Today continued hot 105F.. 55 days over 100F this summer.. new (or near?) record.. plus 7 more days at 99. More 100+ coming. Trees in OWP are dying. Green ash, some elm, some hackberry.. young 20-30 yr old trees in the understory and along NW end of dune.
Out to the Woods this Saturday morning in the NW entrance. I dug a two foot hole in the center of the dry west pond and planted an 8 foot 4x4 inch cedar post for a staff gauge (donation from Bob Nairn). Goal is to get gauge set to monitor changes in water depth (when water returns). Dry caramel brown-colored organic mud in west pond bottom, above wet black muck/ mud about 6 inches down. Took aluminum pole to east pond for same purpose. I marked it off in half foot lengths. Top of each orange paint band at bottom of blue tape interface equals half foot marks. Pole has 10 increments for 5 feet from bottom of dry pond to top of pole. Borrowed bolt cutters from George and cut away fence wire across trails. A week ago discovered another Carpenter post laying flat and partly buried along the Main Southwest Trail at the blue arrow tree. Should be about location of B9 on Carpenter's original grid.. approx 200' east of Chautauqua fence (paced). I took sledge hammer and drove post back in place.
Returned late at 7 PM to finish. One seed tick, one mosquito by East Pond, no deer. Dogs have returned to Woods. Chris S. at Treatment Plant says he saw pack two days ago in the Woods. I heard dog(s) howling in southeast Woods. Tibicen dog day cicadas are singing. Still several Catocala moths on pecan by Tall Stump and several Hackberry emperors on tree boles.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Mapping Mornings
August 14 Sunday morning I met Delong Zhao at the SW Gate 7:30 AM to map the Woods by GPS. Over the next 3 hours we crisscrossed the Woods walking every trail. Delong recorded latitude and longitude for 117 waypoints. Most of these were the blue topped cedar stakes I recently placed at 50 m intervals along the trails and 19 steel posts placed on a 200 foot grid by Carpenter mid 1950's (we missed two I know of). There are likely another 10-20 that can be found.
We encountered 4 Terrapene carolina three-toed box turtles and 3-4 white-tailed deer. The turtles have been mostly missing since the rains and mulberries of late May.
Small ticks are starting to come back; but not too badly. No mosquitoes at all. Small cloud of a dozen hackberry emperor butterflies on trees 10 m west of Island Crossing.. maybe on drought stressed trees(?)
August 16 Tuesday morning Ana and I went to find the lines of Elroy Rice's mid 1960's tree plots. The northern plot's western border is parallel and adjacent to Chautauqua according to unpublished papers of Olmstead and Jenssen, students in Rice's botany 1966 class.. and the 1970 published map of Abdul-Wahab. There are thin steel rebar posts placed in two east west running lines 100 feet apart that look like they could be the north and south boundaries..but the east end of the plot is not clear. Abdul-Wahab's map, if drawn to scale, suggests plot may be about 330 feet long. Olmstead and Jenssen both describe a one acre rectangle 147 m or 441 feet long. There was a complete census of trees in this plot conducted then. The stand has changed a great deal over the past 40-45 years. Dense young green ash regeneration is perhaps 20-30 years old. Much of that is dead standing now.. likely from run-off and flooding associated with the 2000 paving of the Lloyd Noble parking area (doubled size of lot). Grazing of 14 head of livestock was terminated in 1960. The southern plot with it's long axis running along Chautauqua has not been found yet; but the vegetation there currently (many dead toppled Juniperus under Ulmus, Celtis, Diospyros and some Quercus) matches expectation.
We encountered 4 Terrapene carolina three-toed box turtles and 3-4 white-tailed deer. The turtles have been mostly missing since the rains and mulberries of late May.
Small ticks are starting to come back; but not too badly. No mosquitoes at all. Small cloud of a dozen hackberry emperor butterflies on trees 10 m west of Island Crossing.. maybe on drought stressed trees(?)
August 16 Tuesday morning Ana and I went to find the lines of Elroy Rice's mid 1960's tree plots. The northern plot's western border is parallel and adjacent to Chautauqua according to unpublished papers of Olmstead and Jenssen, students in Rice's botany 1966 class.. and the 1970 published map of Abdul-Wahab. There are thin steel rebar posts placed in two east west running lines 100 feet apart that look like they could be the north and south boundaries..but the east end of the plot is not clear. Abdul-Wahab's map, if drawn to scale, suggests plot may be about 330 feet long. Olmstead and Jenssen both describe a one acre rectangle 147 m or 441 feet long. There was a complete census of trees in this plot conducted then. The stand has changed a great deal over the past 40-45 years. Dense young green ash regeneration is perhaps 20-30 years old. Much of that is dead standing now.. likely from run-off and flooding associated with the 2000 paving of the Lloyd Noble parking area (doubled size of lot). Grazing of 14 head of livestock was terminated in 1960. The southern plot with it's long axis running along Chautauqua has not been found yet; but the vegetation there currently (many dead toppled Juniperus under Ulmus, Celtis, Diospyros and some Quercus) matches expectation.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Marvelous Morning
This morning after consecutive nights with 0.9 and 0.7 inches of rain I went to the Woods early. I entered the SW Gate and took the South Boundary Trail. I placed cedar stakes topped with blue tape at 50 m intervals from the start to the end of the trail at the H 10 post; then north with stakes along the NS Fence Line trail to Fence Corner.. all done. Then I started at the top of Hackberry Alley on the Trans OWP green trail and placed cedar stakes east to Burr Oak Bridge and west to the Ponds Trail entrance.
The West Pond is still dry, although now the cracks in the mud are filled with water. The East Pond is dry except for a fist-sized pocket of open water in the center. Now is the time to get the water depth measuring stick placed in the pond.
There are many understory trees, elms and green ash mostly, up to 20 or 30 feet tall that may have died with the heat and drought of the past 8 weeks - the 'Heat Dome'. Their leaves are all dead and are hanging on the tree. It looks as though the tree could not form an abscission layer. It will be interesting to see if any of these recover and flush new leaves next spring. It looks like the larger canopy dominants are all OK.. roots probably went deeper. There are a lot of leaves down.. maybe 25 % of the canopy. There is a pleasant smell of fall and early leaf decomposition.
The rains have sprouted many quick small mushrooms and ascomycetes: Auricularia pig's ears etc. It should be good watching for fungi the next 2-3 days.
The Western Wash was flowing. Water was flowing slowly past the Elm Bridge 4-5 inches deep. Water was flowing along the South Boundary west from posts H10 to G10 and then south. Water extended 50 meters in a shallow ditch up the Ragweed Delta.
I saw two deer up by the north central area and around the west side of the Dune. The trees along the west side of the dune are nearer complete defoliation. The sunlight brightly lights the forest floor on the dune's west end like it was early spring.
On the NS Fence Line I encountered a young armadillo 6 feet away. He jumped to the side but then re-commenced foraging 3-4 feet away from where I stood. Amazing to watch.
The West Pond is still dry, although now the cracks in the mud are filled with water. The East Pond is dry except for a fist-sized pocket of open water in the center. Now is the time to get the water depth measuring stick placed in the pond.
There are many understory trees, elms and green ash mostly, up to 20 or 30 feet tall that may have died with the heat and drought of the past 8 weeks - the 'Heat Dome'. Their leaves are all dead and are hanging on the tree. It looks as though the tree could not form an abscission layer. It will be interesting to see if any of these recover and flush new leaves next spring. It looks like the larger canopy dominants are all OK.. roots probably went deeper. There are a lot of leaves down.. maybe 25 % of the canopy. There is a pleasant smell of fall and early leaf decomposition.
The rains have sprouted many quick small mushrooms and ascomycetes: Auricularia pig's ears etc. It should be good watching for fungi the next 2-3 days.
The Western Wash was flowing. Water was flowing slowly past the Elm Bridge 4-5 inches deep. Water was flowing along the South Boundary west from posts H10 to G10 and then south. Water extended 50 meters in a shallow ditch up the Ragweed Delta.
I saw two deer up by the north central area and around the west side of the Dune. The trees along the west side of the dune are nearer complete defoliation. The sunlight brightly lights the forest floor on the dune's west end like it was early spring.
On the NS Fence Line I encountered a young armadillo 6 feet away. He jumped to the side but then re-commenced foraging 3-4 feet away from where I stood. Amazing to watch.
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