a ramen tree.
A critter that gets so distracted it can’t remember where it stashed it’s own food.
I think I’ve found my spirit animal.
