Flash Back!

I finally developed some photos from my camping trip to Mt. Washington and it remined me of the beauty of the place. The first day, we got hit by a crazy hail storm, but that didn't stop us from hiking to Ripley Falls, which was overflowing from all the days rain. We also saw a female moose on the side of the road driving to the falls trailhead.

The next day, we got up early to hike the Mountain. It was an awesome hike. We hiked up the Amanoosuc trail to the Lake in the Clouds. We passed waterfalls, swimming holes, and a gorge along the way. Once we reached the alpine zone, we waited for about an hour debating whether we should summit or not due to the chance of thunderstorms and hail predicted for the afternoon. Just as we decided to keep climbing up the boulder and scree path, the fog rolled in very thickly. It was hard to see the next rock cairn. It was really exciting. We never did summit though, we decided to take the "safe" route and cross below the summit to the other side of the mountain where we met up with the Jewell trail to hike back down through the amazing alpine region - very hard on the knees, but an adventure all the same. The fog burned off and it turned into a beautiful day so I took some pictures of the mountain and the trail we had hiked. By the time we got back to the car, I felt like a hard core hiker. On the way back to the campground we saw a moose and her calf on the side of the road. A perfect end to a wonderful day.

One of my favorite places

This morning in class, we all wrote poems about our favorite places. When asked if we wanted to share our poems, I felt nervous and very reluctant. I started to understand how a student might feel about reading their poem in front of others. A poem is so personal that you are sharing a part of yourself with everyone who hears it. I didn't end up reading mine in front of my classmates, but I feel comfortable sharing it in a written form. So here is my poem. (Heather, do you recognize the place?)

Renewal

Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.

Each foot connects with earth for a

moment before pulling away again.

In through the nose.

Out through the mouth.

Mind, body, and spirit are refreshed

with each life giving breath. All negative

energy is forced out through exhalation.

Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.

Right on schedule. The cows look

up from their breakfast. We silently

greet each other.

In through the nose.
Out through the mouth.

The dilapidated barn stands still as
I move forward.

Splash. Splash. Splash.
Splash. Splash.

A wave of frogs leap into the safety
of the shallow water.

Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
Pat. Pat. Pat.

I feel freedom and release as the
earth slopes downward.

Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.

My feet no longer touch the earth.
Faster. Almost there. Just around
the next curve.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.

I've come full circle but am not the
same as when I began.

There was quite a bit of excitement after lunch. The claxton bells at the UNH campus started to sound and then a loud voice told everyone that there was a tornado warning, meaning one was SIGHTED in the area, and that everyone needs to get inside immediately. I walked outside of the library to get to the basement of one of the lecture halls. While outside, I looked left and saw the darkest cloud I've ever seen in my life. It scared me and my heart started to beat really fast. I hurried down into the basement and sat in the hallway away from all the windows. About half of my class was down there with me. We were supposed to be peer reviewing each others pedagogy papers, but it was hard to focus with the crazy weather going on outside. After about an hour, the claxton bells rang again and announced that the warning was over.

Wearing Waders

So I got to wear my new muck boots today as our last vegetation site is a puddle after heavy rains. I like this site because it was covered in moss, all types of ferns, grasses (which is unique to this site), and a huge blueberry bush that had a few ripe berries on it. Yum! If I hadn't of dosed myself in bugspray to keep the ticks away, I would have eaten those berries.

The sensitive fern was beautiful with raindrops beaded up on the fronds (see picture).

We finished our surveying in the field today, which means we will be inside on computers for much of the time remaining - yuck, I'd rather be outside. But, alas, the data must be analyzed so we can see if there are any differences or similarities between our sites. So far it has been quite hard to make charts with the data. I'm being introduced to Macs and Excel 2008 all at the same time and I feel like I know nothing again. Why do they have to change systems when everybody already knows how to use the old one! I was very tired at the end of the day. It took all my energy to figure out the computers.

Another day in the woods!

The mosquitos were horrid after the round of thunderstorms that travelled through New Hampshire this past weekend left puddles all over the forest floor, but no matter, we were out there surveying vegetation anyways. The place we went to today was beautiful. You can see for yourself from the photos. I put a few of the photos I took today on the other vegetation post. Ian found a metallic looking dragonfly hanging out on a hemlock sapling. I assume his wings were too wet to fly around, so he was taking cover until they could dry. I've included a picture, but it is not of the highest quality. We also heard a loud "thud" in the forest today. It most likely was a deer as we found scat nearby, but I can't help hoping that it was a moose as one was seen just days before on the farm (we were in the woods abutting the farm), or it could have been a chipmunk masquerading as an unidentified running brown animal - at least this time it wasn't running at us!

In other news, there is a tomato turning red on my monster of a tomato plant! It must be the all the rain. I was very excited to see the color change this weekend.

Getting our hands dirty!

This past week, my field study group started our work in the forest. To get to our study site, we park next to a field of wildflowers - black eyed susans, other asters, and Queen anne's lace. Then we walk 20 minutes on a winding dirt road passing all manner of animal tracks and scat along the way. I've seen moose prints, coyote scat, deer and turkey tracks, turkey feathers, wood frogs, and spring peepers, and lots of acrobatic chipmunks. We are studying vegetation along the border of Warren Farm and the Barrington Headwaters in NH. Half of the study site is made up of a recently logged forest and the other half is made up of a long ago logged forest. The difference in vegetation in these areas is evident immediately. Medium aged hemlocks and older pines dominate on the Warren land, while hardwoods, and softwoods are found in a diverse mix on the Barrington Headwaters side of the boundary line. Huge boulders are scattered all over the site, evidence of the distant past glacial activity.

Our group managed to collect data from 5 of the 9 plots we are studing, so only 4 more to go. I have found 4 ticks imbedded in me thus far, so I will start wearing bug spray as of today.

Our first vegetation plot!

My research group has a name! We are the Border Jumpers courtesy of Ian. That is a fitting name as we are studying vegetation on a boundary line of a farm and comparing the vegetation on either side of the boundary line. All day long we are crossing the border bewteen two properties. Today, we started our vegetation survey. I was happy that my group was willing to do the first plot together so that we could all experience each part of the data collection. We learned that it is really hard to tell a northern red oak from a black oak. We are still undecided as to what kind of oak is in our first plot. The rest of the data collection when pretty smoothly and I think we will be pros in no time at all.

The place we are at is unique and interesting. There is a moss covered wetland, a little bit swampy looking, but very green that is adjacent to our plots. The forest on the farm side of the boundary line looks like it has been logged a couple of times at least. The forest is almost a monoculture of eastern hemlock trees all around the same size. The larger trees and most of the hardwoods have been logged from this area and the small shade loving hemlocks have taken advantage of the wide open spaces and grown up and up incidentally shading out any hardwood saplings. It is on it's way to being a pure hemlock forest.
On the forest floor there are huge granite boulders all over the place, evidence of glacial movement through this area. There is also a recent skidder trail on which the logs were taken off the property. It has many herbaceous plants growing along it so it isn't too recent, but the plants are still very small so they haven't been growing there for too long either. I was amused by 3 little chipmunks that came very close to us as we were working on measuring our third plot. They were diving over and under each other like little acrobats. They were also sprinting towards us only to turn sharply just as they were about to run into us. It was fun to experience.

Rituals and Traditions

Today, we considered how tradition and ritual connect us to the earth and to one another.  I thought about my weekly walk to the library with my nephew.  He is three and recognizes all the little things that are new or have changed in the two blocks it takes us to walk to the library.  He points out the worms on the sidewalk and the new color of flower in bloom at the Greek Orthodox church.  We grab our binoculars to better see the birds that cross our path.  We say hi to each and every person we meet along the way and tell them what we have seen.  This walk helps connect my nephew and myself to the world around us.  We meet the people that live in our community and we find joy and sometimes sadness in the changes we observe and experience in our neighborhood along the way, natural or otherwise.  When we skip our weekly walk, I feel less connected with my neighborhood and my nephew.

Lost 

by David Wagner

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you

Are not lost. Wherever you are is called HERE.

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger.

The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,

I have made this place around you.

If you leave it, you may come back again,

Saying HERE.

No two trees are the same to Raven.

No two branches are the same to Wren.

If what a tree or a bush is lost on you,

You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows

Where you are. You must let it find you.

I wrote the following free flowing prose in response to hearing the poem, "Lost" by David Wagner.

  

The time is now.

Be present in this moment.

Slow down and breathe with the earth.

Be still and listen.

Become one with the world around you.

Project Craze

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas! They've been floating around the classroom all day. First, we brainstormed research project ideas and then narrowed the list down to a few. Second, we created characters for a debate where I was a fisherman trying to convince others that I should still be able to fish Bluefin tuna. Third, my research group decided what question we will research and how to collect information from our site. It was a fun day, but my brain is tired now.

I'm excited to start work on our project. I'm not sure what we will find out about our site tomorrow, but I'm convinced i'll enjoy the journey.

What a week!

My brain is being filled with so much great information, thoughts and questions. My eyes and body in general are very tired after all the outsite activity on the most humid days so far, but I'm really loving every minute of the summer institute.

Today, we were brainstorming ideas of questions that we have that we would like to attempt to answer on the Barrington Headwaters property. So many great questions came up that I think I will have the hardest time picking which one to study.

Here are a look at some of the things that I'm interested in the most:

1. What goes on in the daily life of a porcupine? What is it's range? Where does it wander? What does it eat? How much time does it spend in it's den?

2. Does the land use history of the area effect the diversity of invasive plant species. Has this effected the farm lands adjacent to the Tamposi area?

3. Are there any differences between the soil inside of the old homesites and outside of them? If so, is there a reason settlers chose these sites for their homes?

There are so many more interesting questions to be asked. It is very exciting!

I'll leave you with a quote I read that made me think.

"There is enough in the world for everybody's need, but not enough for anybody's greed."

-Mahatma Gandhi

If you want to check out the "foot print" your lifestyle has on the world, check out this website: http://ecofoot.org/

Tracking Wildlife

What a great morning! I used to think that I knew a lot about the forest and what lived in it. That all changed today when I went on a walk with a wildlife track and sign expert. In a forest within a hundred feet of the parking lot, we found an amazing number of signs.

I was most excited about finding a porcupine home in a large, old black gum (tupelo) tree. The scat at the base was in a huge pile and there were small quills littered around. There was a well used trail coming from the den that we followed for awhile to find out what it was eating. We came to a young stand of sassafras trees that had twigs cut off lying on the ground with nice big incisor marks where they were severed from the branch.

We also saw a young veery chick flushed out from its ground nest. When we came upon the nest there was still one blue egg in it. I could hear the mother veery calling to her young from a brushy spot close by the nest.

There were so many other signs that we saw that amazed me. We took a three hour walk in a small area and found sign of moose, deer, red squirrel, flying squirrel, gastropods (snails), scarab beetles, wood frog, spring peeper frog, garter snakes, scarlet tanager, the porcupine, and veery. It's amazing what one can find in a forest when they know what to look for or when you are walking with an expert!

My first day in Tamposi

What a treasure trove this place turned out to be! A perfect place to find evidence of past land use as well as viewing all types of wildlife in a few different ecosystems.

The first thing my group came across was an old stone foundation of a home site. Behind this foundation there was another one made out of chiseled stones with a pile of bricks to one side that I assumed was a fireplace. In the center of the foundation there was a grave stone that looked like it was moved from another place. On one side it read "Our Alice" and on the other side it read "Died on August 10, 1863." Alice was only 11 months old when she died and she was the daughter of Warren and Mary Cohte. We later learned that the trail we were walking on was an old range trail. People were encouraged to settle in the area and log it and put up sheep farms. 1863 was around the time that many people who settled this area moved on to greener pastures out west. There was a dead apple tree planted near the foundation and the roots of a lilac bush found on the side of the old house.

As I continued on with my group, we came to an abandoned beaver pond that had overflowed onto the range road. We found evidence of past beaver chews that had started to regrow out of the leftover stump. We also saw some bullfrogs and a milksnake using this unique habitat created by the beavers.

I enjoyed following the old stone walls that I suppose were made while walking the land with the sheep or tilling the soil for small gardens and used as property markers. It must have taken years to make them. I assume the settlers added rocks here or there as soil was eroded and stones were uncovered.

We came upon current human use on this land in the form of power lines. The area had been clear cut over and over again, so many herbaceous plants and grasses colonized this area. There was plenty of sunlight for them. I wanted to run back into the shade of the forest. The bears seemed to like the blueberries that grew there as evidenced by some scat that we found. There were many wildflowers in bloom in this place and it was more colorful than the forested area.

I was excited by the wildlife sightings. I was surprised to learn how interested I became about the land use history after seeing all the evidence of past human influence in this place. I look forward to learning more about reading the forested landscape from Tom Wessels' book. Just knowing a little bit about what might have happened in this forest has made me realize how many more questions I have about this interesting place.