Centennial Woods Phenology Blog A UVM blog

This is my final visit here for this year! It’s been super fun watching this site change over the course of about 6 months. Our assignment for this week was to make a final sketch of our place and note any final changes.

This is a rough sketch of my view of my spot. The main feature is still the creek that runs through it, with some fallen trees over it. Since I started coming to this spot, more trees have fallen to lay across the water. Most of them fell during the winter after storms came through and the wind and snow knocked them down.

One thing I was disappointed to not find at my spot was a collection of broken glass that I found before winter. The snow covered it and then once it melted I couldn’t find it. I think this collection was a part of its culture because it signified the relationship between humans and nature. I don’t consider myself a part of my place because I think it can function just fine without me there. I would consider myself a frequent and welcome visitor. My favorite part of going back to visit was seeing all the signs of spring!

This baby hemlock tree still had leaves during the winter but they were covered by snow and now it’s bright green! I also found these buds but I’m not sure what kind of tree it is. I think next semester I will still try and visit this spot when I want to take a walk. Centennial Woods will always remind me of my freshman year!

We went back to Centennial Woods today to look how our tree has changed over the past few weeks. Spring is making an appearance this week! Right now it is sunny and 50 degrees. That also means all the snow in the forest has melted.

You can see the ground is covered in leaf litter and there are sticks everywhere but no snow. Once I made it to my tree I looked again at the buds on its branches and found nothing much had changed since I last visited. My beech tree is still kinda budding, definitely no flowers yet.

My friend and I looked around to see if any other trees were budding and we think we found a red maple. We also took a picture of the pretty moss you can now see on the ground since the snow is gone!

It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over! Soon we will go back to our original phenology spots to close out the semester! Maybe by then the trees in my spot will all be budding and perhaps flowering.