A UVM blog Bens Blog

From the first time I stepped foot on this piece of land to now, it has changed greatly. I have watched the flowers bloom and die, leaves fall, the river freeze and thaw, and i’ve watched it all sprout once again. Some trees have fallen and logs have decayed, and the composition of the streams bank has changed to be slightly less sandy at parts.

I have come to know my place well, the two twin-trees of different species that have grown into each-other, and the river that flows down the steep hill are the two that I think of first. There are countless downed logs that are strewn about, some have decayed, some have weathered the winter.

My place is downhill from a large neighborhood, and resides in land owned and maintained by the University. All parts of the human impact can be seen in my place, the trees are tagged for research purposes and invasive species’ are seldom seen. The culture of Vermont shines through in my space, despite being next to a developed neighborhood, you can’t see any negative impacts. This shows how much Burlington and the university values maintaining the beauty of nature.

If you asked me at the beginning if the semester if I considered myself part of my spot, or let alone nature, I would say no. In my brain there was a clean line between myself and nature, I was one of the people who believed that the ideal world in the context of nature is one where humans don’t touch the wild world. But now, I know humans are undeniably part of nature. We are animals, and, although many of our impacts are negative, we still have an impact. That impact has changed nature in a way that, if we were to leave nature alone forever from this day forward, more harm would be done than good.

I went on my phenology walk on April 13th with Allie Brown. This was just around the time when the weather was beginning to turn warmer and the flowers were preparing to bloom. Only some of the trees we saw were budding, most were still in the earliest stages of coming back to life. One tree, Tree #4, had about 40% of the buds flowering, although it was obvious they opened very recently. I noticed that the Maples were all still dormant.

When exploring the NPN Website, I came across an article titled “A more complete picture of the timing of spring.” This article went into detail on the current spring timelines and maps, and their common shortcoming, only showing the start of spring. Spring is not one event that can be marked by a single date, it is a collection of events that take weeks and/or months to play out. This is relevant to Vermont as, due to the changing climate, the speed at which these events occur in succession change just as the date of the beginning of spring does. To be more accurate, these maps could measure different events as markers, although this would take much more data to calculate, the kind of data we collected on this walk.

During this year’s BioBlitz, I betrayed Philadelphia and joined the Greater Burlington area! I spent most of the four days working with the UVM Horticulture Club, planting trees and tulip bulbs. I also walked around campus with my lovely girlfriend Allie Brown. I found a ton of plants and insects, but unfortunately no mammals or rodents.

I had a very pleasant time using iNaturalist, but I think that was partially due to my experience using iNaturalist on my own. I didn’t know how to use the project feature that well, but the information provided on brightspace allowed me to find out how to work it.

I encountered 12 species, most of which were plants found in and around campus, I included some of the trees and flowers I planted with the horticulture club, like the Freeman’s Maple and various species of tulips. I also identified a rove beetle that landed on me. We also went to the Jeffords back gardens where we found tons of really cool looking perennials and shrubs. Overall, campus proved to have a huge range of species.

I checked my old communities bioblitz page, the one I used to participate in, and usually we get at least 400 observations and around 200 species, but this year they (Philadelphia) only got 200 observations, a crazy big change and a big difference from Burlington, having over 4,000 observations this year.

For this assignment, Allie Brown and I went down to the water to walk the path to North Beach. As soon as we got on the path, we started finding a ton of animal tracks, as the snow had been sitting there for a few days without any new snowfall. We found a few tracks that we believe belong to rabbits crisscrossing the path, with two large back feet and two smaller front feet staggered in front of it, the tracks seemed to be congregating around a patch of dense bushes. We also found a large hoofed animal track, which we initially believed to be a moose, just due to its pure size, but we go to thinking about the probability of a moose hanging out in the quite densely populated area of Burlington where we found it, we began to hypothesize about it being a deer. The size of the tracks wasn’t too large to be a deer. I have been an avid iNaturalist user for a good few years, but never used the ‘project’ feature, it was quite easy to figure out though. Its very cool to see so many of my peers submitting observations on the app I love.

These were our favorite tracks that we found, small bird tracks that seemed to appear and disappear very quickly. We thought that the bird could maybe have landed, picked up something and flew off very quickly. The size and shape of the tracks are similar to those made by crows, it seems like the crow could have hopped once, as it doesn’t look like it was walking in a direct register walking pattern.

This patch of tracks were much smaller than any that we had seen before this. They looked to be very scattered and going in every direction, as if there were many of the creatures, or maybe one that was moving sparatically. This was close by the crow tracks, so we thought maybe the creature was scared by the bird into running around in this strange manner. Our initial prediction was a vole, as we saw small footprints and a tail drag, but upon further research, we found out that mice tracks have tail drags, while vole tracks do not.

This was the deer/moose track that I talked about earlier. I believe it is a moose track, as the size is too large for a deer, but the location confuses me, as a moose wpould probably not be found walking around in the fairly populated section of Burlington we found this in.

Today I revisited my phenology spot after the long break and observed the changes in the nature of the area and searched for signs of wildlife in the snowy and icy landscape. Upon my arrival, the changes were already apparent. Snow covered nearly every surface, the rivers were frozen over in a statically flowing pattern, there were almost zero non-dormant plants, and surprisingly a very small amount of leaves on the ground. I found a ton of very interesting animal tracks that told a story so common yet so unique. Tracks of an unidentified animal led a path across a fallen log over the frozen river, and deer tracks could be found in the small open area between a few trees. I found a few scattered rabbit tracks and weirdly some cat-like tracks that I assume was either a fox or a cat from one of the houses up the hill. The strangest thing I found was a collection of small, perfectly clear and circular ice disks arranged like animal tracks fixed snugly to the bark of a fallen tree. I have no idea what would have caused this, but I assume the river next to the log might have had something to do with it. The trees that I have been tracking since the start of the blog sat there just the same as last time we checked in, barren without a single leaf on either, however the moss had partially died off and the ferns were slightly more trampled than before. Overall, my phenology spot was quite sad at first glance, but once you look under the surface, the snow is essentially a tapestry with evidence of life filling every corner

Today, I ventured out to my phenology spot to assess the changes that have taken place over the past few months. I found about what I was expecting, baren trees, snow-covered ground, and a silent air about everything. I was surprised to see a noticeably large number of downed trees, much more than were there a few months prior. I was sad to not find any bugs or birds or other animals. Beneath the blanket of snow, there was an intact organic layer, with un-decomposed leaves and White Pine needles. I found a few plants that still had leaves, a fern next to a tree, that was surprisingly sporing, a small sapling with only two or three leaves, and a few coniferous trees.

My favorite aspect of my phenology place is the calm atmosphere it has. I can sit at the base of the two trees and listen to the stream, or look for bugs in the bark and dirt while the sun sets, knowing that I am close enough to the trail to find my way back at night.

I visited Allie Brown’s Phenology spot, which is quite close to mine.

Her spot is downhill from mine, and borders a small rocky river. There are noticeably fewer large trees and a lot more small plants in the underbrush. It is also very slippery, do not visit her spot wearing Nike shoes like me, I may have fallen on my butt once or twice. Overall, our spots are very similar, with mostly the same few species found in both.

Longwood gardens is the pride of my town, and my childhood backyard. I spent countless hours as a kid roaming through the seemingly endless acres of the gardens. As a student at UVM, I have realized how big of a name Longwood is in the horticultural world. The gardens are notoriously well kept, to a degree that is unmatched by nearly all other arboretums and gardens in the world. When talking to a Longwood intern, they told me about how they would need to wake up every morning at 5:45 AM to make sure there were no fallen leaves on the ground. When thinking about my location in Centennial Woods, Longwood seems like a whole different world. It seems distilled, sterile in a way, while my spot on the side of the hill is wild and messy and so beautifully unkempt. They seem two worlds apart, and in many ways, they are. Longwood is a prime example of man’s unexplained drive to prove that he can overcome nature, just like the early Vermont settlers had when they clear-cut mountains just to show that they could. I thought about leaving a gift, but didn’t want to get in trouble with the very strict Longwood staff.

After visiting my spot today, I noticed a few key differences from when I last visited. The trees, which were starting to turn colors when I last visited, were bare and sad-looking. The dead trees that were once full of mushrooms were buried in multi-colored leaves and their mushrooms had spored and died off. The ferns remained but in lesser numbers and sadder looking. The stream was full of leaves and flowing a bit quicker as it was lightly raining. The temperature was noticeably lower and the wind made it hard for me to meditate without focusing on my frozen ears and nose. Overall, the world felt a little greyer and a lot calmer in a tired way.

My place is a little hilly area next to a stream in the heart of Centennial Woods, it has two ‘twin’ trees of different species, growing practically inside of each other, which is the reason I chose this spot.

To get here, you need to walk about a quarter mile down the main trail and then take a left up the steep hill. There is an abundance of ferns in the underbrush, with a minimal amount of young Sugar Maples scattered about.

I was also able to identify a beautiful small plant, a Moonseed, as well as a bunch of red bud saplings