Why?
When it came to picking a spot for my phenology project, I knew I wanted it to be walkable but somewhere I hadn’t gotten a chance to explore yet. When my friend told me of her own lab that took her to Salmon Hole along the Winooski river, I knew I wanted that to be my spot. I have grown up on the water my whole life, I was a 15 minute drive away from a gorgeous beach and had a small but lively lake in my backyard. Once I got to the trail and began walking, the sound of the water brought back similar sentiments of home and familiarity. I knew I wanted to spend time here and watch as it changed.
Where?
In terms of getting there, once you get to the head of the trail on Riverside Ave, you go down the stairs and take the second left along the path before the bench. Taking another left and walking down towards the water you’ll see a sign for the Salmon Hole trail. Just around the bend, you see a nice, large flat stone covered in moss and lichen and that where you will find my phenology spot.
What?
My spot had a lot of unique woody species, many of which I had never seen before. The most common trees around the area were Basswoods, Northern Red Oaks, Buckthorns, and Bittersweet Orientals. Surrounding the large stone, a lot of Dogwoods, Staghorn Sumacs, and Aster were present. There is also, towards the back, a very large Riverbank Grape plant that takes up a lot of space in the background. Most of the plants and vegetation lays in the background of my spot, as it sits along the water. As noted before, a large stone covers a majority of the spot and is covered in spots of thick, dark green moss and spattered with patches of lichen. Grass pops up from the cracks and covers the area in and around my spot. The closer you get towards the small forest behind the spot, the denser the vegetation becomes.
Link to my iNaturalist Observations!
