A UVM blog FE!Nology Project

I was going on a hike in centennial woods shortly after we first found out about the tree quiz, just seeing the park as I had never walked through it before, and on a side path right near the back of the baseball stadium their is a giant red oak with a tree swing attached to it that, when swinging, pulls you over a drop off that gets you pretty high off the ground. This location is interesting to me because it has large overstory trees with no medium sized trees, going from massive oaks and pines to black cherry’s that I can touch the top of. Admittedly I have visited the tree swing a few times and when we heard about this project I knew this would be my spot!

My locations has interesting vegetation because of the unusual circumstances that surround and impact my locations plant life. Below it is a man made lake of some sort that carries overflow from the brook. Because of its closeness to water it has lots of reed plants, that are tall and skinny but because they have grown from a lower elevation only come up to a bit above eye level, on the other sides are several young trees, like the black cherry and white oak linked below scattered around that look to be immature. Along with the adolescent trees and water plants their are a few large trees that dominate the overstory; a white oak, white pine, and red maple are all in view when looking directly up. finally i must mention the excess of shrubs, I was only able to identify a few but in almost all areas where people don’t walk regularly vines, medium tall grasses, and small shrubs are dense and thick

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246343691 Staghorn Sumac

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247392194 White Oak

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247392189 Fern

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246343709 White Oak

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246343526 Crownvetch

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246343486 Eastern White Pine

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246341867 Reed

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246341715 Red Maple

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246341531 Black Cherry

I revisited to my spot early afternoon on October 29th, it was a windy chilly day but the sun was out, and with a jacket on it was nice. I spent a lot of time watching the tall pines trees “behind” where I was sitting. The way they sway in the wind is beautiful, giant things that are so solid and powerful yet they are able to effortlessly dance in the wind. The sound of the wine in the trees, but also in the tall reed’s was prominent.  The rope swing was blowing back and forth in the wind as well. My location has drastically changed, when I first visited the leaves were bright greens and on the trees, now everything has dropped. Yet the understory has remained similar, the reeds and bushes that surround my area have not changed much and the pines are still clinging to their bristles. When you look straight up you see the wooded tops of the trees no longer adorned by bright green leaves like they were a couple of weeks ago.

I visited a forested area down the street from my house that was an old lot that got abandoned, the most interesting thing about going to Maryland was feeling like I had gone back in time by three weeks, the leaves were past peak but were still yellow on the ground and in some cases still holding onto their trees. Just like how it was here but about a month ago. It was like i got to have fall twice and that was fun. Like my Vermont place im sure in September their are green leaves and more overgrown underbrush but like the Vermont spot at this point it looked pretty baren and quite sticky. I did not check the soil and I am unsure about the exact species of pine trees where lining the fence but i do believe most of the over story were large old maple trees similar to here.

My last time visiting the site was on December 8th with snow on the ground, almost all of the leaves had fallen except for some withered brown red oak leaves. The giant reeds that lined the lower edge of the area had fallen and revealed some evergreen trees that still had all their needles a bit further away then i was able to see before and the pond had frozen over. The ground was covered in snow but leaves and woody debris were poking out around the space. I looked for animals for a while and noticed that without leaves it was easy to spot bird nests in the tops of the trees and did see several small birds when at the spot. I was unable to find any animal tracks other then the shoe prints that were scattered around.

My favorite part of visiting my spot was the swing, I did it every time i visited even today in the snow and I did fall on my butt trying to get off, Other then that I enjoyed seeing the changes in the trees, the first and second and third visit aliened with the falling of the leaves in such a way where I feel I have seen most of their cycle and wish to revisit in the spring to see the full cycle of the trees in this area. The feeling of being connected to a place is valuable and I am glad that I have had that opportunity with this project.

1/26/25-revisiting my spot

firstly i must mention not much has changed both my last visit and today were snowy, cold, and windy. the trees were dead and the ground was covered in snow. The shrubs and tall grasses have grown so thin i can walk through them something not possible a couple of months ago.

I saw three little bird tracks around my place, i could not identify the tracks but i enjoyed finding them!

2/21/25 in the city

For this assignment (and my own personal enjoyment) I trekked to north beach, and rock point park on the Sunday after the huge snowfall, unfortunately because of the violent wind that day i did not see many tracks but i was lucky to spot a beautiful owl perched about 20 feet up a tall white pine tree. I sat and watched it for 30 minutes hoping to see it fly away but it outlasted me in the cold and i had to keep moving. I am so happy i saw this really really pretty bird in the wild and even got a half way decent picture! I also visited intervale for lab on Wednesday the 19th and was able to find several tracks, but even my TA admitted it was hard to identify them because of the depth of the snow, but i am confident that one thing we saw was some sort of burrow beneath a tree with a long set of bounding prints leading to it. we like to think it was a otter because it was so close to the river but i cant say that for sure.

4/27/25- i collected my data on friday the 25th, i noticed the trees were starting to bud but still looked mostly dead. No new leaves on many of the trees. I saw little to no new leaves and that surprised me given its almost may. The tree near aiken seamed to be dead. it seamed all the trees were in a similar phase. One thing i learned from the article is that climate change has caused leafing plants to shift to earlier cycles. But some plants are adapting to this faster than others, causing understory vs overstory competition.

4/28/25- BIO BLITZ!

For bioblitz weekend I visited centennial woods on Sunday and walked around the golf course Monday. I enjoyed the rain on Sunday, the brook was running and the forest was alive, with so many undergrowth plants budding and pushing out of the soil. I-Naturalist can be difficult but manageable, i enjoy how other can help ID sightings. In my few days out I documented 11 species of plants and animals, the most interesting being what i believe to be a dark fishing spider attached below. My favorite part of seeing others participating globally was seeing the sea animals that were cited. Whales and sharks and birds from all over and people took pictures of them for this app! i think that is really cool.

My site has changed with time and watching those changes has made me feel a lot more connected with the land and just made me pay attention to the little shifts that change with the seasons. One small change that makes all the difference are the ferns and grasses that surround my area. they started huge in the fall, surrounding the area like a grown crop. Tall and thick and seeing them change with the seasons has been wild. They all but disappeared in the winter and the regrowth process has been fun to watch and i cant wait to revisit it next year.

well my spot is in centennial woods and i have learned to access it from many entry points and in that process have memorized the trails of the park, from behind the baseball field to the main entry point near aiken the trails are spots are fun to see and explore, in my spot i loved watching the regrowth of the undergrowth plants in the spring and watching the trees start to bud again. and of course the tree swing!

well my spot is obviously heavily used, people know of it and evidence of people is clear in litter and fire pits near the swing. I try my best to help clean up if i see litter i can pick up, but as a nature spot the effects of being so close to a college campus are felt by the environment, the footpath tramples undergrowth and people do leave trash in the woods that is not ideal. But on the other side of that coin i am glad that the swing inspires people to get outside at all, and im glad it is used and enjoyed by many people.

No, i don’t consider myself a part of my place. Its a public park and is for everyone i would feel selfish claiming its for me. The trees are easily 30+ years old and although i don’t feel like a part of the place im happy to observe it and help it out in the ways i can. I enjoyed taking pictures and trekking out in the winter months to see it in the snow. I’m glad i found it and wish it the best!