Yay, field trip! Today I went to my friend Dana’s phenology site, which is also located in Centennial Woods. Even though our sites are both in Centennial, they are in different areas so they are pretty different! One big difference I noticed was that her spot has more paper birches than mine does, as well as more eastern hemlock. She has a stream at her location just like I do, and I noticed the water levels at her stream were much higher than mine. I thought that it was because it had snowed, but I later went to my spot and my water was still lower. I’m curious as to why this is the case. One idea I have is that there is a clearing by her spot, so the rain directly goes to the stream. There are more trees surrounding my stream, so maybe the rain doesn’t reach the stream. Also, the trees might be using the water, leaving less for my stream. However, my stream is at the bottom of a hill, so I would also think the water would go down. Overall, I’m not positive why my stream has less water, but going to Dana’s spot got me to make observations and have questions I never would have had if I only ever went to my spot!
