A UVM blog Crescent Woods Phenology 2021

Today it was 48 degrees F and cloudy; unusually warm for this time of year. The floor is covered in fallen leaves from the maples and oaks that fill the area. Recent snow melted yesterday, leaving the trail very muddy.

The absence of leaves made me realize how few conifer trees there are, besides the occasional Eastern Hemlock.

This area looks very different now than it did when I first discovered it in fall. Now, it is less separate from the surrounding neighborhood. I can see the street and houses from within the woods now that the trees have lost their leaves. The stream that runs through the woods was thinner than usual, even though there has been both snow and rain lately.

Woodstock, Illinois; 11/24/2021, clear sky, 41 degrees F

This was a change in scenery to Crescent Woods in Burlington. While Crescent Woods is a heavily wooded area with tall sugar maples making up the canopy; Westwood Area is more of a plain with a small wooded area made up of oak trees. However, both places are tucked within neighborhoods allowing a hidden retreat for the residential area in the two towns I call home, Burlington and Woodstock.

I walked from UVM redstone campus to Crescent Woods on Crescent Rd. This mile long walk is through a residential area with the natural area tucked inside.

An afternoon in Crescent Woods:

I hear the leave crunch beneath me as I walk down the wooden steps, off the road. As I see the brook I no longer hear the cars passing by or sounds of the neighborhood, only the chirping birds and flowing water. I sit down under the big tree at the edge of the maple forest. Across from me, I see the fallen trees (the only bridge between the two strips of land).

This visit (11/1/2021) it was 44 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy. Compared to last visit, there was much more water in the brook, likely due to the recent increased rain. The floor was covered in leaves, more than last time. The leaves still on the trees were only green or yellow, most of the darker red and orange trees had already lost their leaves.

October 20, 2021 [4:35 pm, 64 degrees Fahrenheit, partly cloudy]

About a mile away from UVM, past the country club, tucked into a local neighborhood is crescent woods. When researching areas to study, I discovered Englesby Brook. The only part of the brook on public land runs through crescent woods.

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This was a wooded area within an urban neighborhood. To enter the area, you must walk down the steps from the road causing one to feel like they are no longer in an urban area, although houses are visible around the boarder of the woods. The canopy was comprised mostly of sugar maples, while the understory was mostly young sugar maples and young elms. There were many fallen leaves and fallen woody material on the floor. There was the occasional fern near the brook, and I found one Jack O Lantern mushroom at the base of a tree.