This year I have not cleared sections of trails in the southwest corner of the Woods. Too much water backed up on most of the trails, then I was away when trails dried in late summer. This morning, with more rain expected before evening, I put on my water boots and went to see the SW trails.
There were many, many large elm branches down, blocking trails from the continuing decline of elms with Ophiostoma ulmi Dutch elm disease, and the flooding from Lloyd Noble parking lot run-off.
From the SW Gate I walked and lightly cleared the Main SW trail to the Beaver Dam; and up the West Trail adjacent to Chautauqua up to the NW Trail; the Two Friends Trail; and the Cutoff Trail up to East Pond.
Woody debris in this section of the Woods is unusually abundant. I wonder if the periodic flooding may be suppressing decay, rather than facilitating it. It will be interesting to see what species of trees takes over in this section: cottonwoods? willows? sycamore? Each of these would tolerate the flooding that is gradually removing the big bur oaks, green ash and elms.
I also continue to see odd new patches of green leaves just flushed in the past month on elms and other species scattered through the Woods. I'd like to know more about what is going on there, the physiology. Is it a 'mistake' for the tree, or a potential benefit, a means of getting a little more photosynthesis at the end of the growing season?
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Monday, October 28, 2019
Clearing blocked trails before the rain
I returned to the Woods late in the afternoon. Under gray cold skies, I walked to the big pecan watch tree, on the Levee Trail, and cut and cleared a heavy trunk and dead branches fallen across the trail. I noticed that some of the English ivy is beginning to return near the big cottonwoods. I need to continue to eradicate. On the northeast side of Island Crossing there are still Helianthus sunflowers with a few bright yellow petals brightening the dark green under story. Almost all the other flowers are gone for the season.
I circled back to the SW entrance and drove into the city transfer station. After help from James, I walked in via the small waterway draining the Woods and began clearing the broken canopy of a large green ash that was blocking the South Boundary trail.
I finished carving a tunnel in the branches and walked east along the south border to the southern end of the North South trail where the slow collapse of a large dead elm was partly blocking the flow from the Woods. With significant rain forecast for Tuesday I dragged away some of the larger branches and woody debris. I will revisit the Woods trail when the weather clears.
As I was leaving, heading up Chautauqua I found Sawyer injecting TGR into large elms along the west fence line. Working as a contractor for OGE he showed me the three trees he had treated. He thought that as they grew, they might threaten the lines. He mentioned he also planned to clear and treat more trees along the south border. I asked him to walk the line with me and show me what he planned. Recent previous clearing along the south border and the north border has not shown any awareness that the Woods was a special protected reserve with various research projects underway.
I circled back to the SW entrance and drove into the city transfer station. After help from James, I walked in via the small waterway draining the Woods and began clearing the broken canopy of a large green ash that was blocking the South Boundary trail.
I finished carving a tunnel in the branches and walked east along the south border to the southern end of the North South trail where the slow collapse of a large dead elm was partly blocking the flow from the Woods. With significant rain forecast for Tuesday I dragged away some of the larger branches and woody debris. I will revisit the Woods trail when the weather clears.
As I was leaving, heading up Chautauqua I found Sawyer injecting TGR into large elms along the west fence line. Working as a contractor for OGE he showed me the three trees he had treated. He thought that as they grew, they might threaten the lines. He mentioned he also planned to clear and treat more trees along the south border. I asked him to walk the line with me and show me what he planned. Recent previous clearing along the south border and the north border has not shown any awareness that the Woods was a special protected reserve with various research projects underway.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Bittersweet battle and potential new invasive.
Returned to the Woods this chilly Sunday morning to remove a couple of Amur honeysuckle on the Dune Trail and to clean up some more of the remaining bittersweet stems. Both projects were more extensive than I anticipated. I had spotted two invasive Amur honeysuckle Lonicera maackii, one filled with bright red berries. Cutting and treating the stumps was straightforward, but then I noticed more of the Amur honeysuckle in lower folilage. I had cut four or five there last year, and almost all had started to regrow. I cut and treated them again and then found another large Amur honeysuckle I had not noticed before, again loaded with berries. I cut and treated it and resolved to check this area again next year.
I hopped across the water at beaver dam and walked north to the patch of bittersweet. It appears things are improving. It is harder to find the bittersweet leaves now.. but then I crawled under a couple of old dead half-fallen junipers and there were dozens of sprouts. Many of these were from stems and roots I had broken off last year and they had grown back. Many of them. Not easy to get to in the tangle of vines and tough branches under the juniper. I dug and pulled to get up as much of the roots as possible.. but I am not sure if it is better to leave those in place so that, when treating, the treatment is carried through the root. Worked a few hours on this and was pretty tired, but thought I had done well. Then looked up in the tall pecan leaning over the dead juniper. There, and in an adjacent live juniper, there were large bittersweet vines ascending to the canopy. I dug, pulled, cut and treated as best I could. These were the two largest bittersweet vines alive in the patch this summer. I know I will need to return to his spot - maybe in a couple of weeks and certainly next year.
In the afternoon I decided to go with the warm 72 F weather while it was here and do some re-marking of trails with blue tree paint. Got much of this done. Found one white-tail deer in the SW section and one armadillo in the central east near the big old pecans and near the wash.. both in the morning.
The water on the Main SW trail was receding well.. probably because it had been dry for so long. But strong cold front is due to arrive tonight with more rain on Tuesday. Sure enough, at 4:20 there was a sudden shift in the light southerly breeze. It became a cooler northwest wind and began a rain of falling leaves. Busy full day. I headed out back across the beaver dam and saw a half dozen roseate skimmer dragonflies Orthemis ferruginea, beautiful red libelluid skimmers. Active patrolling territories. Hope they and their next generation stick around to keep the mosquitoes down.
Spotted one more invasive I'm afraid.. Berberis.. one on the Tree Loop (near Pipeline Trl jct) and one elsewhere. I need to confirm identity and then go after it.
I hopped across the water at beaver dam and walked north to the patch of bittersweet. It appears things are improving. It is harder to find the bittersweet leaves now.. but then I crawled under a couple of old dead half-fallen junipers and there were dozens of sprouts. Many of these were from stems and roots I had broken off last year and they had grown back. Many of them. Not easy to get to in the tangle of vines and tough branches under the juniper. I dug and pulled to get up as much of the roots as possible.. but I am not sure if it is better to leave those in place so that, when treating, the treatment is carried through the root. Worked a few hours on this and was pretty tired, but thought I had done well. Then looked up in the tall pecan leaning over the dead juniper. There, and in an adjacent live juniper, there were large bittersweet vines ascending to the canopy. I dug, pulled, cut and treated as best I could. These were the two largest bittersweet vines alive in the patch this summer. I know I will need to return to his spot - maybe in a couple of weeks and certainly next year.
In the afternoon I decided to go with the warm 72 F weather while it was here and do some re-marking of trails with blue tree paint. Got much of this done. Found one white-tail deer in the SW section and one armadillo in the central east near the big old pecans and near the wash.. both in the morning.
The water on the Main SW trail was receding well.. probably because it had been dry for so long. But strong cold front is due to arrive tonight with more rain on Tuesday. Sure enough, at 4:20 there was a sudden shift in the light southerly breeze. It became a cooler northwest wind and began a rain of falling leaves. Busy full day. I headed out back across the beaver dam and saw a half dozen roseate skimmer dragonflies Orthemis ferruginea, beautiful red libelluid skimmers. Active patrolling territories. Hope they and their next generation stick around to keep the mosquitoes down.
Spotted one more invasive I'm afraid.. Berberis.. one on the Tree Loop (near Pipeline Trl jct) and one elsewhere. I need to confirm identity and then go after it.
Saturday, October 26, 2019
The long warm/ hot late summer drought of the past 9 weeks, August into late October, was decisively ended by the last three days of near continuous rain, four and a half inches, a gentle, long soaking. Forecast has moved from highs skirting low 80's to near freezing lows in a matter of days. Good time to return to the Woods with no fear of ticks. Saturday morning at 10:30 I entered via the NW entrance and the NW Pond. I brought a saw to clear a dozen or more trees fallen across trails during the summer and autumn months. The Woods felt and looked like they had been abandoned for the summer, left to the wildlife and the trees. Good. Lots of things to see. This morning the place was full of life. At the NW Pond the water was up to 2.55 ft, almost, but not quite to the highest stepping stone. In the sedges along the sunny northern edge, the water roiled with basking Gambusia mosquito fish. Good to have them reducing chance of mosquito survival.. but it also means they are eating all the larvae of the 'good' species, dragonflies and such. The East Pond was up to 2.12 feet in depth and continues to look very different now with full sun. The big cottonwood that fell across the pond is not giving up. From its roots there were three or four patches of vigorous growth, green sprouts and new leaves, a few inches tall and grazed by deer. Maybe the roots will survive to build a new main stem.
The northern entrance to the Tree Loop is beginning to recover from the over-zealous line crew clearing the 'right of way' too far into the Woods, cutting tagged, numbered trees, data from previous class studies. The walnut cut down to 1 m height has regenerated 5 or 6 stems and will survive. The same for a nearby honey locust. The stem-wounded Mexican hickory had a good crown this summer and will survive, although the healing wound may be the entry point of fungal stem rot pathogens that cause its demise, years from now. The slope down to the big, decapitated cottonwood is now a riot of chest-high, weeds that will help hold and heal the soil until shrubs and trees can regrow. Standing in the tall weeds, a loud buzzing heavy insect flew to my field cap and orange Stihl ear protectors for an instant, then landed 10 feet away on the bank. I picked up the handsome cordovan Cebrionid Scaptolenus rain beetle. Admired it for being out conducting its affairs (looking for mates?) on the cool wet morning after the days of rain and set it back on the ground, where it landed. A moment later a 'sleepy orange' Abaeis small butterfly landed near the beetle, its wings were a deep rich orange.
Down by the Elm Bridge crossing, the water was too deep to cross, so I walked a bit downstream and jumped across some islands of gravel and accumulated woody debris. Upstream, Island Crossing was possible to jump too.
On the south side of the Woods there was a pretty, 2 foot long garter snake, basking in warm sunlight near the Two Friends. I rarely ever see snakes in the Woods, average < once per year. The old cottonwood of the Two Friends is disintegrating progressively. Much of the bole is decaying back to soil. All through the Woods, elms that have succumbed to the elm disease, with the rain, have sprouted abundant big floppy growths of brownish-blonde flaccid fungi.
On the Tree Loop, there are still tasty Mexican plums on the forest floor, north of the old persimmon trees. There is also a bumper crop of new walnuts on the ground by the oldest Albizia mimosa tree I cut 3 or 4 years ago. Green pecan nuts are falling too. Many have been harvested and dropped by squirrels.
I was glad to see a couple of frogs hopping about in the Woods far from the ponds. There are small pools of rain water, bathtub-sized that would be good for them to colonize, scattered through the Woods.
No deer, no flocks of robins, and no sign of other large quadrupeds, apart from one pile of scat on fallen log, filled with the 'berries' of Celtis sugarberry.
I was happy to be able to walk up the Main SW trail a couple hundred yards, up just past the fallen, hanging elm. The flood water filled the trail from that point north and eastward.
The old, weathered leafy crowns of the green ash stand and the big cottonwoods, sugarberries and elms have lost maybe 70% of their leaves. The nut trees, oaks and pecans, still hold almost all of their leaves. The Parthenocissus Virginia creeper vine leaves are beautiful wine-red up the trees. The few poison ivy vine leaves are golden yellow. Along the western fence line small-flowered purple asters still bloom.
I re-visited the patch of invasive Bittersweet and was not surprised to find a few more green leafy stems, surviving my eradication effort. More work for tomorrow.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Bittersweet attack
Monday morning quick follow up to my Sept 18 attack, three weeks hence, on patch of invasive oriental bittersweet in the Woods. I walked from the NW entrance past the two ponds.. both still with reasonable water levels for autumn. Its been dry. Several robins on the south side of the NW Pond.
There are now two different blockages of trail that will require chain saw to open, one by invasive Nandina corner, one by big cottonwood in Big Tree Grove (also NE corner by west end of Pipeline).
Fair number of spider webs but no spiders observed on webs. Flowers have almost all gone to seed except white Verbesina virginica Frostweed.
Small group of four white-tail deer moving south from Big Tree Grove; maybe two yearlings. Soon there will be more deer in the Woods, when hunting season begins.
The bittersweet patch has lost most of its big vines climbing up to the canopy and I was glad to see the area nearest the trail seemed to now be clear of them where I had cut and treated. But back in the thicker thicket under branches of leaning dead juniper there were many small resprouts I had cut, but not treated earlier in the year. Today I cut and treated for another hour. Hope in a few weeks it will be mostly gone, although I know some will remain. Eradication takes persistence.
There are now two different blockages of trail that will require chain saw to open, one by invasive Nandina corner, one by big cottonwood in Big Tree Grove (also NE corner by west end of Pipeline).
Fair number of spider webs but no spiders observed on webs. Flowers have almost all gone to seed except white Verbesina virginica Frostweed.
Small group of four white-tail deer moving south from Big Tree Grove; maybe two yearlings. Soon there will be more deer in the Woods, when hunting season begins.
The bittersweet patch has lost most of its big vines climbing up to the canopy and I was glad to see the area nearest the trail seemed to now be clear of them where I had cut and treated. But back in the thicker thicket under branches of leaning dead juniper there were many small resprouts I had cut, but not treated earlier in the year. Today I cut and treated for another hour. Hope in a few weeks it will be mostly gone, although I know some will remain. Eradication takes persistence.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Old leaves and tools for the season
[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.
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.
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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