I returned to the SW corner of the Woods at 8 PM Friday and walked in via the trash station gate along the south border and entered the Woods at the southern end of the N-S Fence Line trail by the red brick building. The regeneration of trees along and south of the south fence line of the Woods are mostly willow and cottonwood. It will be interesting to see how they do through the construction and if any become mature, fast growing trees.
From the N-S fence line entry, I walked WNW to the dam..no water there or beyond..past the grandfather hollow cottonwood. The drainage was damp with some mud near the big cottonwood; but overall, the area had dried rapidly, supporting the idea that drying may have more to do with winds than with infiltration and overall warmth. We've had a great deal of wind over the past two nights and days with accompanying moderate warmth.
I saw no deer and heard no other animals. I imagine the huge earthmovers operating and the new fence along the south boundary has driven many animals away.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Bulldozers and the Woods
Monday evening 26 April I went for a walk in the flooded Woods entering via the SW gate. After recent rains this month (1.5 inches on the 17th and 18th and 0.5 inches on the 23rd) the water had returned to flood the southwestern quarter.. then retreated somewhat, returned again and now seemed to be rapidly retreating (although it was still covering large areas from 150 meters northeast up the trail to where the first patches of sedge grow, and on east of there along the main trail and drainage. It seemed like the most recent rapid retreat of the water was more related to strong all day winds, than to days without rain. Monday evening the water had retreated again to 50-70 feet west of the dam..nothing flowing through.
Exiting the Woods at G zero post, I walked along the service road westward towards the old trash station. Heavy equipment had recently flattened or cleared a swath along the south side of the Woods plowing over willows and brush. (For some unknown reason the machine operator had also gone south along the drainage from the Woods clearing a swath of the willows for 100 feet south of the culvert.)
Along the northern edge of the east west service road, workers had dug into place the standard black nylon (?) ca. 0.7 m tall erosion fence in preparation for active earth moving, to stop rains from washing clay into the Woods. I walked west along this and thought about how the new erosion fence would stop movement of snakes, turtles, frogs, salamanders, lizards, small mammals, opossums, mice, rabbits, voles etc. It might even put off deer and larger animals.
Parked just east of the northeast corner of the old trash station there were two of the largest dump trucks I have seen this year - colossal, and a similar scale earth mover, equally enormous.. and an assortment of smaller bulldozers and earth movers. The work there is set to begin. I will watch the impact on the Woods. Deer will not cross that area any more. The animal highways and corridors across the south central boundary of the Woods are closed by the new fence.
Exiting the Woods at G zero post, I walked along the service road westward towards the old trash station. Heavy equipment had recently flattened or cleared a swath along the south side of the Woods plowing over willows and brush. (For some unknown reason the machine operator had also gone south along the drainage from the Woods clearing a swath of the willows for 100 feet south of the culvert.)
Along the northern edge of the east west service road, workers had dug into place the standard black nylon (?) ca. 0.7 m tall erosion fence in preparation for active earth moving, to stop rains from washing clay into the Woods. I walked west along this and thought about how the new erosion fence would stop movement of snakes, turtles, frogs, salamanders, lizards, small mammals, opossums, mice, rabbits, voles etc. It might even put off deer and larger animals.
Parked just east of the northeast corner of the old trash station there were two of the largest dump trucks I have seen this year - colossal, and a similar scale earth mover, equally enormous.. and an assortment of smaller bulldozers and earth movers. The work there is set to begin. I will watch the impact on the Woods. Deer will not cross that area any more. The animal highways and corridors across the south central boundary of the Woods are closed by the new fence.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Wet and Green Woods
My goodness what a change in the Woods.. It has been striking to see the greening of the Woods; but today I decided to go for a walk in the rain.. wonderful!
By 2 PM we had had 0.4 inches with more slow gentle spring rain falling. I entered via the SW gate. The Woods looked verdant.. more shaded by new leaf-out from trees.. the leaves were all their bright early spring green.
I decided to take the main SW trail which has been inundated for much of the past four months and was happy to see it was emerging from its sodden state. The forest floor was soft and still wet; but the upper organic layer had drained. Last autumn's fallen leaves were covered with an odd looking dried scum of algae.. a dry greenish brown.
All along the south side of the trail, fifty feet distant, there was a bright blanket of fresh green annuals and other understory..like a bath tub ring.. at the base of the slight sandy rise to the foot of the dune along its western end. Abruptly down "slope", a matter of an inch or two; the forest floor was still entirely brown, devoid of herbaceous vegetation. Any growing there would have been drowned. On the north side of the trail slightly raised areas with better light were islands of bright green new bottlebrush sedge.
There were still pools remaining along the trail; but the deepest locations were just over ankle deep and ninety percent of the trail was drained. There was no water near the dam.
On the north side of the trail by the big grandfather cottonwood I disturbed a herd of six deer who trotted off a short hundred feet and then stopped and peered through the vegetation at me and my bright yellow rain coat.
I headed north into the central Woods and was happy to see that the trail we had cleared in the winter was still moderately clear. I found several patches of poison ivy along the trail with freshly emerged leaves and was able to clear all of that. I am sure that I will need to clear resprouts from some of these plants again..but for now it looks pretty well absent from the trailside.
Arriving at Fence Corner and the big cedar that blew down in the Christmas blizzard, I noticed that all the Gymnosporangium cedar apple gall rust on the branches were full hydrated, with gelatinous telial masses like a rich burnt orange marmelade. I was surprised how much there was on all the junipers.. particularly the large juniper at the junction of the pipeline trail and the NE Escarpment trail.
Crossing the Elm Bridge the creek was in good full flow and I was happy for boots. Westward on the E-W Fence Line trail past the first big old pecan (looks like a snag but still alive) on the north side of the trail there was a large grapevine with what looked like a large 10 inch orange paint blaze..but it wasn't paint. I will have to return and study it to see if it is a fungus, slime mold or whatever. From that grapevine, I found and partially roughed out a useful new trail up the west side of the stream connecting to the Trans OWP trail. This will need some work to establish. The new trail follows some old orange flagging for the northern ~ 100 feet to the Trans OWP.
Along the Trans OWP I walked to the East Pond and took the spur to the Biggest Cottonwood now tagged #200 and then eastward again to the triple split mulberry and cotton rat nest. A couple of feet from the nest in the open center where the split tree left a sheltered hollow there was an odd piece of litter that ended up being the remnants of a red party balloon. I wondered if the cotton rat had brought it there to decorate like a bowerbird.
From the split mulberry thence east to Hackberry Alley, south back to the dam, across the dune and west along the South Border trail back to the gate and an exit. The walk was so wonderful.. no ticks, no mosquitoes.. beautiful colors, fresh leaf out.. I want to do most of my summer walks there actually during the rain. Great time to be there.
By 2 PM we had had 0.4 inches with more slow gentle spring rain falling. I entered via the SW gate. The Woods looked verdant.. more shaded by new leaf-out from trees.. the leaves were all their bright early spring green.
I decided to take the main SW trail which has been inundated for much of the past four months and was happy to see it was emerging from its sodden state. The forest floor was soft and still wet; but the upper organic layer had drained. Last autumn's fallen leaves were covered with an odd looking dried scum of algae.. a dry greenish brown.
All along the south side of the trail, fifty feet distant, there was a bright blanket of fresh green annuals and other understory..like a bath tub ring.. at the base of the slight sandy rise to the foot of the dune along its western end. Abruptly down "slope", a matter of an inch or two; the forest floor was still entirely brown, devoid of herbaceous vegetation. Any growing there would have been drowned. On the north side of the trail slightly raised areas with better light were islands of bright green new bottlebrush sedge.
There were still pools remaining along the trail; but the deepest locations were just over ankle deep and ninety percent of the trail was drained. There was no water near the dam.
On the north side of the trail by the big grandfather cottonwood I disturbed a herd of six deer who trotted off a short hundred feet and then stopped and peered through the vegetation at me and my bright yellow rain coat.
I headed north into the central Woods and was happy to see that the trail we had cleared in the winter was still moderately clear. I found several patches of poison ivy along the trail with freshly emerged leaves and was able to clear all of that. I am sure that I will need to clear resprouts from some of these plants again..but for now it looks pretty well absent from the trailside.
Arriving at Fence Corner and the big cedar that blew down in the Christmas blizzard, I noticed that all the Gymnosporangium cedar apple gall rust on the branches were full hydrated, with gelatinous telial masses like a rich burnt orange marmelade. I was surprised how much there was on all the junipers.. particularly the large juniper at the junction of the pipeline trail and the NE Escarpment trail.
Crossing the Elm Bridge the creek was in good full flow and I was happy for boots. Westward on the E-W Fence Line trail past the first big old pecan (looks like a snag but still alive) on the north side of the trail there was a large grapevine with what looked like a large 10 inch orange paint blaze..but it wasn't paint. I will have to return and study it to see if it is a fungus, slime mold or whatever. From that grapevine, I found and partially roughed out a useful new trail up the west side of the stream connecting to the Trans OWP trail. This will need some work to establish. The new trail follows some old orange flagging for the northern ~ 100 feet to the Trans OWP.
Along the Trans OWP I walked to the East Pond and took the spur to the Biggest Cottonwood now tagged #200 and then eastward again to the triple split mulberry and cotton rat nest. A couple of feet from the nest in the open center where the split tree left a sheltered hollow there was an odd piece of litter that ended up being the remnants of a red party balloon. I wondered if the cotton rat had brought it there to decorate like a bowerbird.
From the split mulberry thence east to Hackberry Alley, south back to the dam, across the dune and west along the South Border trail back to the gate and an exit. The walk was so wonderful.. no ticks, no mosquitoes.. beautiful colors, fresh leaf out.. I want to do most of my summer walks there actually during the rain. Great time to be there.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Craneflies, Violets and Hawthorn
This past week we've had three days above 80 F and a good half inch of thunderstorm rain Friday morning. The Woods is really responding. All the understory ground cover has burst out. The Symphoricarpos deer brush has leafed out. The poison ivy is just beginning to extend new reddish green miniature leaves. Elms have produced new flowers and bur oaks have new small green leaves thirty percent full size with catkins.
The understory is now largely Lonicera honeysuckle. I wonder what the understory of the forest was 75 years ago. How has Lonicera changed the soil, pH, invertebrates, mites, site productivity, carbon storage etc?
Today I went to clear the mid Ravine Trail. A big hackberry top had broken out in a recent storm and blocked the trail. There were other recent broken trees: a largish diameter green ash down by the southern big hollow cottonwood.. snapped about 15-20 feet up, dead elm blown down by the Main SW trail. Strong (65mph gusts) thunderstorm winds Friday morning were likely the cause. The Woods seems to have much more down woody debris than I would normally expect in such a forest. I wonder what is the cause.
If climate change is producing more atmospheric energy will we see more strong wind gusts per month in the data -- either higher average highest daily wind gust, or more frequent days with strong gusts over 45 mph? Can we then see a greater degree of tree breakage and windfall or blow down?
After clearing the Ravine Trail I drove to the NE gate and returned to the Pipeline Trail. I cleared the last half of the trail all the way to the stream crossover at the island.. and flagged with blue tape. It will be a good trail connecting to the Northern Loop.
The warmth has brought on an abundant hatch of crane flies. There silver wings glint and flash in the sun patches in the forest.
The understory is now largely Lonicera honeysuckle. I wonder what the understory of the forest was 75 years ago. How has Lonicera changed the soil, pH, invertebrates, mites, site productivity, carbon storage etc?
Today I went to clear the mid Ravine Trail. A big hackberry top had broken out in a recent storm and blocked the trail. There were other recent broken trees: a largish diameter green ash down by the southern big hollow cottonwood.. snapped about 15-20 feet up, dead elm blown down by the Main SW trail. Strong (65mph gusts) thunderstorm winds Friday morning were likely the cause. The Woods seems to have much more down woody debris than I would normally expect in such a forest. I wonder what is the cause.
If climate change is producing more atmospheric energy will we see more strong wind gusts per month in the data -- either higher average highest daily wind gust, or more frequent days with strong gusts over 45 mph? Can we then see a greater degree of tree breakage and windfall or blow down?
After clearing the Ravine Trail I drove to the NE gate and returned to the Pipeline Trail. I cleared the last half of the trail all the way to the stream crossover at the island.. and flagged with blue tape. It will be a good trail connecting to the Northern Loop.
The warmth has brought on an abundant hatch of crane flies. There silver wings glint and flash in the sun patches in the forest.
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