Introduction:
I am a horse enthusiast and like to visit the horses at the UVM Horse Barn. Thus, I decided to study the tiny little stretch of forest near the barn. It is the only area of natural forest in the area. The area is surrounded by townhouses, Interstate 89, a wetland, and a farm with livestock. Near it there is a golf course and a shopping center too which brings even more nutrient runoff into the area. Due to this, I wanted to see the impact the urbanization has on this small forest. Plus, running though it is a water pipeline, that has led a clear path of deforestation. All these factors combined, have led to the area being overridden with pollution of trash close to the highway, lots of non-native plant and tree species.
Location:
First, you have to walk down south on Spear Street which is parallel to the parking garage. Then continue down on the steet or go take a right after leaving UVM for the bike path that also brings you to the crosswalk to Quarry Hills. After crossing, you’ll then arrive to the clearing of the horse fields. Before the fenses there is a striaght path where you must go along the clearing between the residential housing and the horse fields. Head towards I-89 when you come across a rope. Then you go under it where you’ll find a pipe next to a marsh. After crossing it, take a left and walk a few feet and you’ve arrived. The view should look like this facing north.
Species of Woody Plants
- Colorado Spruce
- White Pine
- Box Elder
- Black Oak
- American Dogwood
- Eastern Cottonwood
- Smooth Sumac
- Thornless-Honey Locucust
- Norway Maple
- Green Ash
- Wheaping Willow
- Honeysuckle
- Basswood
- Common Buckthorn
- Weeping Willow
- Flowering Dogwood
- Quaking Aspen
- Northern Red Oak
- Phragmites (Reed)
- Sugar Maple
Vegitation
The vegetation ranges a lot in this area. To the south and west, there is a marsh with lots of phragmites and a few cattails. In the middle, a pretty barren grassland exists due to the pipeline going through it. However, there is some limited vegetation other than grass. There is Red clover and and Common Selfheal, and saplings growthing through the grass as well. . Then on the outskirts of the grassland, there is a high abundance of Canadian Goldenrod and Honeysuckle. Towards I-89 I noted a high abundance of grape vines, an invasive species.
Wildlife Sighted:
- Eastern Phoebe
- Eastern Bluebirds
- Red Squirrel
- Grey Squirrel
- Eastern Coyote
- White-tailed Deer
Visiting Other Phenology Spots:
11/13/24 at 15:47
I checked out Ella Wilson’s spot. There is a huge hill in hers and the trees are way larger. There is a high abundance of Red Oak, Sugar Maples, and Eastern White Pine. The understory however is less diverse and has mostly honeysuckle, White Oak, and Sugar Maple. There is less diversity but more native tree species than my spot.
11/13/24 at 16:01
Ainsley McKenna’s spot which is in the open with power lines on the Beaver Bridge. The area is surrounded by phragmites with White Pine and Northern White Cedar surrounding the area. The water is a tad pit grey but clear. The stream is bigger than mine.
Phenology Post #2 on 2/19/25
Today I went to the Intervale Center, right on the Winooski River where the land is being used for farming, recreation, and education. Recently there has been a massive snowstorm a few days ago and there is about a foot of snow on the ground. I walked down towards the floodplain of the river where the soil is moist and fertile. There are lots of Eastern Cottonwood, White Ash, and Silver Maple. None of these trees had leaves on them but the Silver Maple had old samaras still on some of the branches on it. There were a fair amount of dead large trees, particularly the White Ash trees. In fact I spotted one of the trees with a hole carved out from a Downy Woodpecker (judging from the size of it). The hole was so new, the carvings had fallen onto the snow.
Due to the snow being so high, this allowed me to observe mammal tracks and the path they took along since the snowstorm. I observed the trail of a mouse close to the greenhouse as I could tell tiny feet pattern and the tail drag. Closer into the woods, I noticed the tracks of a White-Tail Deer, however they tracks suddenly disappeared once I got to a field. This could possibly be due to the blowing snow from the wind that covered the prints up. A cool path I found was what I believe is a mink. The prints were 3 inches and the straddle was 6 inches. It was odd how the walking pattern was hopping but this could be due to how high the snow is. Interestingly, the Mink appeared from a small tunnel (for which was big enough for a Mink) going into the subnivean zone, which was quite cool. It straddled along til it got to a White Ash tree near the river where it once again went into another tunnel in the subnivean zone. Overall, I was able to record most of the things I observed on iNaturalist, although I had a difficult time finding the the project for this to submit it to.
2025 City Nature Challenge Nature BioBlitz Challenge Reflection:
Over this weekend, I participated in iNaturalist’s City Nature Challenge where I documented plants and animals in nature. I traveled all around the Greater Burlington Area. On friday, I followed the bike trail behind the Track all the way to my phenology spot near the horse barn and then turned around. Sunday I went to the event at Intervale. Throughout the event I used iNaturalist to take photos. It seems simple, but adding all the observations was time consuming. During the bioblitz, I encountered over 170 species! This was quite an accomplishment because it’s amazing to see how many species can be around in such a small area. I went all around Burlington especially campus to do this and felt such a competitive urge. Furthermore, I have become much more familiar with species I have never known their names for which was cool.
Then, I looked at the leaderboards for cities. I was quite perplexed that at the time I wrote this, Burlington was barely beating Kyiv Ukraine, and Ukraine as a whole country is doing so well in this competition. It’s amazing that even in war the people still manage to document so much wildlife. Overall, this bioblitz was very enjoyable and great to get outside.
