My site in Centennial Woods could have various different futures. The area seems to be degrading quickly in the past few months because of the rain and other weather is eroding the soil more rapidly than before, so it’s difficult to understand what changes may be done to ensure the area doesn’t degrade even more rapidly. Some factors to help change the way this area is becoming worse, would be to change the area in which the water from the university dining areas go to. Since I was there last when it was especially muddy and soil was eroding rapidly from severe rain fall, citizens taking care of Centennial Woods have put down more planks in the area for people to walk on, which shows how this area is not seen as an area that wild life coincides in but an area that is made for people to hike through. This area may as well become an area that would become a dormitory building as it has been planned in the past by the university. The most important way to ensure this will not happen and to stop the area from degrading more is to ensure that the visitors of the area are educated about not abusing the area. For example, within this area there are many fallen trees that birds live in and many fry live in the stream during the spring. It’s important that people are educated about this and remember this area is a habitat for many organisms.

The majority of the individuals dwelling in the area are birds, small fry, and surrounding trees. To ensure that they would be able to live in their habitat with minimal interaction with visitors who may degrade the habitat in a way that may hurt those living in the area. To ensure there would never be more degradation, individuals should never walk around the area however many people do enjoy walking through Centennial Woods. The majority of those who live around the area are nonhuman individuals so it’s harder to know what the future would hold as they may not know what they need in the future. Overall, attempting to se what type of compromise could be made between people enjoying walks through the area and organisms living within the area may be hard to agree to. As well as, the university possibly wanting to put an area for students to live in.

At this site, it’s seen people do not take care of it, and certain things such has cans and other trash is occasionally seen at the site. On the other hand, people who are working to take care of this area of Centennial Woods, put down wood planks in areas that may become very muddy in some areas but other areas are eroding because of the brook and haven’t been worked on and are becoming more and more eroded.

However, the area has been influenced through the brook and occasionally animals that may pass through, however not many live around this area except for some birds and fry. This area is fairly open and there are very few trees, and I think that within the future that there would be some fewer trees and that more of the soil around the brook will become eroded and the brook will become larger and larger as time goes on. In the future, the perspective of this area being close to campus but also being in the middle of the woods may cause the University to become interested in an idea to make a dorm building in the area as the school had this idea during the 1990’s.

Within my blog site of Centennial Woods, it’s easily seen that this area is heavily used by people for recreational purposes as well as by wildlife. In this certain area, some parts of the path and small land area by the brook, it’s a possibility that it will erode eventually due to how much has eroded from my first visit to my site, to the last visit that I had recently. This area, in the past, had been looked at for possible places for dorms which would have completely changed the dynamic of the area for organisms as well as for people. In the future I personally believe that not much will change except for the majority of the area becoming eroded and more trees coming down in the future because of disease or insect infestation.

The economic value of the area can be quite high because the brook does flow into the man made lake on the edge of the forest, as well is important to many people in the Burlington area. The area is also home to many birds and fry in the brook during the warmer months. Economic interests of the university can cause the price of the area to increase, especially in the past when it was looked at for Green house living. However, if it was converted to Green house living, the price of the area could have become much higher or much lower.

The cost of my blog spot could change because of degradation of resources by humans and other organisms that may be invasive. The issue of the areas depends on what interest’s people into buy the area or not, and if so what has such high economic value in the forest as a whole? The area has many different kinds of resources that could cause the area to be incredibly valuable.

My phenology spot is in Centennial Woods, by the brook. This area is a small clearing in the woods, where there is a dirt path and a small bridge that runs across the brook. On one side of the bridge there is what is almost like an island that has been eroded by the brook over time. It’s an area that can be seen as almost picturesque, and most people who enjoy hiking and the outdoors would walk by. It’s in an area that’s protected by the University, but occasionally if it rained enough, dishes and eating utensils can be found in the brook. Seeing this, I thought about how interesting it is that a protected area can be littered with these kinds of things and never be picked up.

Contrast:

The largest difference between Centennial Woods would be the fact that my backyard has large rocks left from glaciers, and that unlike Centennials Woods, there is no brook. My backyard is not heavily used by people except for the occasions when my family goes down to under the deck to the large composting bin that we have. Centennial Woods on the other hand, is used almost every single day by people for phenology, hiking, taking a run or walk in the woods etc. As well, my backyard has different species like tiger lilies, raspberry bushes in certain areas and multiple other plants that generally are never seen in forests in Vermont.

Another difference is the angle of my backyard being so elevated and dropping down unlike Centennial Woods which has a more flat area.

Comparisons:

Some comparisons between the two areas would be the different ways both areas are or have been heavily used.

When I had been younger, my brother and I would play on these rocks and use certain pathways to get to my neighbors yard and like Centennial Woods, have certain places that are eroded, and have areas that would have no grass anywhere because that certain area was used so much.

Here we can see the brook as well as various areas of my phenology spot that have eroded as well as the use this area has for recreational use. During my visit, I especially noticed how much this area and the trails in Centennial Woods are used by civilians and students. I was very curious as to why certain areas have much more erosion like the small hole in the second picture with multiple plants surrounding it. I also wondered what this area would look like if people did not use this area for a trail or used it at all for anything.

My map of centennial woods shows the multiple trees within my area as well as the small brook, fallen tree over the brook and other areas.

My event map, I had walked over the bridge and onto an area that is rather muddy to look at my plot. In this area I had then noticed since my last visit that certain areas of my plot have eroded more from the weather and or having recreational use. I decided to then cross over and look at certain areas when I began to see various birds and and wanted to see which species had been around the area. Sadly I could not take a picture of these birds clearly to accurately identify which bird it had been. After this I began looking at the areas of my plot that had significantly eroded, which is close to the bridge as well as by the bricks I had used to get on to the small area of land by the bridge.

The Woods

Chirps echoed as the brook continued to flow,

I felt alone among hundreds of other beings,

The soil heavily saturated with water,

Made it difficult to walk without fear of falling,

I searched all around for the birds,

None could be found,

None could be seen,

But all of them,

Could be,

Heard.

https://goo.gl/maps/h5q794dtUi92

Within this link is my phenology site, Centennial Woods, by the stream. This area is used quite heavily for recreational use by civilians of Burlington and students of UVM.

This is my phenology blog, my location is a clearing within Centennial Woods, and will be doing weekly updates as to how this area is currently doing.