[From October 2018]
Out to the Woods' SW Gate for a quick break from reading and office work. I took my old swing blade, thinking I could clear the path through the Polygonum knot weed east of Butterfly corner, where the thinning elm canopies let in the light. Under the closed canopy of the big trees more leaves have come down.. not just the serrate edge elm leaves; now there are butter yellow rounded leaves of green ash. The canopy is still solidly there, mostly green.. no streaming leaves falling from the sky; but leaf drop is increasing.
I had not used the swing blade in a number of years. It worked well for the task.. less fuss and annoyance than a loud weed-whacker. Sunday morning and the Woods were pretty quiet.. two whitetailed deer down by the beaver dam. It was dry and hot for late October.. the low 80's in the midday shade. No turtles or signs of other wildlife.. a few nymphalid Question Mark butterflies.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Summer return, a fallen friend and bittersweet
I returned to the corner of Oliver's Woods after a summer-long hiatus. 10 AM I walked down into the Woods from the NW Chautauqua entrance. It has been a wet and warm early summer, followed by a dry and hot mid, late August continuing now into mid September. The trees should have had a good summer of growth, lots of water and sunshine. But the forest was quiet, as if the relentless, too long heat had taken a toll. The NW pond is green with sunny scum. Healthy green bull frogs hopped from the rushes. The pond level has fallen and shoreline receded 1-2 m from the last of the step stones.. still a good body of water. No turtles visible.
The trail had healthy overgrowth of yellow Helianthus sunflowers, blue flowering Elephantopus elephant's foot, and some other 'stick-tight' seed producers. A good number of spider webs across the trail, mostly Micrathena, will have been busy reducing the bug populations. I heard no mosquitoes (I applied DEET before setting now). Here and there, along the way there were branches down. A few rotten snags had dropped short logs across the trail. I did minimal clearing, wanting to let the area of the trail recover with normal under story growth, and roots to enrich the soil.
I was pleased to see the big old (leaning) cottonwood by the Carpenter steel post, standing tall and looking good; but coming to the East Pond there has been a big change. The middle-age, tall cottonwood (#142) that stood right on the N shoreline of the pond had broken and fallen directly across and now bridges the pond, right next to the water depth post. The break revealed the tall column of decay that had finally, weakened the bole until it could no longer stand. The fall has brought significant change, a large gap in the canopy right over the pond. The East pond was always shaded, a bit anoxic and had a different life than the NW Pond. Now they are both sunlit and covered with light green algae producing oxygen. There is light on the forest floor around the pond when before there was shade.
I turned south along Hackberry Alley and walked past Tall Stump towards the patch of invasive oriental bittersweet vines that I knew I would find. I found this patch two years ago and had attacked it two or three times with loppers and pulling up roots where I could. But I knew it would regrow. There was still some solid growth of bittersweet up in a juniper snag but there were fewer new sprouts than I thought I would find. I removed a few more vines and 30 new sprouts and am optimistic that with another visit in a few weeks, I may have knocked it all back to a level where eradication is possible. The vine is a fast-growing ubiquitous threat to forests, once it really gets started.
Wandering south, to Beaver Dam I was not surprised to find it dry. There was no water flowing at Elm Bridge but a low pool remained just above there, with skimmer dragonflies touching their abdomens to the water, laying their eggs. The young may have a fresh flow of cool water with the forecast of rain tomorrow and for the next few days.
Walking north towards the Tree Loop I noticed the big pecan that fell years ago blocking the trail, has a handsome new fresh growth of polypore shelf fungi. The log is beginning to mature, decay and soften all over now. The west segment of the Tree Loop has similar changes, growth and death. # 42, a small redbud is dead; there was good crown growth of the once struggling pecan, and collapse of the old elm snag that had been leaning across the trail. By the old persimmon trees, there were some Indian Plums on the ground, ripe. I tried one and enjoyed the tannin-filled sweetness. The Northwest entrance by the NW Gate is a riot of weeds but I was pleased to see a few of the young, numbered, tree tutorial specimens, including a walnut, senselessly cut by line crew, had survived and were putting up tall healthy sprouts.
Returning via the North Loop a large Sugarberry had snapped off 25 feet up the trunk and dropped its bole across the trail. There were green healthy spouts from the top of the snag. It will regrow and survive. Island Crossing still had water in the upper pool, but there and everywhere else by water, I did not see the tracks of deer, raccoons, opossums, skunks, armadillos and others I expected. I wondered if the pack of coyotes I heard in the north Woods in the spring had taken up long term residence and might be suppressing the wildlife.
The trail had healthy overgrowth of yellow Helianthus sunflowers, blue flowering Elephantopus elephant's foot, and some other 'stick-tight' seed producers. A good number of spider webs across the trail, mostly Micrathena, will have been busy reducing the bug populations. I heard no mosquitoes (I applied DEET before setting now). Here and there, along the way there were branches down. A few rotten snags had dropped short logs across the trail. I did minimal clearing, wanting to let the area of the trail recover with normal under story growth, and roots to enrich the soil.
I was pleased to see the big old (leaning) cottonwood by the Carpenter steel post, standing tall and looking good; but coming to the East Pond there has been a big change. The middle-age, tall cottonwood (#142) that stood right on the N shoreline of the pond had broken and fallen directly across and now bridges the pond, right next to the water depth post. The break revealed the tall column of decay that had finally, weakened the bole until it could no longer stand. The fall has brought significant change, a large gap in the canopy right over the pond. The East pond was always shaded, a bit anoxic and had a different life than the NW Pond. Now they are both sunlit and covered with light green algae producing oxygen. There is light on the forest floor around the pond when before there was shade.
I turned south along Hackberry Alley and walked past Tall Stump towards the patch of invasive oriental bittersweet vines that I knew I would find. I found this patch two years ago and had attacked it two or three times with loppers and pulling up roots where I could. But I knew it would regrow. There was still some solid growth of bittersweet up in a juniper snag but there were fewer new sprouts than I thought I would find. I removed a few more vines and 30 new sprouts and am optimistic that with another visit in a few weeks, I may have knocked it all back to a level where eradication is possible. The vine is a fast-growing ubiquitous threat to forests, once it really gets started.
Wandering south, to Beaver Dam I was not surprised to find it dry. There was no water flowing at Elm Bridge but a low pool remained just above there, with skimmer dragonflies touching their abdomens to the water, laying their eggs. The young may have a fresh flow of cool water with the forecast of rain tomorrow and for the next few days.
Walking north towards the Tree Loop I noticed the big pecan that fell years ago blocking the trail, has a handsome new fresh growth of polypore shelf fungi. The log is beginning to mature, decay and soften all over now. The west segment of the Tree Loop has similar changes, growth and death. # 42, a small redbud is dead; there was good crown growth of the once struggling pecan, and collapse of the old elm snag that had been leaning across the trail. By the old persimmon trees, there were some Indian Plums on the ground, ripe. I tried one and enjoyed the tannin-filled sweetness. The Northwest entrance by the NW Gate is a riot of weeds but I was pleased to see a few of the young, numbered, tree tutorial specimens, including a walnut, senselessly cut by line crew, had survived and were putting up tall healthy sprouts.
Returning via the North Loop a large Sugarberry had snapped off 25 feet up the trunk and dropped its bole across the trail. There were green healthy spouts from the top of the snag. It will regrow and survive. Island Crossing still had water in the upper pool, but there and everywhere else by water, I did not see the tracks of deer, raccoons, opossums, skunks, armadillos and others I expected. I wondered if the pack of coyotes I heard in the north Woods in the spring had taken up long term residence and might be suppressing the wildlife.
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