This spot on the Winooski River may seem like a wetland community from afar, however even though it is part of the Burlington watershed it is most definitely closer to a woodland community than a wetland community. The reason I believe this is due to the landform that surrounds my spot. Although it rests on a river bank, the forest floor never floods because the bank is so eroded that the water level never reaches high enough. The Wetland, Woodland, Wildland reference was helpful in ruling out wetlands for this specific area because it describes a wetland as being “saturated or inundated with water” for long periods of time whereas upland communities lack soil saturation or inundation except following heavy rain. My spot has never been overly saturated while I’ve been there, even after a rain storm. The soil is always dense and dry enough where my food does not sink in while I walk along the bank. However, the soil is not dry enough where it would fall in the category of a wildland; there is still fertile ground that allows for trees to grow, mushrooms to sprout up, and vegetation to thrive. A specific species that thrives in woodlands especially is the Oak tree, which my spot has plenty of.
Since the first visit I had to this part of Salmon Hole there have been quite a few phenological changes that I’ve noticed. The amount of precipitation Burlington has had since September is astonishing. All of the heavy rainfall and the thick layer of snow that has coated the ground for the last three months has definitely taken tole on the soil composition in the area. I’ve noticed a good amount of erosion in the side of the river bank, most likely due to run off or heavy snow melt during the February thaw. The absurd amounts of water haven’t had all bad effects though; there has been an abundance of mushrooms popping up in the last couple weeks. Even though the snow is still out and temperatures are not forgiving, the sporadic warm days we have melt the snow and create the perfect environment on dead wood or rotting trees for mushrooms to pop up.