Changes in West Woods

The west side of the Woods along Chautauqua is beginning to dry out, back to pre-inundation state. The forest floor is still mucky, soft and wet, well out from the cattail marsh but the pools of standing water are largely restricted to the cattails and the sedges surrounding them. I found a three toed box turtle in the wet sedge area near the cattails.

Elsewhere, the forest floor that was covered in standing water for 5-6 weeks is now dry, at least at the surface, and sprouting thousands of 1 cm tall dicot seedlings in the cotyledon stage.. two small rounded cotyledons or two elongate linear cotyledons (the latter almost certainly green ash .. only 2-3% as common as the smaller rounded ones).

Walking east from the zone that was flooded I think I can see a clear transition from mucky organic litter where the inundation covered all, to drier leaf litter that looks never to have been submerged. It might be interesting to run transects across the transition from wet to dry and see the variation in the soil arthropods. Might also be interesting to look at differences in soil gleying or pedology associated with inundation. Could also run transect for soil arthropods down the 25 foot tall escarpment to the area of inundation.. a few replicate transects.

Encountered a Morus mulberry and Sideroxylon (Bumelia) next to a Crataegus hawthorn(?) all a bit uncommon in the Woods.. (Maybe the result of one deposition of poop from a vertebrate omnivore?) They were together along the trail I am clearing from the East Pond eastward to the Trans OWP Trail.. nearer the west end. Same location I found a large diameter poison ivy vine (largest I've seen in the OWP).. like a bare, ash gray elephant's trunk up a tall arching walnut tree.

I've never studied a seasonally flooded forest. I imagine the fungi and other decomposers would be much more limited.. and probably more abundant.. bacteria and aquatic fungi I imagine would be important. Earthworms are going to be largely absent and many soil arthropods.

It would be interesting to see if satellite or remote sensing data could detect and delineate the changing area of the inundation.. and it would be interesting to see if tree stress during the inundation is visible in the canopy spectral picture.

The water is gone

Wednesday afternoon I returned to the SW entrance with Mark Walvoord. We walked up the old trail and I was surprised to see that the acres of inundation, there since mid April were gone. Everywhere there had been a continuous shallow lake, the water had drained away leaving either sodden, now mushy organic packs of leaves, bark and forest litter or bare thin mud. I wondered about the fate of the populations of mosquito wrigglers I had seen there days earlier. I believe there may still be standing water further north along Chautauqua but there has been a large area drained - not quite dry in the past few days.
We exited the Woods at the mid point of the south boundary where water was still ponded up a few feet in depth. Water was also still slowly flowing a foot deep in the south ditch and out the drainage culvert towards the Canadian River.

Another Tuesday Morning on the Trail

This morning I returned to the Trans OWP trail project with loppers and weedwacker. I cut grass, vines, young tree twigs, and shrubs to push the trail further west. There had been a light rain in the Woods. Grasses and shrubs were a little wet. We had had no rain on the west side of Norman less than 1 mile northwest.

After two hours working on the trail I found only two ticks. I wonder if the ticks are abundant along established trails wildlife (deer) commonly traverse.

New green Smilax briar shoots regrowing from stubs I'd cut previously, are densely covered in fine thorns. Interesting ontogenetic switch.

No deer, turtles or rabbits sighted today. I found the beautiful clerid beetle, Enoclerus(2) out foraging on surprisingly small woody stems and an odd looking mantisfly on my way out of the Woods.

Turtles and Ticks.. Working on the Trans OWP Trail

This morning I took loppers and weedwacker to Olivers Wildlife Preserve to work on a trail cutting across the north Woods. I entered from the northeast and enjoyed the clear path down to the bur oak bridge across the creek (approx 175 meters or 575 ft south of the north boundary fence).

I noticed a small school of 3 minnow sized fish feeding in the pool under the bur oak bridge and I am hoping that is bad news for mosquitoes. I flagged a more or less direct route from the bur oak bridge to the East Pond end of the Ponds Trail. The East Pond is lovely, covered in floating tufts of white seeds from the cottonwoods. All the cotton seems to be down now. I didn't see any more drifting from the sky.

Along the way I encountered three 3-toed box turtles (2 mating..I don't remember seeing that before). There was also a fleeting glimpse of one or more white tail deer disappearing in the brush along the eastern escarpment above the bur oak bridge; and one cottontail rabbit scooting away in the brush. I also came upon the recent remains of a nice 50 cm snake.. mocha colored, without head. Flies were busily gorging themselves on anterior portion with nicely revealed skeleton while the posterior two thirds were largely intact. Some predator must have dispatched it, partially consumed it and left the rest there.

In addition to the trail I flagged today from the bridge to the Ponds, I plan to flag a trail from the bridge going southwest to connect to the Oliver North South Fenceline trail. This would connect to both the southern service road, midway along the southern border of the Woods.. and make a connection to the main Southwest trail leading to the South West Gate on Chautauqua.

Some portion of the understory vegetation is now producing prolific numbers of small round green "stick tight" seeds and my socks are a mess.

The ticks today were pretty amazing. I removed 16 from my clothing, feet and legs when I returned home. (And I suspect that total is not final.)