Out to the Woods (NW Gate by Ponds) this evening at 7 after 83/100 inch life-giving rain today.. very gentle and slow for hours then more and heavier; so, little run-off.. the Woods and the surrounding land need so much more; but this is the start. Many trees did not survive the heat and drought of this summer. Now it is over.
Walking across the Woods the rich smells are of freshly fallen and wet leaves beginning to decay. At the Elm Bridge the Wash is flowing slowly but full.. no spillage across the levee. The curled drooping leaves of Symphoricarpos, Lonicera and green ash are extending themselves again. The leaf tissue is old but now has vital water it has lacked. Three deer leap and stop along the Northern Loop heading eastward. No water in the ponds but they are damp and will soon begin to refill. Thursday evening before the rains I took a second 4x4 cedar post to the Woods.. this one to the center of the East Pond. On posts in both the East and West Pond we now have staff water gauges (donation from Bob Nairn) attached so that changes in water depth can be measured. Each gauge has a range of 3 feet demarcated in tenths of a foot from zero at the pond bottom. As I departed the Woods Friday, Heather Ketchum's special forensic class was gathered at the NW Gate conducting a mock 'crime scene' investigation with dead bloated pigs and 6 crime scenes. She introduced me to Kent Buehler, forensic archaeologist at OU. I mentioned the grave like depression at the south end of the W Dune Trail in the SW corner of the Woods. He said he would have a look.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Walnuts and Dry Woods
Friday Sept 9, out to the Woods with Barbara F, OK State Survey coordinator and USDA to look for walnut thousand canker Geosmithia and walk the Woods. Found largish walnut tree at top of pipeline trail dead looking .. won't know for sure until spring. Barbara sampled other walnut green branches along the Trans OWP trail. We talked about setting some other monitoring traps and using the Lindgren traps. Found Ana T working on tree plots by SW quarter. Trees in the SW quarter (NW end of dune) are showing significant mortality and leaf drop. Hard time for many of the trees in the Woods. The natural world here is holding its breath, waiting for rain.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Marvelous Wonderful Day
Sunday the super hot weather of this long summer broke and today has been a delightful day..high temp 79F. I went to the Woods in the afternoon from the NE Gate. There was one deer in the upper NE forest area; two more deer west of the East Pond. Lot of work to do to clear a tree tutorial trail route.. maybe with Elizabeth N.
I refreshed orange, green and blue blazes across the Woods and marked 3 of Carpenter's steel rods with blue paint at top.
I drove around to the SW Gate and painted fresh blazes on the Main SW trail. I measured north from Carpenter's C10 stake 200 feet and did not find another rod. Another 200 feet north is the new-found, previously buried post C8. North 200 feet more in sedges is C7. West 200 feet is the fence line between trees #66 & #67. No Carpenter post visible in jumbled fallen junipers. Old Gate Carpenter post will be B7.
I refreshed orange, green and blue blazes across the Woods and marked 3 of Carpenter's steel rods with blue paint at top.
I drove around to the SW Gate and painted fresh blazes on the Main SW trail. I measured north from Carpenter's C10 stake 200 feet and did not find another rod. Another 200 feet north is the new-found, previously buried post C8. North 200 feet more in sedges is C7. West 200 feet is the fence line between trees #66 & #67. No Carpenter post visible in jumbled fallen junipers. Old Gate Carpenter post will be B7.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
The End is Near
Forecast predicts an abrupt end of super hot days tonight with passage of a northern front. Early 7:30 I met Elizabeth N and we entered the NE Gate; walked down to the Elm Bridge; across to Fence corner; south to H10; west to Dune Trail; up to Main South trail; west to SW Gate; back east to C10 and north to hit the Trans OWP; west to Ponds and east along Northern Loop to exit up Pipeline.
We saw one box turtle north of the West Pond. There were 4-5 older whitetail deer.. one doe 20 feet away watched us unconcernedly and then scratched its ear. There were 2-3 yearlings dashing away up in the NE Woods.
Pecans starting to come down. We passed a small pit fall trap at the base of big pecan snag west of Tall Stump.. and saw Anna's tree plot on the South Boundary trail with yellow flagging on each tree.
We saw understory hackberry and green ash dying at Barney Jct.
Elizabeth is interested in creating a tree tutorial trail in the Woods and we talked about how to identify each tree in a NE section of the Woods.
One yellow lab stray dog up with young yearling deer in NE Woods.
We saw one box turtle north of the West Pond. There were 4-5 older whitetail deer.. one doe 20 feet away watched us unconcernedly and then scratched its ear. There were 2-3 yearlings dashing away up in the NE Woods.
Pecans starting to come down. We passed a small pit fall trap at the base of big pecan snag west of Tall Stump.. and saw Anna's tree plot on the South Boundary trail with yellow flagging on each tree.
We saw understory hackberry and green ash dying at Barney Jct.
Elizabeth is interested in creating a tree tutorial trail in the Woods and we talked about how to identify each tree in a NE section of the Woods.
One yellow lab stray dog up with young yearling deer in NE Woods.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Hotter than !%$&#&^%$* (continued)
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)