My site is in full bloom with the warming temperatures of Spring. All of the trees have a dazzling array of leaves, and many of groundcover plants, like sensitive fern, are beginning to spread out across the forest floor. My site is located in a less travelled region of Centennial Woods. The forested lands of Centennial Woods offer great hiking trails for the city of Burlington as well as habitats for an assortment of plants and animals. One way that nature and culture intertwine in my area is with the allowance of UVM students and the general public to utilize the lands. I don’t consider myself a part of my phenology site because if I am being honest it wasn’t that interesting of a site, so finding the time to visit the area was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do. There are way more interesting plots of land in the Burlington area that weren’t accessible to me until I had my car at school, if I was to do this project over I would have found an area at Rock Point or the intervale to travel to.
While everyone in NR-2 conducted the city nature challenge, I had Covid. Instead of staying in the quarantine dorms at school, I decided to go home to Connecticut for ten days to spend my time in isolation. Once I was healthy enough to go outside and hike around, I went to a local natural space near my home to check out the wildlife. This particular area is about a mile and a half away from my home, and has a very extensive acreage of forest that is maintained by a local land trust. This land is supposed to be off limits to the public, but I often go into the area to fish and hike, making it the perfect spot to visit when you have Covid. During my time hiking I saw a lot of species of plants and animals that would have made it into my iNaturalist report. I saw multiple red tailed hawks, edible trout lily plants, a plethora of trees, a mallard, geese, squirrels, turkeys, and white tailed deer. If you count the fish that I caught, I could have recorded a pickerel, northern pike, crappie, and largemouth bass. I found that my most memorable observations were the fish that I caught, because it is always a thrill landing a fish. This wasn’t my first experience using iNaturalist, but it is certainly a unique app. I have found that iNaturalist is great for identifying non-moving plant species, rather than animals and insects which tend to bolt away before you can get an accurate picture. I am a forestry major and have been able to utilize this app for identifying mystery trees by taking a picture of either the bark, bud, or leaf. This app is extremely useful for identifying species, and makes learning about nature more accessible. After looking at the collected data for the city of Burlington, it is not surprising that plants made up nearly two thirds of the recorded species. Behind this number of plants were bird species, and insects which are the other most numerous number of species, especially within the premises of a town/city. I am thoroughly surprised by the number of people that participated in this challenge worldwide, and it makes me happy to see people’s interest in nature.
After visiting my site over this past weekend the signs of early spring were very prevalent. The buds on many of the trees in my area, (paper birch, silver maple, and sugar maple), were beginning to emerge. Animals such as ravens and squirrels were noisily dispersed throughout the forest, getting prepared for the new influx of bugs and other foods.
The cancellation of classes on election day allowed me to walk the Burlington Wildways trail, which is about a five and a half mile trail through parts of Burlington, Ethan Allen, and areas along the Winooski river. During the hike we noticed the formation of tree buds, and saw a lot of animal tracks which illustrates the coming of spring. The ice atop the river was cracking and quickly melting with the warming temperatures.
The pictures below are:
A bud from a mystery species, a Hackberry tree, and possible fox tracks
Over the winter break it appears that my site has gone through many seasonal changes. The influx of heavy snow has caused two weaker trees to die and fall over, leaving a perfect hiding spot for small creatures. The little spring that once trickled through the small ravine of my site is now frozen and covered in a thick sheet of snow. The temperature and pressure changes brought on by winter has caused the Red Pine in my site to drip sap.
The phenology site that I picked is on the edge of an expansive forest preserve which surrounds the Aspetuck reservoir. This reservoir was created in 1942 by damning up the Saugatuck river, and the resulting waters and the surrounding forests were protected for the preservation of wildlife. Over the past seventy eight years these lands have been managed by the Aquarion watershed protection company, and the lands can only be accessed by hunters if they receive a permit from the town. Only a limited number of permits are given out every year which limits the amount of human impact on the area.
There is less variation in tree species of my phenology site in Connecticut in comparison to my site in Burlington. Box elder and silver maple seem to be the dominant tree species within the swampy area. Outside of the seasonal flood area, the trees are composed of mainly white ash trees. These trees range from forty to sixty feet tall, and are rapidly dying from the infestation of emerald borer beetles. The bark on these trees is being eaten from the inside out, and the debris are scattered in piles at the base of the trees. Once a large white ash gets infected by this invasive pest, it has about two to four years before it completely dies. Japanese knotweed and Japanese barberry are the only visibly ground cover plants in this new phenology location. These invasive species are going to spread quickly over other native species, especially with the increased sunlight caused by the white ash die off. My phenology site in Burlington is composed of mainly clay/silt soil, whereas the soil in my Connecticut location is made up of organic leaf matter and clay/loam. The clay soil next to a natural spring in my Burlington location offers more nutrients, which explains the increased biodiversity of trees and understory plants.
The two weeks of freezing temperatures has killed off most of the vegetation. Squirrels and chipmunks scavenge the ground for the remnants of hickory and oak nuts. With the removal of leaves many bird and squirrel nests are revealed, and the warm spell of temperatures causes high activity of ground dwelling insects.
The sun gleams through barren trees, the last bit of warmth before winters long lasting darkness. Birds pick off bugs and bees, meanwhile bore beetles strip white ash leaving them barkless.
With cooling temperatures, the leaves on the deciduous maples, and birches have been quickly changing colors and falling onto the ground. The ground cover ferns have died off, and the buck thorn and honeysuckle plants have littered their leaves across the ground and into the stream.
Prominent Animals
Squirrels have created nests within the over story white pine trees, and run throughout the site. Within the brook, I have found Green frogs, and riffle beetles.
The site that I have chosen is located in Centennial Woods, at the far eastern trail entrance of the commuter parking lot. Follow this trail to the bottom of the hill, and my site is situated on the small stream near the patch of open forest.
Phenology Site: Week #1
Description of Site
My site is a small ravine with a trickling stream leading through the middle of it. The dominant soil type is clay and silt, which provides the optimal conditions for invasive buckthorn and honeysuckle to run rampant. These two invasive species make up about 60% of the understory, with eastern hemlock, and striped maple making up the other 40%. The ground cover consists of lady fern, common milkweed, and red fescue around the banks of the stream. The overstory trees consist mainly of sugar maple, red maple, paper birch, eastern white pine, and red oak.
