10/16/2023
Salmon hole is a small natural area nestled away with the riverside between Winooski and Burlington. It is in close proximity to Main Street, and it is at a lower elevation than the surrounding urban area, which may be sources of runoff to consider when examining the human impact of this area. Upstream, highway 89 also crosses the Winooski river.
I chose this place as my location to study phenology because it is the first natural area I saw near Burlington. When me and my roommate first met, we went on a run around Burlington and stopped to take a detour into Salmon Hole because it looked interesting. I think it will be interesting to keep track of vegetation, wildlife, and the state of the river as seasons change.
When I arrived to take notes on the state of Salmon Hole on October 15th, I wasnt able to get all the way down to the riverbank. I was warned by a woman coming from the opposite direction that there was “some guy who looks like he’s on something throwing rocks around.”. The drug problem in Burlington is sad to witness and impacts people a lot more then disrupting their NR lab, but today I decided was not the day to go explore the river. From my vantage point at the top of the trails I would get a good idea of the vegetation in this area.
The over story was dominated by red oak, and also featured lots of green ash, red maple, and some eastern hemlock and paper birch. The understory also had lots of red oak as well as poison ivy and basswood.
Other featured I noticed relating to the health of this environment and how it is treated came from a couple signs I saw. One indicated that lake sturgeon were present in the waters, and that they were an endangered species. Another sign warned against fishing from the dates of May 16- May 32 in light of that being spawning season for many fish.
The trees in the area were all in very different stages of preparing for winter. Some were still bright green and others had lost all their leaves.
I noticed there was a fair amount of sound pollution from the surrounding roads, as well as some litter by the sidewalks.