Howdy!
On this fine spring day, I revisited my (probable) red oak near Salmon Hole to make sure that it too was enjoying the nice weather. After I managed to identify which tree I had visited previously, I realized, tragically, that I could no longer reach the branches to inspect the twigs now that the snow has melted. I was just able to make out the buds on the twigs, looking about as hesitant to bloom as they were a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the picture I took of them looks like this:
In other words, wildly unhelpful to any viewer and to iNaturalist.
I got to thinking about why I couldn’t find any trees of our required NR 2 species near Salmon Hole with reachable twigs, at least near the top of the hill. Is there a tendency for saplings and young trees to not germinate on that steep of a hill? Is the soil composition not ideal for those species? That could be possible, but then again, there are plenty of healthy older trees that we’re focusing on in the area.
Perhaps there are clearing projects by Burlington Wildways that prevent smaller trees from growing or deer munching on small stems. There was an interesting gash on the tree around my shoulder height that could be an indicator of animal interaction.
