A UVM blog Dominic Tracy NR 1&2 Phenology blog

Near to my house is a small forest park called Pine Grove, this is a small wooded area sandwiched on all sides by roads and houses. I have been riding my bike, walking, and exploring the woods of pine grove for over 10 years. For many years I have wandered the forest balancing on fallen trees or cutting trails to ride my bike with friends. Just last summer however a new initiative was taken on in pine grove, being town owned they brought in a logging company that cleaned out and chipped nearly all the fallen lumber and cut down many trees. All this forest devastation in an effort to nurture healthier more resistant trees, left standing now are mature red maples and towering eastern white pines. With the new plan executed every time I now walk through the trials there is new vegetation and brush popping up all over the park. 

Finding a sunny clear spot between two trees I set up my hammock and laid back watching the trees sway in the wind and the ravens flying overhead, stopping in the canopy of trees all around me to squawk at other birds. While most dead wood was cleared out, some standing dead remained, riddled with holes from many different species of woodpecker present in southern Maine. A few of these woodpecker species include the downy woodpecker, the pileated woodpecker, and the yellow-bellied woodpecker. 

Comparing pine grove to my phenology spot in centennial woods has become much more interesting since pine grove was combed out. Centennial very much reminds me of how pine grove used to be, wide multi-use trails running through dense woods with streams and species a-plenty. Now juxtaposing the two I wonder if centennial woods would ever receive the same treatment that pine grove received, with a much larger size it could be very difficult and costly to do such a process. Another argument is depending on how people feel, whether to leave the woods completely natural and let dead wood rot everywhere or to clean the forest up and allow for new life to come through the understory.

Back at my tree this time spring is coming! with some leaves coming out and grass peaking through the leaves and twigs on the ground. The red maple I have been tracking for a bit now is definitely flowering, baby leaves growing into full sized ones soon. Another sign spring is coming is the stream, right near my phenology spot and my tree the stream is back to flowing from all the winter melt.

During this visit to my phenology location and tree there was less and less snow, getting to see more of the understory even while it is dead was interesting. As the semester comes along I will hopefully get to see around the tree and how it interacts with other trees during the growing season.

Exploring in a familiar place, Centennial woods I found a fairly young red maple and decided to make it “my tree”

To identify this tree in the winter you must look for the opposite branching, and paired buds to confirm that it is a red maple.

Through the year during the time I explored my phenology spot in Centennial woods, I saw multiple changes. First I’ve noticed multiple new downed trees near my spot, most of them seem to have been dead for a long time but just fell this winter. Another thing I noticed in changes some graffiti on a few trees around my place, unfortunately It seems that multiple people have chosen to spray paint on trees in the forest. There are a few landmarks that I have noticed in my time in Centennial, one of the stream bending and flowing right by my spot. Another landmark I’ve noticed is a giant eastern white pine, acting as the landmark for me when I know to get off the main trail and go downhill towards the stream. Nature and culture intertwine in multiple ways in and around centennial woods, one noticeable thing is the man made bridges throughout the forest, keeping us out of the water and mud. Another thing I notice is the signs throughout the forest, trail maps, information signs or even the warning about dropping leftover marijuana on the floor, signaling to people that it has made multiple pets sick after they ate it. I would like to thing I am a part of my place in the woods, and have even found myself going there often to relax and just enjoy nature, but my impact has been very small so I don’t consider myself apart of this place yet.

Here is the sketch I made today in the woods:

For my phenology blog this time I went to the Redstone Pines on campus. It was a lovely day so I went out hammocking but found some signs of winter in what was left of the winter conditions. In these woods I encountered some prints in the dirt and I saw a nest high up in the trees. The nest I saw was very high up in a tree so I was not able to ID it, but it was fairly small so not an eagle or a hawk definitely. The tracks (picture included) were in a woodchip/dirty patch, I believe these are just dog paw prints, but they were hard to identify because of how light and beat up they were.

Coming back to school I was excited to see what my Phenology location would be like with a thick layer of snow! Being close to the main trail in Centennial woods There was some foot traffic at my spot but still plenty of fresh snow as I explored a little bit more. Being that the temperature and weather has changed so much since my last visit, the winter changes are in full effect. Snow everywhere and ice chunks throughout the small stream by my phenology spot. This stream runs too fast to be completely frozen through but there is a small layer of ice over it and some thicker spots by the edge. While I did not see any wildlife on my visit I saw some clear tracks on my visit. The ones I found appear to be deer tracks:

This image is sourced from: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/moose-tracks-gm93466914-11078627

During my final visit to my phenology location for this semester I was able to sit and just observe the surrounding environment for 30 or so minutes, this gave me a great opportunity to consider how ti has changed from the first time I visited and all the other times I had come to this spot. While at this point only the Evergreens are holding onto their leaves/needles the decomposition of those leaves continues on the forest floor. Along with the many old dead trees scattering the forest floor. While there are many things I like about my phenology spot in Centennial woods I think my favorite is the stream that runs through it, getting to watch and hear the water trickle through the rocky stream bed is peaceful and something I love to do. Considering how the stream was formed over years and years of water passing through is another thing that makes me enjoy this part of my spot, the path of the stream now cut out multiple feet down twisting and turning through the woods is interesting to think about and look at where else the the stream could have gone. Watching wildlife is another part of my phenology spot that I love, on the trees surrounding my place I watch squirrels chase each other and birds fly from tree to tree stopping to perch for a short time.

My Phenology spot here at UVM is in Centennial woods, what makes Centennial woods different is it’s surroundings, being cut through and surrounded by highways, roads and developments. Centennial’s surroundings have a massive impact on it’s health. The place I chose back home in Falmouth, Maine is a small forest called Pine Grove, and just like centennial it is surrounded by roads, businesses and developed area. For all of my life they were even more similar, dense tree growth, dead forest growth on the ground and a thick undercover as well. This fall however the town of Falmouth decided to clean out Pine Grove, they went through with machinery and cleared all dead material off the floor of the forest and cut down many trees. They did this in order to help the forest grow back even healthier than it was before.

During my latest visit to Centennial woods, I was able to really sit and absorb the area during my sit spot. In just a short 15 minute period I was able to notice many new things and even watch as the sun quickly faded through the trees. Reaching this time of year with the sun now going down much earlier and seemingly much quicker I watched as the sun moved down still beaming through the large pine trees and smaller underbrush surrounding my spot. Another thing I was able to watch and enjoy during my sit spot was the wildlife, going about their business. I watched 2 squirrels chasing one another for almost 10 minutes, up and down trees all across my field of view. I chose to sit on the stream bank which gave me a look at the water running below me, while I never saw fish, frogs or any other animals I still watched how the water flowed and thought about the way water has shaped this stream bed, with its curves and banks twisting through the whole forest. This part of the year is also a time of change, since my last visit to the location the leaves have almost completely fallen off. From the beginning of the year when these leaves were green and dense, blocking out the sun to October when they turned yellow, orange, red and even pink to completely falling off it is interesting to see the new features revealed to me now that the leaves are not there blocking out much of the forest.