Blog Introduction

This is my first phenology blog post and I’m pretty excited! While I didn’t know what it was called then, as a kid the phenological cycle of trees and plants always fascinated me- especially ferns! This blog will be about woody plants in particular, but there will be a few observations about the understory, as well as a reoccurring motif of the importance of both our environment to us as humans and the importance of protecting our environment.

“In every walk with nature on receives far more than he seeks”

John Muir

10/14- Phenology Blog #1- Location and Woody Plant Species

How to get to Salmon Hole: Salmon Hole is located on Riverside Ave. For me that means walking from Tupper, through L/L, crossing Main Street, walking past the Aiken center, through Central Campus, past the hospital, taking a right onto Colchester Ave, all the way down until it meets up with Barrett Street, at which point I’ll cross the street, walk a few hundred feet and take a left down Riverside, walking down until I see the parking lot and signs for Salmon Hole park. If you’re traveling by car, its easier just to say drive past the UVM Hospital towards East End until you get to Barrett Street, at which point you’ll turn left, drive a few hundred feet, then turn left again onto Riverside Ave. From here, you’ll want to drive down a few hundred feet until you see a tiny little parking lot with a sign that says Salmon Hole Park. The last step is to hope and pray there’s a parking spot available (good luck)! I think what made me choose was the sign about endangered sturgeon posted on a tree in the parking lot. I’ve always loved fish, and with climate change, increasing pollution, and poaching issues, many fish species have faced endangerment, especially sturgeon. While it in no way relates to the topic of the project, what motivated me to pick this was the hope and curiosity that there are still sturgeon in the Winooski. Although I will say, my initial interest in Salmon Hole did lead to me finding many cools trees as well as plants in the understory.

Woody Plants make up the vast majority of the Vegetation at Salmon Hole. Trees such as American Elm, Green Ash, Black Ash, and Northern Red Oak, and sugar maple as live in Salmon Hole. In terms of the understory, there’s an abundance of Hawthorn, Mugwort, Honey Suckle, Dogwoods, Buckthorn, and Ferns.

Most Common Woody Plants and Trees I found:

1.) Buckthorn https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247389295

2.) Hawthorn https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247389882

3.) Green Ash https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247389067

4.) Duckweed https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247389681

If you click on the links, a description and image of the plant will be available:)

Salmon Hole is a small park with a wide variety of ecosystems in it. Choosing my square was certainly difficult process, but I ended up choosing a square a little off of a trail in a spot that both overlooks Sturgeon bay and the Winooski river, while also having a lush canopy and understory. Here’s where it’s located on a map.

10/3- Phenology Blog #2- Mindfulness and Noise Pollution

Today, 10/3, I sat at Salmon Hole for around 25 minutes. I sat in a spot just above the rock formation that flanks off from the cascading rocks and juts into the top-most part of Sturgeon bay and forms the water falls that flow into the Winnoski river. My spot is just above this rock formation, about 5 feet back into the forest. I chose this spot because it gives me both a fantastic view of the Sturgeon Bay, while also allowing for there to be trees and Shrubbery in my peripherals. The breeze created a nice rustle of the leaves that have now all fallen to the forest floor. Pair that with the sound of the water flowing, it was so pacifying. The only thing that ruined this a little bit was the sound of cars passing on the nearby road, which really made me reflect on the ways we pollute the outdoors not just with trash and greenhouse gasses, but with noise as well. It was chilly out, about 39 degrees farenheight while I was sitting there, with a light breeze that made it feel way chillier; exactly what you’d expect for this time of year. While the sounds were beautiful and the sights even more so, I can’t really comment too much on the smells, as the breeze made my nose run. Overall, my time here was cold, but it made me realize that no matter what time of year it is, being outside can be so soothing.

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better”

Albert Einstein

When I visited in September, the trees were full of leaves and showed barely any sign of color change other than a slight yellow tinge. The woody shrubbery of the understory still had its fruits and the leaves were still green. The vegetation on the ground was alive and well and showed no signs of decay. During my second visit in October, however, the tree leaves were in full bloom of color change, the leaves of the woody shrubbery in the understory had started to fall off, and the vegetation on the forest floor was starting to wither. During this visit on November 3rd, the entirety of the vegetation there was an entire 180 from what it was in September. Nearly all the trees had lost their leaves, the woody shrubbery had no fruits nor leaves, and the vegetation on the ground was non-existent. The only growth, it seemed, was the very few, yet still present, very tiny coniferous saplings which I identified to be Eastern White Pine.

Here’s a birds-eye hand drawn sketch of my square at Salmon Hole!

11/28- Phenology Blog #3- Phenology at Goddard Park

This phenology blog won’t be about Salmon hole- this time I’m at home at my childhood park, Goddard Park. Goddard is nestled into West Grove Pennsylvania. Phenologically speaking, Goddard looked both very different and very similar than Salmon Hole. Unlike Salmon Hole, a lot of the trees had leaves left, very few, but leaves none the less. In regards to Salmon Hole however, they were somewhat similar. All the brush in the understory was dead and only the invasive species had lots of leaves left. Ecologically, there were more similarities than I thought there would be. The understory was a lot of woody Shrubbery at both spots, and all the other vegetation was gone. There was a mixture of both coniferous and deciduous trees at both spots, and the coniferous trees grew in clusters at both. However, there were some phenological differences. For instance, there were a lot more coniferous trees at Goddard- probably due to the acidic soil of the area. There was also a lot more brush/dying vegetation on the ground at Goddard Park. I also wanted to add in the difference in terms of animal ecology. At Salmon Hole in November there were many squirrels and chipmunks out and about foraging for winter that are likely now in Hibernation. At Goddard this week, there were still plenty of squirrels out- I think this may be due to the difference in temperature and phenological stage of the two places, but it was very noticeable. For honorable harvest, instead of giving a physical object, I decided to remove physical objects by bringing a trash bag with me and picking up litter! Below I have a Apple Maps image of my location, as well as some pictures from the park!

12/6- Phenology Blog #4- Winter at Salmon Hole

This visit to Salmon Hole was way different than any of the rest. This time there were hardly any leaves at all, even the invasive species such as Norway Maple and Glossy Buckthorn that tend to keep their leaves for longer than native species. There is hardly any persistent fruit or vegetation- it truly is stick season. The foliage on the ground appeared to be in the midst of decomposing, but there wasn’t much sign of decomposers, likely due to the fact there’s a dusting of snow on the ground, so they’re probably in the soil right now. In terms of animals, it was nearly a ghost town- there were nearly no animals out and about. The deer were likely foraging somewhere because I saw tracks, but no actual sightings. There were no auditory signs of animals. I thought I wouldn’t see any at all, that is until I saw one singular squirrel on my way out, chewing on a pumpkin in a patch of grass where the snow had melted because of the sun. Most squirrels stay in their nests for the majority of winter, not hibernating but just relaxing and munching on their food stock, but I guess this guy didn’t forage enough in the fall. The only visual signs of animals I saw was deer hooves prints and that squirrel.

Blog 1 Conclusion

As this is my final phenology blog post, it’s a good time to reflect on the joy this project brought me. I especially enjoyed this project because it forced me to have a reason to get up and go outside. College thus far has been so busy, and I noticed that I enjoyed going to Salmon Hole so much because doing this project was one of the few times I had the time to go outside and just enjoy nature. Of course I enjoyed learning about the phenology up here in Vermont, but really this project was so mentally refreshing. I also really enjoyed discovering Salmon Hole and the fact there used to be a native Sturgeon population here. I have a huge fascination with fish, and this fact sent me down a Sturgeon loop-hole. Fun fact: Sturgeons have a life span very similar to humans with a maximum life-span of 70 years old. I really enjoyed all aspects of this project, this class, and the people it’s introduced me to. I will forever be grateful.

Centennial Forest Phenology Blog

By Nate Schinzel

Blog 2 Introduction

This will be my first post of the semester 2 phenology blog!! I’m very excited to be doing this project again this semester- it was my favorite part of NR1010 last semester. The Centennial forest will be the location for this blog. I felt like changing the location to explore more of the Burlington area. I also really wanted to do a different place to be able to compare and contrast phenology across different areas of Burlington. Centennial Forest, or at least the entrance to such, is located in the back of the UVM Police station parking lot, which is located off Carrigan Drive. To get to Centennial Forest from Tupper, I walk out the back entrance of Tupper, and down through the entrance to the Harris Millis lot to the intersection of Spear street and Main Street. At this point I cross Main Street onto East avenue. I walk down East avenue until I come to the intersection of East Ave and Carrigan Drive, at which point I cross to the right side of the street and walk down Carrigan drive until I find myself at the entrance of the Centennial Forest. Here’s an image of it on Apple Maps

There weren’t many signs of wildlife, which really surprised me. It may be that most of the snow had melted so maybe what I thought weren’t tracks actually were tracks, just indistinguishable. But there was one track that I was able to identify with ease, that being the tracks of a Cotton Tail rabbit, as pictured below. I also seemed to have found a burrow/tunnel of sorts, to whom it belongs I’m unsure, but if I had to guess, i’d say it belongs to either a shrew of vole.

In terms of Phenology at Centennial this time of year, there was no vegetation, besides ferns under the snow, that had any sort of green. It truly is the stick season. The snow on the ground and the brown of all the woody shrubbery and trees around created a very melancholy scene. It was nearly dead quiet, yet there were still signs of life around! I was kind of shocked not to see any signs of deer, but centennial is located in a relatively urbanized area, so I guess it makes sense. Overall, the phenology at Centennial this time of year is very similar to that of Salmon hole in my final post for the last phenology blog, which was posted on 12/6, although this time there’s snow on the ground!

Blog 2 (2/24)- Intervale Center

Hey! I’m back for my second post of the semester two phenology blog. This time I find myself at the Intervale center in the upper part of Burlington, right between the Old North End and Winooski, just along the Winooski river. Today, 2/21/25, I spotted the tracks of what I identified to be a cotton tail rabbit, and holes in a tree I can only assume to have been made by a woodpecker! I was able to record these observations with ease as well as upload them to the “Signs of Wildlife in Burlington Project” thanks to the accessibility of iNaturalist. Here are a few photos of what I saw!

For the rabbit tracks, I initially saw sets of tracks with two paw marks parallel to one another, but no back paws. The fact that two paws were parallel was the first clue that it was something that was bounding or hopping. Upon a closer look, I was able to identify back paws on some of the tracks! I then pulled out my field notebook and saw that the front paws were about 6.75 cm long, right in the range of the cotton tail rabbit. This is what made me certain it was a cotton tail rabbit. As for the giant holes put in the tree, which I identified to be a Black Walnut Tree, I was certain it was a woodpecker just out of the nature of the marking and the pulp on the ground. I did for a second consider a porcupine, but the circular nature of the marks on the tree and the fact it looks like the animal was searching for insects in the bark, I think it’s safe to say it’s a woodpecker! Thank you for reading and I’ll be back soon:)

Blog 3 (4/19)- Phenology Walk

Hey! It’s almost the end of the semester this time around. There isn’t any snow on the ground anymore, and today, data collection day (4/19), was 70 and cloudy- definitely spring time! Every single tree I looked at was budding, but the degree to which they were as well as the stage of budding varied from tree to tree. No trees had any leaves. The red maple was the furthest along of the trees, with nearly all buds being flowered. The red maple was the only tree with any signs of any seeds being dropped; a few flowers had fallen onto the ground. The trees that were the furthest along in the budding/phenological cycle aside from the red maple were the sugar maple and the white oak. The trees that had shown signs of budding but were clearly in the earlier stages of the spring phenological cycle were the Norway maple and the red oak. The only tree that showed any signs of pollen was the red maple and its flowers, otherwise there were no signs of pollen.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step the wind blows. With each step a flower blooms.

• Thich Nhat Hanh

In this blog I’d also like to talk about the NPN’s (National Phenology Network’s) webpage that I used to log my data and spent some time exploring. The NPN webpage’s “News and Publications” section had an article about how plants and animals are responding to climate change. This article was titled, “Are Plant and Animal Species Responding Differently to Climate Change?”. The article stated that phenological data that scientists have compiled from various phenological data sources indicates that as compared to 40 years ago, the flowering and budding of trees is occurring much earlier. The article also states that trees are also maintaining their leaves for longer. I thought about how this may impact how trees in Vermont grow; I can understand how maintaining leaves for long may actually cause trees to grow faster and larger, but the rising temperatures may cause trees to not be able to survive in this climate, decreasing biodiversity. My hypothesis for how climate change will impact phenological cycles and overall biodiversity, is that in Vermont we will see a decrease in the overall biodiversity of trees and vast increases in the populations and size of very heat-tolerance trees. That’s all I have for this post, see ya next time!

Blog 4 (4/28)

Hello! Today is the last day of the City Nature Geoblitz challenge! During this challenge, I explored the UVM campus, the greater South Burlington area, and North Beach Park. Although my phone died while I was exploring the greater South Burlington area, I was able to photograph some plants I saw at North Beach and on campus! I took pictures of them with ease with iNaturalist and was instantly given suggestions as to what they could have been! My experience using iNaturalist, as always, was really pleasant. Here’s a Apple Maps picture of where I did most of my exploring!

I encountered many species, but I was after species that I did not know in particular. I found two species I had previously not know, one being a Sweet William flower (Dianthus barbarous), and the other being a Hackberry tree (Celtis Occidentalist). The Sweet William flower is the top picture, and the Hackberry Tree is the bottom one!

I took a look at reports coming in from various cities all across the country, such as Baltimore, Columbus, Melbourne (AUS), and Madrid (Spain). This sounds so basic, but what really interested me was the number of different plants I saw. It’s easy to sit and say yes there are thousands of different species of plants on earth without reality thinking about what that means or how big that number is, but when you actually see it, it’s astounding. It was amazing to me how every single city I looked at had nearly an entirely different plant-make-up. I think that this was just a really astounding thing for me to see. Another thing that really interested me was the sheer number of people that participated in this; as of 7:53 PM on April 28th when I’m typing this, there are 2,430,323 observations and 90,453 observers- it makes me so happy to know that there are people out there as fascinated and captivated by this as I am. See you for one more blog in the upcoming weeks!

“Devoted songbirds

Daily Raise their melody

No maestro but Spring”

• Jody L. Collins

Final Phenology Blog (5/4)

On 5/2/25 I made my final trip to centennial forest! I only started observing this site at the beginning of this semester as I did Salmon Hole last semester, but from my visits to Centennial forest in the beginning of the year, I can say that the site has nearly come full circle! In the summer when I visited it for a tree identification assignment, the canopies and under story were full of green leaves, fruits, and flowers. In the fall the leaves had all fallen, berries on the ground, and flowers were gone. In the winter, everything was decked in snow and there were no leaves in sight. Now, this spring, the site is starting to get back to where it was!

Some of the landmarks I’ve become particularly familiar and fond of are the white pine stand and the board walks going over the stream. The white pine stand is significantly larger than the stream, and is also my favorite. I think the ecology and lay out of the white pine stand in relation to the rest of the forest is so interesting; it’s an island of almost entirely white pine with no deciduous trees and no understory, whereas the rest of the forest is nearly entirely deciduous and has a lush understory. I also found this area to be particularly interesting because of how dark it is in comparison to the rest of the forest. It’s dense and always full canopy makes it dark to look into, which I found to be so beautiful and unique. As for the street, I spent much time here this semester listening to birds, reading, or even just thinking. I was particularly inspired to listen to the sounds of the forest here after the acoustic ecology lecture. This area was one of my favorites because of how relaxing and peaceful it was. Overall, Centennial is just a great place that I recommend visiting.

Nature and culture intertwine perfectly here. While this is a perfect example of nature and culture intertwining for recreation and human enjoyment, I think that the way this land is used for education is what makes the intertwinement so perfectly. This land gives students close access to nature, which not only is good for student mental health, but is really good for teaching students about nature and increasing appreciation for it. This increase in appreciation can, and often does, lead to strong conservation heavy mindsets, which benefits people and planet. I think that the nature and culture intertwinement at centennial forest is so beautiful for not just the happiness and recreation it provides, but also for the education it offers to people to encourage them to become environmentally aware and conservation minded.

I do consider myself a part of my place, but more so I feel that centennial is a part of me. Centennial Forest was the first park I went to when I came to Vermont for college, so it holds such sentimental value in my heart. It also has been a place for me to go when I need to clear my head, when I’m bored, or when I want to be outside in nature. The services that centennial has provided to me throughout the year in terms of recreation, emotional support, and all around pleasure make me feel as if though it is a part of me, and always will be. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place to have to go to my freshman year. With that, the final phenology blog concludes. Thank you Becca, Chris, and Walt for this amazing semester. Thank you for reading to anyone who does!

With love,

Nate Schinzel