Adam Mims - Amphibians of the Northern Oregon Cascades

“Adam Mims is ankle-deep in a snowmelt stream, methodically turning over moss-covered rocks. Ignoring the teeth-chattering cold of the cascade, he slowly moves from stone to stone until he suddenly breaks his rhythm with the quick sweep of an arm. “Found one,” he yells. Carefully cradled in his hands is a coastal giant salamander. Huge black eyes bulge out of a flat head mottled with brown splotches the color of the cobbles where Mims spied it.” This snapshot of March’s speaker, from an article titled “A Rare Jewel,” by Jane Braxton Little, appears in the March/April Issue of Audubon magazine. Her words offer a vision of Opal Creek, Adam Mims and ENHS ‘s Tom Titus as evocative as the article’s accompanying photographs. I’ve included a few more quotes about Adam and Tom after the following more personal look at this month’s speaker, herpetologist, Adam Mims.

Adam grew up on the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Holland, Michigan. You can imagine his youthful eyes spotting any movement in the detritus brought by waters lapping the banks and flats. He says he has always been interested in nature. “I did summer science programs growing up, and spent many weekends hiking in the dunes during my high school years.”

“My parents instilled in me a respect for the natural world. Every year snapping turtles laid eggs in our strawberry patch and I caught hog-nosed snakes--We would always get the field guides out and learn about the animals that were visiting us. I remember one time we found a box turtle that had been hit by a car and my dad and I caulked its shell back together. A couple of years later I found the same turtle in the woods near my house. It was the first time I can remember seeing an individual animal again, and I thought that that was so cool, that he had survived and that we had done something to help.”

Adam’s formal classroom training came from Evergreen State College, BS degree, 2003. “After college I worked doing surveys with Washington Fish and Wildlife. Marc Hayes taught me a lot while I was there, but through my own observation and inspection, I have really learned about amphibians.” The Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center recognized his expertise and hired him as their resident herpetologist and Facilities Director, bringing him to Oregon.

“Living now at Opal Creek allows me all sorts of opportunities to be involved in the natural world. I like to explore the creeks looking for amphibians and good fishing spots. Backpacking and skiing have also been long-time favorites. Getting outside makes me feel good and helps me see my place in this world.”

School life didn’t always revolve around “What’s under the decaying log?” Adam writes, “I did a semester of school in New Zealand studying field ecology and island biogeography. I stayed a few more months to explore the hiking on the South Island. Recently I did a two month sailing trip with my dad from Madagascar to Tanzania. I had some good opportunities to look at some of the endemic species there and attend a conference on strategies for helping with the conservation of the amphibians in Madagascar.”

When asked if there had been any landmark experiences in his career, Adam responded definitively: “Writing the field guide, the Amphibians of Opal Creek--I really had to search to get all of the pictures--and writing and rewriting the text made me curious about these animals in new ways.” Keeping with the flavor offered at Opal Creek, when he’s not writing, observing or administrating, Adam spends some of his time remodeling a 1930’s era miner’s cabin.

For Friday night’s PowerPoint presentation, besides great pictures of the bulbous and the lean, the slick and the warty, Adam says, “I will try to keep it mostly to an overview of the amphibian species that you might find in the Cascades between Eugene and the Columbia--what you can expect to see and where, by knowing habitat and breeding methods of the different species.”

All about Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, their events, classes and their facilities: www.opalcreek.org/index

An interesting book now out of print, examines the fight to preserve Jawbone Flats, Showdown at Opal Creek, The Battle for America's Last Wilderness by David Seideman, current editor of Audubon Magazine and a former reporter for Time. “Libraries around the country” should have this book on their shelves.



Here’s a nother few snippets from Little’s article in Audubon giving insight to Adam and Tom leading outings at Opal Creek:

“As Mims returns the coastal giant salamander to the underwater nook . . , another ‘eureka’ rings out up the creek. Tom . . . has found a Dunn’s salamander in a wet rock crevice near the splashing stream. A dorsal stripe runs along its back in variegated tans, greens, and yellows. The tip of its tail is distinctly black . . . . Titus puts it back with the care of a parent tucking a child into bed. ‘I’ve engendered enough karmic debt already,’ he mutters.”

Everyone has a favorite. For Titus . . . it’s the Oregon slender salamander. A beautifully marked creature with large white flecks on a black belly . . . . This salamander is found exclusively on the west flank of the Oregon Cascades, where only the old-growth Douglas fir forests provide the variety and depth of organic debris it needs, he says.

Mims dotes on the cascade torrent salamander, . . whose brilliant lemon-yellow underbelly makes it seem more suited to the tropics than this moderate zone. Restricted to cold seeps and small streams, cascade torrents are rarely seen, he says, but when they are found it’s in a remote and idyllic spot—“the kind of place where I would want to live.” Besides, says Mims, with their curious eyes and salt-and-pepper backs, “they’re just so damn cute.”

http://audubonmagazine.org/index.html