A UVM blog Mia Hugo’s Phenology Site: The Salmon Hole on The Winooski River

In contrast to my first visit, there were no signs of wildlife or wildlife tracks. When I first visited this area, there were animal tracks in the sand under the shallow water and I the mud along the rocks. I was able to identify some heron and raccoon tracks, and even saw a few small fish back in October, but with the colder temperatures, no animals or fish were in sight.

I also noticed on my visit this week that Salmon Hole is listed under the Burlington Wildways as a “wild place”, and if you go to the Burlington Wildways website, you can view a layout of the Salmon Hole trails. It is also protected by the Winooski Valley Park District (WVPD) which opens its parks to the public while also protecting and conserving the area.

After many visits to Salmon Hole, I’ve come to enjoy certain aspects to the area, like the waterfall, the rocky area right before the water, and the beach-like peninsula. These aspects are what I believe make Salmon Hole so unique and peaceful. For anyone looking to go for a hike, go fishing, or just need to see some nice scenery, I highly recommend checking out Salmon Hole.

Over break, I chose a heavily wooded area behind my house as my phenology spot. I frequently hike in this area on trails made by my neighbors, but besides the trials, the rest of the area is mostly untouched and respected by people. I encountered many deer and a couple foxes on my hike in the area over break. The area consisted of mostly young birches and extremely tall, mature hardwoods, and little to no evergreens in sight. What’s also interesting about this area is that it is surrounded by farms with chickens, horses, sheep, and ducks, which I’ve noticed throughout the years leads to this wooded area being home to many farm animal predators. Unfortunately, I’ve come across the remains of farm animals from time to time, and I always hear coyotes and foxes coming from these woods during the nights.

Today I sat down and spent 15 minutes at Salmon Hole observing the area. It was somewhat peaceful, but the area tends to always have people hiking, fishing, or just observing which causes some commotion, especially with being along the side of Riverside Avenue. After awhile, the sound of the water eventually drowned out any other sounds and all there was was the rush from the waterfall and the occasional passing of birds overhead. I didn’t get to see much wildlife due to the amount of people present at Salmon Hole today, and the temperature was too cold to try to see any fish passing through. In comparison to my last visit to Salmon Hole, the area appeared to be completed vacated of wildlife because of the absence of any animal tracks. In October, I was able to spot heron, raccoon, deer, and other animal tracks. In terms of changes in vegetation to my site, I noticed that the trees are now all completely bare, except for the evergreens, and the only vegetation making up the undergrowth of the area are bare shrubs, ferns, and occasional moss on the rocks near the water. I hope to see more wildlife and vegetation once again in the spring once the weather finally starts to get better. Here’s a birds-eye map that I drew during these 15 minutes:

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