Today we visited the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve. This is a 626-acre protected preserve of the Puget Lowland prairies. This area is covered in mounds of dirt. Mostly circular or elliptical, around 7 feet tall and 8+ feet in diameter. There are 8-10 mounds per acre.
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How were the mounds created? That’s a mystery that still hasn’t been solved after a 100 years. There are Mima-like mounds in other locations throughout the world but no one explanation works for all the sites. Everything from erosion, earthquakes, to the work of now-vanished rodents have been suggested as possible explanations. Interestingly a report by A. L. Washburn from 1988 ends with the summary that both the rodent hypothesis and erosion are the two best hypotheses — but both still need to be proved. I also find it interesting that new mounds are not being created. In this particular area the trees would be taking over the mounds area if left unchecked.
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There is a short paved loop which connects to a much longer unpaved loop through the mounds. The prairie is home to a variety of flowers and ground cover on the mounds and is popular with both bird watchers and butterfly watchers. It’s a bit drier this time of year (although foggy this morning) but there were still a few flowers.
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Along the way we saw birds, crickets and lots of spider webs. Kate didn’t much care for the spiders but they did provide a good incentive to stay on the path away from their funnel-shaped webs.
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It was an enjoyable as the path wound around the mounds, and over a few.
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