A UVM blog Redstone Quarry

I’ve had a lot of goodbyes with my UVM friends over the past couple weeks, but my final goodbye is to my phenology blog spot that I made a trip to about every other week over the past year.

In my last trip to the Redstone Quarry I actually brought my friend with me! She is a UVM student that is not in Rubenstein, but she still really enjoyed the trip to the Quarry this week. Around the actual Quarry area there was not much difference from when I went there a week ago, but on the path getting to the Quarry it was totally grown over compared to how it was the week before.

Other than this difference, there was not much else to write about that has changed.

Over the past year, the ways that culture and nature have intertwined at the Quarry has become quite evident to me. At the beginning of this year when I learned about how the Quarry came to be, I found out the Redstone building on campus was built from redstone from the Quarry, which is so interesting to me. Seeing the change from a place where rock was taken from to a place where rock and nature are observed is quite amazing. Now, when I passed by people going to the Quarry they were mainly using it for photography, going for a walk, or nature observation, which shows how the Quarry has been able to connect people to nature in an attainable way.

I totally consider myself a part of my place. I think I am a part of every place that I have visited and interacted with. Every natural area that I interact with gives me a sense of place because I am related to the land in one way or another. If I am able to have an impact on the land, I think I am considered to be apart of it.

Going to my phenology blog spot throughout the past year has given me a lot more respect for and made me much more aware of the natural world around me. Being home for a few days now, this was not something I realized while I was on campus, but have become aware of over the past few days. The other day I was sitting outside with my mom and started telling her which trees were which species, and that made me realize how much more attention I was paying to the nature around me compared to last summer.

For my addition to the City Nature Challenge BioBlitz, I went down to the Redstone Quarry, and also stopped to observe some trees along the way. I first found a small red maple, and I thought the leaves were very cute. I also found an Eastern White Pine along the road to the Quarry.

One of the most interesting things to me while participating in the BioBlitz was that I found some of my tree and shrub ID’s to be completely wrong, and that is totally okay! It reminded me that I am still learning and always have more to get to know and experience. I found that what I thought was Eastern Hemlock is actually a type of Juniper.

The most memorable moment I had by far was finding a large grouping of wild chives. I went out to the Quarry with my friend that day and she asked what the chives were. Before she mentioned it, I had never noticed them before. I told her I believed they were chives, then the iNaturalist app also recognized them as that. Because of my classification along with the app’s she picked on and ate it, and turns out they were chives!

Overall, I was a big fan of using iNaturalist. I feel like it made me more comfortable and confident in the classifications that I was making as I was exploring the native species. I found the species we were finding really interesting compared to the ones coming from other cities. For example, my hometown of Boston, Massachusetts had a lot of similar species, but Hong Kong had a lot more variety and had very little overlap with the species that were found in Burlington, Vermont.

Heading into April, the bushy shrubs are starting to come back with a vengeance. While walking to the Redstone Quarry, I was poked by quite a few plants on the path that were not there last time I took a trip.

I am not quite sure what this first plant was, but it was jutting out onto the path. Its leaves seemed to just be coming in and were quite sparse. Next, I came across what I believe to be buckthorn. Whatever the plant was, the leaves were incredibly soft and I stopped to touch it for a minute.

As I continued on the path, I ran into another unknown species. This plant was particularly interesting to me due to the shape of its leaves. The leaves were just sprouting though, so I am not sure what they will look like when they are fully out.

After that, I made it to the Quarry. When I arrived at the Quarry I immediately noticed that the birds were singing. I could not see any of the birds, but I could hear multiple different calls. I noticed that the Eastern Hemlock that covers the back part of the Quarry was turning yellow/orange.

The grass underneath the Eastern Hemlock is starting to grow very tall, along with the Barberry.

While I heard quite a few birdcalls, I was unable to see any specific birds. I saw an Eastern Gray squirrel while walking through the short trail to get to the Quarry, but was unable to snap a picture of it before it ran away. I also was not able to find any tracks or scat left behind by the animals that had been passing through previously. I am hoping within the next few weeks I will be able to find some due to the mud that will be accumulating.

While walking around the city of Burlington today, I found quite a lot of tree buds, melting ice, and sunny weather.

I first took a stroll down to the Redstone Quarry to see how the phenology has changed since I last visited. I came across quite a lot of buds in the area. First I came across what I believe to be a Bitternut Hickory, which caught my eye with the bright yellow color.

Next, I came across a bud that I could not quite figure out. It was dark and on the larger side. After I stopped to look at the buds for a few moments, I continued on the path and stopped at the quarry for a few minutes, then turned around and went back towards the street. While walking back to the street, I stopped to take a photo of the icy trail packed down by the people that previously walked on it.

The way the snow was completely packed down on the trail was really interesting to me. Even though it was slightly on the warmer side today, the trail was still incredibly icy from being packed down by a multitude of people that have walked on it over the past few weeks. The way the snow was today made it nearly impossible to find any tracks present. The areas that there seemed to have been tracks were melting away, and the snow that was still on the ground had frozen over so there were not tracks left on it.

As I walked around the streets of Burlington, I found this snow bank melting in the sun. I thought it was a really good example of human activity in the area over the past couple months. The only places where the snow was still built up were areas where the snow had been pushed to the side by plows, or natural areas where the snow had not been disturbed.

As I walked through the streets, I found quite a few buds that appeared to be Red Maple buds to me. These buds were bright red at the end, and I crushed one and it did not release an odor. I continued on my walk and eventually ended up back near my dorm. As I was walking back to my dorm the opposite way that I had left it, I came across a huge sheet of ice, which I figured out came from a fire hydrant that had appeared to burst.

The pattern that the ice was in was very interesting to me. Upon first glance, it looks like it is a large sheet that is taking up the whole sidewalk, but when I stepped on it I found that it was beginning to melt from the bottom up. I think this was because the pavement was getting hot from the sun underneath the ice, so it was melting from the bottom up.

Walking back to the Redstone Quarry was a nice experience to see the changes that have happened in the environment while I was gone. All of the leaves are completely off the deciduous trees in the area and it was quiet and peaceful in the surrounding area. I saw some unidentified tracks while I was walking towards the Quarry, I believe they were either coyote or fox tracks. Other than the changes in how many leaves are on the deciduous trees and everything being covered in snow, I did not notice much of a difference than the last time I visited. There seemed to be quite a lot of human traffic that has happened in the area recently because there were quite a lot of footprints in the snow.

The Burlington South End started out as being a housing place for the blue collar workers that live in the city of Burlington. The Redstone Quarry began when the people of Burlington wanted to create a new church. In order to build the new church they needed rock, which they pulled out of what was then called Willard’s Ledge but is now referred to as the Redstone Quarry. The people that did not have very much money would live on the low side of the Quarry, but if you got rich you would move up above the Quarry. Andrew Addison Buell was one of the lucky ones and took Monkton Quartzite out of Willard’s Ledge in order to build his new estate. This estate was eventually given to the University of Vermont and is now known as Redstone Campus. In 1958, University of Vermont purchased the Redstone Quarry and to this day use it mainly for Geology classes.

Sources:

Beckett, S. (Photographer). (2018). Redstone Quarry [Photograph]. Retrieved December 5, 2020 from https://enjoyburlington.com/redstone-quarry/

Burlington Geographic. The South End. Focal Places in Burlington. Retrieved December 5, 2020 from http://www.uvm.edu/place/burlingtongeographic/focalplaces/southend.php

Burlington Wildways. Redstone Quarry. Burlington Wildways. Retrieved December 5, 2020 from https://burlingtonwildways.org/places/redstone-quarry

dwood. (2018, December 18). Finding Burlington’s Past in Redstone Quarry. Enjoy Burlington. Retrieved December 5, 2020 from https://enjoyburlington.com/redstone-quarry/

University of Vermont. (2020). Educational Materials. Perkins Museum of Geology. Retrieved December 5, 2020. from https://www.uvm.edu/perkins/educational-materials

While home, I went and visited Breakheart Reservation, which is in Saugus, Massachusetts. I noticed right when I got there that the patterns going on in the landscape are very different compared to the ones at the Redstone Quarry. Firstly, there is a different array of trees that are growing in Breakheart. I found that they are mainly Northern Red Oaks, Eastern White Pines, and a few Paper Birch trees here and there. This is much different than the Eastern Hemlock and Barberry that was growing on Redstone Quarry. Throughout looking around, there seemed to not be any woody plants on the ground, but there were quite a lot of Eastern White Pine saplings low to the ground. I also found that there are not many animals in this area, I saw one chipmunk while reaching this point. I believe that is due to the colder weather, because I have previously seen chipmunks, squirrels, various types of birds, and ducks in Breakheart Reservation before. Alike to Redstone Quarry, all of the trees that are deciduous were bare (or close to it!) of their leaves.

There seemed to be a pattern in the way the trees were planted. There were clusters of Red Oaks, then clusters of Eastern White Pines. This is most likely due to the way that they disperse their seeds and acorns. This was very different compared to the Redstone Quarry, the Redstone Quarry’s trees had less of a pattern in the way they grew, which may be due to the fact that Sugar Maples can only produce seeds once they are 30-40 years old, so there was more time for other trees to sprout next to them.

Sources:

Google Maps. (2020). [Breakheart Reservation. Saugus, MA] [Street Map]. Retrieved on November 29, 2020, from https://www.google.com/maps/place/Breakheart+Reservation/@42.4835501,-71.0337138,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e372cea6edeba1:0xc91ecb116b909fc4!8m2!3d42.4835501!4d-71.0315251

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Red Oaks Barren of Their Leaves [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Saugust River Trail in Breakheart Reservation [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Untitled [Photograph].

Most of the trees in the area have began to lose their leaves other than the Northern White Cedars. There has been a drastic difference in the amount of leaves on the Sugar Maple trees and the Honey Locust trees. There was also less wildlife in the area, I can attest that too it being cold and having just snowed before I went to visit the phenology spot. There was also new spray paint on the rocks. It said “Do not sit” “private” and “unsafe.” Due to this I did not go very close to the edge of the rocks this week, but I did still get to enjoy the area as a whole.

Sources:

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Drastic Change in Barberry [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Honey Locust Trees are Bare [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). New Spray Paint [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Untitled [Photograph].

There was actually quite a lot that changed in the vegetation around the Redstone Quarry in the past two weeks. Most of the trees are starting to lose their leaves, and the barberry that was on the ground was almost completely bare.

I also noticed that there were quite a lot of birds in the area along with squirrels climbing around in the trees. The two species of bird I found were a Bluejay and a Nothern Flicker. They were all frequenting the trees, but the Nothern Flicker came over to the Upper Rock level that I was standing on to poke around for a little bit.

One of the great parts about the Redstone Quarry is that it is in the middle of a residential area, which means it is really easy to get to!

Sources:

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Northern Flicker on Top of Rock [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Northern White Cedar Trees with Bare Barberry Underneath [Photograph].

Hello everyone! I chose the Redstone Quarry because it is close to my dorm building and I think the rocks there are really interesting. To get there you walk on to South Prospect Street and turn onto Ledge Road. You will get about halfway down Ledge Road, then you can look across the street and will find a very small opening to a path. 

Once you follow along the path for a while you will eventually stand on top of a very large rock.

The vegetation next to the rock is a lot of brush. In the understory there is some longer grass, and a few woody plants that live on top of that. The woody plants seem to be barberry. Above the barberry there are a few trees growing and these trees appear to be Eastern Hemlock. There are also Sugar Maples and Honey Locust trees on the other side of the Redstone Quarry that are not pictured.

Sources:

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Opening to Path [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Redstone Quarry 1 [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Redstone Quarry 2 [Photograph].

Callaghan, S. (Photographer). (2020). Woody Plants and Vegetation [Photograph].

Google Maps. (2020). [Redstone Quarry. Burlington, VT] [Street Map]. Retrieved October 11, 2020 from https://www.google.com/maps/place/Redstone+Quarry/@44.4613431,-73.2076696,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4cca7bb205be9c89:0x66f33cb18d956e30!8m2!3d44.4613431!4d-73.2054809