My sense of place here at Centennial book is defined by the presence of the brook and different ecosystems surrounding it. I am more comfortable when I am surrounded by lakes and streams and in this location of Centennial Woods the water presence is on a smaller scale but I still feel the same sense of connectedness with the area. The stream itself has gone through many changes since my first visit. The first time it consisted of very slow-moving water clogged up by leaf litter (it was almost like a dam). Then the second visit consisted of fast and overflowing water with expanding stream beds. In this visit I could also not see the bottom of the brook because there was such cloudy and muddy water. The water in my visit today (November 11) was a more moderate speed with extremely clear water so that the rock covered bottom was completely visible. It also has a smaller and more manageable volume now with the water barely reaching the banks. In addition to the changes in the brook, there were also many other changes. I was able to easily spot lichen on some trees on my walk down to my spot. Additionally, I noticed that no trees had leaves except the Norway Maple mentioned in last week’s visit. The tree only had 15 or so leaves on it. One thing that I noticed for the first time this week was that the surrounding pine trees don’t have many needles except towards the top. I thought this was interesting and wondered why this was the case so I googled it and learned that it could be possible the trees were just aging so they did not have many needles left. After reading the November chapter in Naturally Curious, it said that in November there should have been migrating birds, lichen and mosses, hibernating animals, and very few trees with leaves. Three of these things were correct as there was only one tree with leaves, only one squirrel was spotted, and I did find lichen, however, I did not see any birds in the sky or even hear one in the forest. I think this could be due to the fact that it was snowing today!! There is a storm coming and by 3:44 pm when I was at my spot, snow was already rapidly falling and adding to the previous inch we got earlier in the weekend. I am really excited to see how my place changes with the new snowfall and what that will do to the brook and Norway Maple tree.

In a larger sense, I find my sense of place to remain the most intact when in New England. This is because I was born and raised in Central Massachusetts and vacationed in various spots New England practically my whole life. This small site was chosen for its unique layout and pretty appearance. Although I have only been taking note of this particular site all parts of the woods are going through phenological changes. If each part of Centennial Woods is changing individually and as a whole. When I look at Centennial Woods, I see it as a natural resource and an educational resource for myself and other UVM students. However, it wasn’t always viewed in this way. As we have learned in our natural resources one lecture, much of Vermont was deforested and used for livestock grazing and milk production. Centennial Woods was most likely deforested at some point and the healthy landscape shows that it would have been a prime location for raising livestock. There is some evidence of this, such as stone walls and old barbed wire in trees. How funny it was to stand in my site now and think that a sheep could have been here at one point!