Salmon Hole- Lindsey Papasian

On Friday, May 6th I visited Salmon Hole one last time before the end of the semester. It was bittersweet since I’m now leaving and now the greenery is just returning to Salmon Hole. However, I was fortunate enough to get to see some of the plants come back on my final visit this year. This time I decided to visit with a friend, and we sat and had a little picnic and spent some time just sitting and watching at the Salmon Hole. On our visit some of the species I saw were Coltsfoot, Meadow Buttercup, Ostrich Fern, Field Horsetail and Dogwood. When I was walking by the shore of the river, I noticed some tracks that were going up and down the shore and I think that they look like Muskrat tracks, I have also seen Muskrat swim down at Salmon Hole before so it’s not unlikely that one has been roaming about. Yesterday when i was sitting there and looking around at my spot and noticing the natural features and also the industrial area that is very close by, I was thinking about the culture and the history of my place. I was thinking first about Indigenous usage of the land and how they would travel up and down the Winooski and what this land meant to them and then I was thinking about the industrialization of the area and the history of the Mills located nearby. There is a lot of culture as well as trauma attached to this place for many individuals. I feel like Salmon hole is a place that I’ve come to know well over this year, but I still am struggling with my sense of belonging there. I feel that it is the Indigenous Abenaki people that should be there and appreciating the land that is so incredibly significant to their culture.

On Saturday Morning I took a walk down to The Intervale Center to participate in the spectacular nature day and also take part in the Bio Blitz. At the Spectacular Nature Day I was able to log 10 species in inaturalist for the Bio blitz. Some of which include Painted Turtles, Bluebells, Garlic Mustard and Silver Maple. I also toured the different tables and got to partake in activities like planting Ostrich Ferns in order to fight the Goutweed that is spreading across the floodplain so rapidly. I really liked the “eat your invasives table” as well, and I got to try a Garlic Mustard spread, which tasted really good! I thought it was very cool to get to eat a species I found in nature on my own even though it was an invasive. I also learned Garlic mustard is abundant worldwide, and was one of the top-most logged species during the Bio Blitz. Events like the Bio Blitz are great because they get the community involved in nature and get people out and identifying species

Bluebells!

I really enjoyed having my friends come with me to participate in both celebrations and being able to share time outside with them on such a beautiful day. It was also nice to introduce them to stuff that was important to me, for example, planting Fiddleheads and looking for species to log into the Bio Blitz on Inaturalist. My friends even downloaded the app themselves so they could help observe and ID species.

At the “Eat your Invasives” table they had both Knotweed Ice cream and Garlic Mustard spread. I really enjoyed trying both the ice cream and the spread, I thought the spread tasted like pesto and the knotweed to taste like artichokes. I also like speaking to the people at the table about where they sourced the Knotweed and Garlic Mustard, they picked it in a nearby floodplain.

I found this day and both celebrations/events to be very positive experiences and I really loved getting out in nature with my friends and doing something good for ourselves and our environment while also connecting with our community in Burlington both virtually while logging species on Inaturalist and in person when at the Spectacular Nature Day celebration. I would definitely participate in both again next year, and bring more friends!