It’s finally Thanksgiving break!! For me, that means going back home to North Carolina. I live in the suburbs about 30 minutes from the city of Charlotte. Our assignment this week was to compare a spot from home to our spot in Burlington! I visited the woods across the street from my house where I used to play as a little kid.
https://goo.gl/maps/esmHPi7ajCz4ntab8
This is a link to the google map pinpoint of my location!
It was very nostalgic going back to these woods because my friends and I used to come here all the time! It has definitely changed over many years and even over the couple months I have been away in Vermont. One thing I noticed is that the kudzu problem has gotten worse. Kudzu is an invasive species that surrounds other plants in the community and blocks their ability to receive sunlight. It ends up spreading everywhere and killing a lot of plants. The area in this picture used to be clear enough to run through.
Besides the kudzu, I also noticed some ecological similarities between my two locations. I found lots of red and white oaks and red maples here in Waxhaw. It’s a lot easier to identify them here because our trees still have some leaves on them! One other thing to compare is the type of soil present here. Our soil seems to be a type of red clay, so it probably has a lot of iron present! It tends to be more red after it rains and we have not had rain in a while, but you can still see the distinct color.
It was nice to come back home and see how things have changed since I left. I had never looked at the ecology of my forest before and it made me look at my old playground through a new perspective. One thing for sure is there is definitely no snow on the ground here, it’s a nice 56 degrees!