How my site has changed over time – In the winter my site used to be dead quiet, there was lots of snow on the ground and it overall felt very dormant. Now, everything is beginning to bloom and come back to life, the birds are chirping and the stream is babbling. The winter storms probably caused some trees to fall down or their branches to break. The spring rain has also affected the landscape by making everything muddy and making the stream have a higher flow.
Landmarks I’ve become familiar with – the stream, the path and platforms on it, the hill and the way the path slopes up and down the landscape, the feeling of being at the bottom of the valley
Ways that nature and culture intertwine – the people who walk by leave their mark on the environment. People walk their dogs here, some group/organization put up these platforms to help humans traverse the landscape easily while avoiding the mud. This is a space where people come to run, children play freely and make rock stacks. The muddy buddies sign is a sign that children use this space.
I do consider myself a part of my place because I feel really connected to the nature there. I felt very comfortable walking in the stream and squelching my boots in the mud. My friend came with me and she made a mud face on a tree trunk (pictured below) and was running her hands through the water. Centennial Woods feels very welcoming and safe to me, which might also be because it’s owned by UVM and we’ve learned so much about it during NR 1 and 2.
Changes I observed:
Changes I observed
Why it’s actually a northern red oak:
I distinguished this tree from being a white oak because it has pointed, rather than round, lobes. It is not a maple because its leaves are too long and narrow. It’s not a cottonwood because they have very different shaped leaves and when the two are compared one can see that this is clearly not a cottonwood.
Identification:
It was very easy to identify this tree because of its leaves. Oaks have very distinctive leaves.
Location:
My usual spot is in Centennial Woods, but I went a little bit up the hill from there to find this tree 🙂
I visited Centennial Woods and I took photos of any tracks I saw during my day to day on campus. Using the iNaturalist app was fairly easy and self-explanatory. I like that we are forced to use iNaturalist because I don’t think I would otherwise have participated in the City Nature Challenge, which I think is a really cool project. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a bunch of exciting tracks, which I think is mainly due to the lack of snow recently and the fact that everything is so muddy.
What I found:
Wildlife observations:
It was pretty hard to spot wildlife activity because it has been snowing on and off for the last couple of days and the wind has been blowing the snow around, covering up places where animal tracks might be. I did find a lot of dog tracks, since I think Centennial Woods is a popular place for people to walk their dogs. I also observed some other marks in the snow that look like they could be deer maybe? It was pretty hard to tell because the snow has blown over everything and blurred the tracks. The photos below shows what look like deer hooves, with the two halves. I was also thinking these could be rabbit tracks because they’re in a pretty straight line, which would indicate a jumping animal, rather than deer, which walk more staggered like humans do. Other than that, I didn’t notice many other signs of wildlife, the area was pretty quiet; I couldn’t even hear any birds chirping.
How to get to my new spot:
I like to cut across the Jeffords parking lot, eventually ending up on Carrigan Drive. Then, I walk past the UVM Police Department and a little further down and on the left is the entrance to Centennial Woods. From there, I walk for about ten minutes until I hit the stream at the bottom of the hill. This is my spot.
How my spot has changed since November 7th:
What I enjoy most about my spot:
I like that this area feels very cozy but also vast. It’s situated just before the tip of Rock Point, where Lake Champlain meets the land, so it feels a bit sheltered, but you can also tell that you’re right on the edge of something bigger. I don’t love having to plan ahead because Rock Point is pretty far from Redstone, but it’s worth it because this place is so beautiful. I also appreciate that it forces me to get outside and break up my college routine a little.
This place is special because it’s in a pretty busy and high-traffic part of DC, yet you can’t hear much of the human world when you’re in the woods. You can occasionally hear some planes and today I heard some construction going on in the distance, but for the most part, you can’t hear cars or other noises that tend to disrupt nature. I can hear the wind blowing and the birds chirping. This park serves as an oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Since Washington, DC is not as far North as Burlington, some trees, namely red oaks, still have leaves on them and the area looks more alive than my spot at Rock Point. There is also a wider variety of trees, such as large holly trees, a hackberry tree, and a few tulip trees. The park is in a kind of valley where a hill drains to, thus the soil here is moist. Overall, this place looks a lot less grey and winter-y as my spot back in Burlington. In terms of similarities, the understory looks pretty similar here to the one in Rock Point, there is a lot of boneset/thoroughwort. Like Rock Point, this area is dedicated to serving the public, with many trails and even benches for people to rest, like the one that I sat on, pictured below. I also noticed that the company Casey Trees, which is a well-known non-profit dedicated to increasing green space in DC, has planted some river birches in this area, likely to help make this area even greener.
Observations during my fifteen minutes of silence:
Comparing this visit to my last visit:
