…Bring May Flowers!!

Hello Everybody!

This will be my last phenology post of the school year.  🙁 It has been a pleasure to explore the natural landscape around Burlington and share my experiences with you!

As you can see from above, while the cold moody rains of April made life a bit dreary, it was all worth it in the end.  Seas of flowers have begun popping up all over town.  Although I could not identify this beauty, its radiant warmth really did brighten up my day when I saw it.

I think part of the beauty of Salmon Hole is that it provides an escape.  It is this natural oasis within the constant motion of the city that allows people to explore and observe their home through a different lens.  This area is really important to the culture of the city.  Burlington has this reputation of being “green”, part of which includes having multiple recreational opportunities available within the city limits.  I believe that citizens are used to a lifestyle that still promotes outdoor recreation, even if it is in the middle of an urban area.

This section of the river is a melting pot of sorts that brings people from all walks of life together.  There are the avid fishers, the curious students, and the everyday locals who just want a breath of fresh air.  No matter their reason, Salmon Hole provides an outlet for those looking to create a better understanding of the place they call their home.

Having a phenology spot that allowed me to better understand the new world that I was entering was a great way to work through my freshman year of college.  Being outside in a place where so much history, both natural and cultural, has happened grounded me and reminded me of my purpose for coming to college.  My job in coming here was to learn, and the trees and the river have been truly fantastic teachers.

I don’t feel like such an intruder when I come to these woods anymore; I think the woods have even begun to welcome me when I enter their care.  However, I hesitate to say that I feel like I am part of this place.  I think that it takes more time and commitment to truly build such a relationship.  And while I believe that in the future I have the ability to become part of the place that is Salmon Hole, I don’t want to make such claims after such an insufficient amount of time spent together.

I do feel a deep connection to this area; I am very grateful for all the knowledge that it has passed down to me, and all the memories that it help to create.  I look forward to building this relationship more throughout my years at UVM.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of some Christmas tree fiddlehead ferns that I found at my spot today!

Thank you all for coming on this journey with me, and I hope you have a wonderful summer!

~Emet 🙂

April Showers…

Hello From A Giant Mud Puddle!

I should’ve worn my rainboots when I visited my phenology spot a couple of days ago; being right next to the banks of a river in springtime calls for very specific footwear!

Being right in between a road and a river does not leave much room for understory plants to grow.  Especially when the river is always in the process of flooding and receding, it doesn’t provide a very stable habitat for most plants to grow.

However, the trees that were able to establish themselves have begun bloom, which is very exciting.

In my exact phenology spot, I have a lot of Boxelder Maples, here are some pictures of their buds:

I traveled a little bit during this visit because there wasn’t much to see in my immeditate vicinity, and I came across another budding tree.  These buds had a single scale and were alternating along the branch.  I kind of think they look like a goose head.  When I got back, I checked my twig ID sheet, and I am pretty sure that it is a willow branch – check it out!

Going further along the path also helped me find understory plants.  There weren’t any flowers, but I’m pretty sure I found some garlic mustard.  Garlic mustard is an invasive species that has heart-shaped leaves and crinkle cut edges.  Let me know if you think this is indeed garlic mustard!

I wasn’t able to find any signs of amphibians, but I don’t really think this is their ideal habitat.  I think they definitely like more of a forest interior space and Salmon Hole is completely surrounded by edges.   I know amphibians like vernal pools, and all the water in this area is fast flowing, which would not be good for laying eggs.

I did see a lot of birds though, or at least signs of them!   The chickadees were making quite a ruckus and other birds we chimed in as well, I am just not familiar with their calls yet.  I could also tell that they have been snacking on berries because red and seedy fecal matter was present throughout the area:

I also finally saw beaver tracks!  I still haven’t found their lodge, but I knew they were there!

I’m almost positive that these are beaver tracks because they have five toes, and they are right on the water.

Maybe if the beavers are out it means that spring is just around the corner!

Spring and New Beginnings

Hello Spring Breakers!

Early spring is my favorite season.  I love watching the world thaw and new life being created.  However, this spring break hasn’t felt very spring-like at all.  Here is Southern Vermont we have had over two feet of snow in the past week and the world looks like it is caught in a permanent blizzard – unchanging.  This stationary feeling was even more pronounced when I traveled to my new phenology spot in my hometown of Manchester, Vermont.

Right behind the local ice rink is a wooded area with trails for disk golf.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1892182,-73.0530187,15.83z Here is a link to the map on google if you want to look around.

The area circled in red is the area I chose to explore with my mom and my dog this afternoon.  The area was very hilly, with a stream running through the valleys.  Unlike my phenology spot in Burlington, this body of water was most definitely a stream; muddy, swampy, and barely flowing.  The Winooski River on the other hand, although covered in ice and seemingly frozen, is a swift-moving waterway.  Another difference between this new spot and the one back in Burlington is the differentiation in species composition.

At Salmon Hole, the forest is mainly made up of deciduous trees, and there is barely any color this time of year.  The area behind the rink is mostly composed of coniferous trees, specifically Eastern Hemlocks, which gives the appearance of being forever green.

There were also some American Beech saplings in the area.  These saplings were beginning to form the classic long cigar like buds, which to me, symbolizes that spring is just around the corner.

Stopping to catch our breath for a moment, we pause, listening to our surroundings.  Chickadees are creating a harmony in the canopy above us.  The slightly electronic buzz of a woodpecker chimes in every so often.  While we could not see them physically, their voices made their presence known.

However, we did manage to see what I believe is evidence of a woodpecker enjoying a snack.  These holes in the hemlock tree helped secure my theory.

After stomping around in snow up to our knees, we finally reach the end of the path atop a very steep hill.  Flopping down on to the ground exhausted, I turn my head and what I see makes my heart melt.  Surrounding a pipe dripping water tiny green shoots are popping up all around me.  Two and a half feet of snow and bitter windchill won’t keep these first signs of life from reaching towards the sun.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and look out for signs of new life! 🙂

Natural Community Classification

Hello, Readers of Phenology Blogs!

Recently in class, we have been using the book Wetland, Woodland, and Wildland to classify different types of natural areas.  In the introduction, the book states that it does not really cover aquatic ecosystems because they are very complex and the authors had another focus in mind.  My phenology spot actually happens to be an aquatic ecosystem because it is located along a river.  I believe the technical term for this type of community is a riparian zone.

My phenology spot is located at Salmon Hole, which happens to be along the floodplains of the Winooski River.  It was very interesting to see how much the water has risen since the warm spell last week.  When I first went out to my spot during late summer, you could walk out to the island in the middle of the river, but now the river has come so far up the banks that you can’t even see the island anymore.

 <–The whole part that is underwater currently used to be solid land that you could walk out onto.

You can tell that this happened during other warm spells because of the ice that was left behind on the banks when the temperature dropped again.

These blocks of ice are a lot smaller now than they were the last time I was at Salmon Hole because we have had an abnormally warm February.

The trees have been loving all this excess water and warmth; the buds of the boxelder trees are looking a little fuller than they were last time.

 <– I have been having a lot of difficulty focusing my camera lately – I will work on that!

The warmth has also made a lot of critters come out to play – and these critters are hungry.  Signs of mid-winter munching were present throughout the area.  Most noticeably, a beaver taking a nibble of a lovely tree.

There were some other signs as well, such as twigs that had the bark scraped off, revealing the green vascular cambium.

 <–also the ends of some twigs.

If you want to check out more about what kind of area you are living in you should look up this program called BioFinder.  This is a program that Vermont's Department of Natural Resources puts out in order to help people understand where infrastructure should be placed around the state as to avoid important wildlife areas.  The site itself can be a bit temperamental, but once you get it to work, it's great for showing you key features of the landscape.

When I zoomed in on Salmon Hole (the light blue circle on the map below), I found that my phenology spot has a number of special features.  For an obvious example, my spot is located along an exemplary water surface – aka the Winooski River.  However, there were some other cool elements that I was not aware of; such as the fact that my site has some rare and uncommon plant and animal species.  The map doesn't go into the specifics, but it is very interesting to know that I am the presence of rarity.

Have a lovely day!! 🙂

 

 

Tracks and Twigs (Winter Edition)

Hi Everybody!

Today was my first day back at Salmon Hole since the new year, and it felt great to be back!

The path down there was a straight sheet of ice, so be careful if you decide to head down there at any point.  The bank of the river looked so cool though.  The river had recently flooded during the rain and the thaw we had a couple weeks ago, but it has now re-frozen.  This thaw and re-freeze affect created huge three foot deep chunks of ice all along the path of Salmon Hole.

However, these icy obstacles were no match for our fierce winter creatures.  The path was absolutely covered in tracks.

Bunnies and squirrels were galloping all over the place.

In my official phenology spot, I also noticed rabbit and squirrel tracks, but I noticed some other tracks as well.  I was hoping that they would be beaver tracks (because I had seen other signs of beavers in the area before), but I don’t think they were.  They did seem to come up the hill from the bank of the river, but they weren’t really the proper shape.

It’s possible that it is a lynx or a bobcat (because it has four toes and no claw marks), but that doesn’t seem quite right either.

If you know what kind of animal it is, please let me know!

Animal tracks were not the only signs of life that could be seen at my phenology spot.  Even though to us it seems like winter might never end, the trees are already preparing for spring.  New buds are popping up on the deciduous trees in my area.  My phenology spot seems to contain only Box Elder Maples, here are some pictures:

 <— I apologize for the terrible quality of these pictures, both my hands and my camera were very cold and having trouble focusing.

These winter twigs match my hypothesis from the fall that the trees in my area are Box Elders.  The buds are crescent-shaped, white, downy and come in clumps of three.  The twigs also have a slight purple hue to them, which is another sign of a Box Elder tree.

 <—–Here is my drawing of the specific parts of the twig.

Lastly, I'll leave you with this lovely photo of the river that has frozen over:

Have a lovely day and keep warm!! 🙂

 

The Human History of Salmon Hole

Hey Y’all!

I realized recently that I have been going to Salmon Hole for about three months now, but I really don’t know anything about the area besides what I have been able to observe first hand.  While I feel a connection to my phenology spot, I haven’t actually taken the time to get to know it.  Part of how you get to know something is by asking its history.  So that’s what I set out to do, find the history of the area so that I can better understand the land that I have the privilege of observing.  (Also it’s an assignment, but I’m actually curious too!!)

While the natural history of the landscape is obviously quite important, for this post I am just going to focus on how humans have impacted their surroundings during the past 10,000 years or so.

Pre European Settlement:

Native Americans have been in the region for thousands of years, using the resources that the banks of the Winooski River provided.  These resources included animals to hunt for game; wild plants to use as medicine and food; and natural materials such as clay and wood to use for tools.  The Abenaki named the river, the Winooski (which means onion river land) due to the fact that the river banks were plentiful with naturally occurring wild onions.  Then closer to 1000 AD horticulture came to the area and natives began planting the three sisters (corn, beans, and squash) in the floodplains of the river.

 <—- Wild Leeks

(Photo From http://thevermontgardener.blogspot.com/2010/04/wild-leeks-spring-favorite.html )

Samuel de Champlain and The French:

When the French arrived in the early 1600s, they cut down a lot of trees along the river banks for lumber.  They also used the Winooski as a water highway to the colonies in the South, especially when times were particularly tense between them and the Natives.

Ira Allen and His Mills:

Ira Allen, an entrepreneur from Connecticut, built a series of mills along the Winooski Falls (very close to Salmon Hole) after the Revolutionary War.  Originally these mills just produced everyday goods like lumber and flour.  This caused there to be a lot of deforestation in the area which led to a lot of flooding.  This became very burdensome to the people of the area because these floods caused a lot of economic/property damage, and in some instances, the floods were so severe that people died.

<—-The Grist Mill at Winooski Falls

(Photo From http://www.uvm.edu/~hp206/2013/pages/witman/index.html and Vermont's Historical Society)

Also, some of the mills, such as the Chance Cotton Mill pictured below, did not provide the best working environments, or have the best labor management practices.  The mills often employed French Canadian children, and while this was a trend that was acceptable at the time, it should be noted that the area does not have a perfect or pristine background.

(I mean this is obvious because of the poor relationship that happened between the settlers and the Native Americans, but…)

<—–Raoul Julien working in Chance Mill, Photographed by Lewis Hine

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winooski_Falls_Mill_District)

Even though this was the case, people stilled used the Falls as the location of their mills.  However, instead of using the mills to produced good, they started producing power and energy.  This energy capture started way back in 1886, and even now hydroelectric power is one of the greatest outputs from the Winooski River.

Salmon Hole In Particular:

Part of how hydroelectric power is generated is by creating dams along sections of the river.  Spawning salmon really like this particular dam along the Falls, and they often gather in the swirling pools of the dam’s waters.  The fact that this area is such a Salmon Magnet is how Salmon Hole got its name.

Today, many people enjoy this area for its recreational value, particularly as a prime fishing location.

<— a picture my friend Connor Stack took of the fish he caught at Salmon Hole!

Even though sections of Salmon Hole's History are kind of dark, I'm glad that I now have a more complete understanding of what has happened in my phenology spot.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

Until next time!

 

In case you were wondering about where I got my information!

Sources:

https://winooskiriver.org/human-history.php

Salmon Hole Park & Riverwalk Trail

http://www.uvm.edu/~hp206/2013/pages/witman/index.html

Phenology Comparison

Hello Everybody, Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

Before we get started I want to guide you to this lovely map of my at home phenology spot so that you have a better idea of the place I am talking about.

I had to do a phenology assignment in high school, and this was my spot back then; it felt good to be back.

Long before it was an assignment, I would visit the little valley in my backyard to explore and discover.  Each time I visited, the valley had a new surprise waiting for me: a broken colorful glass vase, a mysterious metal box, etc.  Now I realize that it was just people dumping their trash in our backyard, but when I was younger I liked to imagine the story behind each new “artifact” we found.   Maybe that vase was 100s of years old and worth millions of dollars, maybe magical trolls left them out at night hoping that we would find them!

The possibilities were endless, but not nearly as cool as the truth we discovered as we dove deeper into the woods.  Once we got past the initial woodiness, a marshland emerged, bringing with it a tiny river and more treasures to be discovered.

We found, what my brother and I affectionately like to call, “The Tunnel”.  “The Tunnel” was a narrow twisting passageway that led under the road and to the other side of the woods.  I remember when we reached the bend in the pipe the first time we entered the tunnel.  We could no longer see light from either end of the passageway and we weren’t sure how much longer the path went on.  But we braved the cobwebs and the make-believe murders and made it to the other side in one piece.

 <—- "The Tunnel"

The swampy spongy land that is the valley has always been important to me because it helped nurture a sense of curiosity and courage.  I am sure that many a story has been created there in the past, and that many more will be written in the future.

———————————————————————————————–

In terms of species composition, my two phenology spots are not very similar.  While they may both be along a river (I use this term loosely in regards to my at home phenology spot) and in disturbed areas, that is where their similarities end.

At my phenology spot in Burlington, the trees are much larger and mostly Boxelder maples.  In my new phenology spot, there is a greater variety in plant life.  For example, there are quite a few white birches, but they are very small and young.  This is a sign that my new phenology site was cleared more recently than my spot in Burlington.

 <—- paper birch

Also, the majority of the area at my new site is covered in honeysuckle bushes.  Most of the leaves are gone, but you can still tell that they are honeysuckle because of the slightly peeley tan colored bark, and the multiple branches that seem to come out of the ground in the same place.  I have also seen them blooming in the spring and summer.

There is not much undergrowth at my site in Burlington, but the majority of the composition in this area seems to be in the understory.

Since most of the plants were at or below eye level, it was very easy to see that many of them were going to seed.

I'm not quite sure what this plant is, I believe it is related to goldenrod, but it was everywhere and I got small cotton like little seeds all over my arms and legs.  The seeds themselves looked like small bark like flowers that had tiny tufts of down sprouting out of their tops.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with this picture of some very cool moss I found:

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Beavers and Fungi

Good Afternoon from Salmon Hole!

Almost all the leaves have disappeared from the trees surrounding my phenology spot.  The windstorms this past week have done a fantastic job of knocking them all off.  The leaves now coat the ground in a very thick layer of organic matter that makes the most perfect rustling sound when you walk through them.

 <—- Spooky Skeletal Trees!!

I created an Event Map this week to record the senses and distinguishable landscape features that stand out on the journey to my phenology spot.

Here is a picture of my map!

With all the leaves gone from the trees, I was very clearly able to see signs of beaver activity and how they interacted with the landscape.

Below is a gallery of photos for some the signs of beaver activity I spotted.

Also with the lack of leaves, there was a severe lack of color in this area.  That made it particularly easy to spot the colorful fungi that grew on the trees.

Here are a couple of examples of some fun-guys I met while in the woods:

I also ended up picking up at least three different drink containers and two different kinds of chip bags while in the woods, because the lack of foilage made the litter particularly prominant.  I ran out of hand space, but there was a lot of trash that I was not able to get to.  They really should put a trash reciptical in the parking lot of Salmon Hole.

Here are some of the bigger items I could not quite carry on my way out:

To recap: beavers=cool, fungi=cool, trash=NOT COOL!!

Have a lovely day! 🙂

Map and Wildlife

Hello Everybody!!

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day to head down to Salmon Hole and check out my Phenology Spot!

The majority of the trees in my area had already lost their leaves (in just three weeks!), but there were a few that were still trying to hold onto their colors a bit longer.

As promised in the title, here is a map of my Phenology Spot.  I like to sit on a fallen log looking directly over the river.

After drawing my map, I was able to do a bit of exploring, and found more fresh beaver tracks!

 <—-so small!!!

I haven't seen a beaver yet, but I know they're out there!  On the walk to my spot, I saw fresh evidence of beaver activity: a tree that has almost been chewed down.  The teeth marks looked pretty fresh, so I could've just missed them!

 <—the red strip of missing bark is why I think the damage looks so fresh.

Hope you have a lovely Monday! 🙂

October 1, 2017 – Day 1!!!!

Hi everybody, this is my Phenology Blog!

My Phenology spot is along the Winooski River near Salmon Hole.  In order to get there, you walk down Colchester Ave until you get to the intersection, then you turn left and you should see the sign for Salmon Hole.

I chose a spot along the river because I’ve always had a connection to water.  I’d also like to see how the river changes throughout the seasons.  I chose this spot in particular because there was a very cool man-made log fort right next to it.  There was also a beaver lodge right below me, and I’m really hoping that I will be able to see a beaver when I am there.

Most of the trees in that area were boxelder maples, but I also noticed some American Beech.  There were quite a few logs and sticks on the ground, all without bark, which was another sign of beaver activity.

   <—-Boxelder Maple

 <—–Cool Tree Fort thing!

  <—- Beaver Tracks