In the swing of things

Sorry its been a few days, we were officially released from our duties of keeping our daily blog once we have started working on our wikispace, but we've had some cool developments, so I wanted to take a minute and post them here. Plus give you the link to our wikispace: http://blackgumtree.wikispaces.com/ The last few days have been quite an adventure. We returned on Monday to our plot and we were all feeling a bit uncomfortable with all the mosquitos, so we took care of the day's tasks and high tailed it out of there. When we got back to campus we were anxious to look at the pictures from the wildlife cameras from the weekend. Guess what we found:

Thats right! A black bear wandered right through our site!!! Crazy!
We also got a picture of a deer (that I don't have on my computer, but go to the wikispace it's there).  The last few days we have found a bunch of evidence of other animals as well, obviously the porcupine scat but we found some quills today and there is also a hole in one of the trees from a wood pecker. As well as midden piles from a red squirrel. We are moving right a long with things, today we took DBH of an adjacent site that has much younger trees so we could compare it with our site.  We also set out a flour and paper device to try to capture some tracks. The next few days are going to be SUPER busy with our philosophy statements due and wrapping up the projects.  Goal will just to be to get enough sleep and try to stay sane through these next 8 days.

Stumps and a 500 year old tree

Today was an exciting day because we really started to do our research in the field. But first we had Sam's reading facilitation, all about stumps. (Which was very fitting because as we will start to look at signs of human interaction with our site, stumps will provide lots of clues for us).  

We started with a great worksheet where we matched descriptions with drawing of various types of stumps.  Even though they were very basic sketches, I actually found it very useful to practice counting the rings.  After, we went outside to do an interpretive/dramatic theater lesson to practice the parts of a tree (bark, phloem, cambium, xylem, heartwood and roots). Well, we started too, but then it quickly became apparent that there was a need for a refresher about the parts of the tree. I thought Sam handled it very well since we pretty much stopped her whole facilitation to have a discussion and lesson on the parts of the tree.  Good for her to be so flexible and to just go with it. It was also a good reminder (similar to the carbon lesson) that it is very important to check with your students regarding background knowledge and to make sure to fill in the gaps when necessary.  

After some fine tuning of our procedure, we headed out to the field.  We broke into two groups once we got to the site (about 300x easier to find today!).  Sam and Kim worked to set up the wildlife cameras and bait them using cat food.

Meanwhile Betsy and I did Diameter at Breast Height measurements in our 150m2 plot (very similar to the activity we did on the first day of the program).  We will be analyzing this data next week but some things to note:

• There is a TON of high bush blueberry (an early successional species), probably about 60% of our plot is filled with it
• There are a lot of stumps mostly covered over by moss and some with new trees growing out of them indicating that the area as heavily logged

Not the best picture but a good example of stump sprouting

Moss covered stump

• We located another black gum tree in our plot though it is not nearly as large

The second black gum tree in our plot

• And perhaps the most exciting, after measuring the DBH of the big black gum and comparing it to data from an experiment conducted on black gums in New England, our tree might be 500 years old!!! 


• One of our big questions is why would that tree have been spared when the rest of the area was so heavily logged and based on some of the research we did we found that black gums don't make very good lumber so that is a big possibility as to why it wasn't cut down with the rest of the area. 

Can't wait until Monday when we go collect the cameras and see if we captured any wildlife in our plot! Hoping for some great pictures of the porcupine. 

Seeds and an adventure

This morning we had time to finalize our plans for our projects. We solidified exactly what studies we would do and wrote up a detailed timeline of what we would accomplish each day.  I think that things are looking good as far as our plan, we have a lot of elements but each one shouldn't be too time intensive.

 We also had Lara's reading facilitation that focused on experiential learning. She did a very similar activity to one that I have done on Thompson Island. We started by observing and sketching lima beans and a corn kernels that had been germinated for various amounts of time.

Then we looked at a wide variety of seeds to learn about how diverse the types of seeds are (floaters such as dandelions, fleshy fruits, and sticky pods to name a few).

The third task was to go outside and try to find some seeds on our own. Everyone was amazed by the variety and amount of seeds located right outside our classroom.  It was a very well thought out and planned activity. There was a lot of time for student exploration and questioning. Overall it was a great example of an experiential lesson.

In the afternoon we hiked out to our site to try to locate the black gum. Dan had given us the coordinates but we were still unsure.  We ended up bushwacking our way through the woods for almost 45 minutes before we came to it! I was proud of our group though for sticking to it even though we were hot, it was buggy, we were getting scratched up by brush and we had very little clues to go off of. The way we all kept our cool and worked together hopefully indicates that we will be a good group together.  From an educator standpoint, talk about an authentic experience in experiential education.  We assigned a leader (person who had the GPS (me early on and then Kim)), we communicated to check where everyone was if we were hidden by brush and we worked together to hold aside branches and decide where to go next.  At our site we made our 150m2 plot that we will use to measure trees and check for activity. It went smoothly except this site ha a lot more small bushes than our site in college woods had which made getting the tape measure straight a challenge. After a little finagling we got it to work out.
Tomorrow we will be setting our our critter cams and doing the first of our assessments.

A little friend that helped boost our spirits during our adventure

What can we learn from Indigenous cultures?

This morning we had Laura's reading facilitation that discussed Indigenous education, rituals and its similarities and differences with modern education. Through Venn Diagrams we talked about how Indigenous education focuses on life skills compared to modern education, which at times can seem to be filled with arbitrary and objective facts.  Indigenous cultures and rituals use storytelling to connect to children and help them to retain the lessons. We also got to do something that I haven't done in a very long time: paint with watercolors! Laura read us a poem and we then had time to paint a picture about the poem. It was so relaxing and a great way to incorporate art into the classroom.
Last night we went to a presentation at the Portsmouth Public Library by Mark Morey titled Nature, Culture & Building Resilient Communities. And wouldn't you know it, he talked about Indigenous cultures and rituals, specifically the use of storytelling to engage students and the use of adolescent initiation rituals. It was a great presentation where he talked a lot about what it means to be resilient and how environmental education can help our children to become more resilient. By given our children the opportunity to be in somewhat uncomfortable situations (being cold, in the dark, hungary, dealing with bugs), they learn how to deal with these stresses and will help them when they find themselves in other situations of stress they are able to draw on these experiences and rather than panic they are able to stay calm and find a solution. It was inspiring to hear about his daughter who climbs trees, runs around with no shoes and thinks nothing of heading out in the dark in search of woodcocks. If we raised more children to have such a close connection to nature and such a deep sense of self, how different would our world look?

Jumping back to yesterday afternoon, we finally decided on our projects.  I will be in a group of Kim, Sam, Betsy and I and will be investigating the community of organisms that surround the black gum tree (remember from the tracking day) Here's a picture to jog your memory:

We will be setting up wildlife cameras, searching for animal tracks/scat/midden piles, and collecting data on the trees surrounding the black gum tree. We are also going to do some research into black gums to try to establish how it got there (it was the only black gum that we saw in the area) and why it was spared when the area has been extensively logged.  As we look for signs of human interaction, we may find our answer.

Invasive Plants

This morning we met up with UNH Natural Resources professor and Forest Ecologist, Dr. Tom Lee to learn about invasive plants.  We started by defining some terms that are often thrown around and used inappropriately:
Native Plant: Plant has been growing in New Hampshire prior to 1600 (before the bulk of European settlers arrived
Non-Native Plant: Plant was brought by people to the area (weather intentional or not). This often includes crossing major geographic barriers such as oceans or mountain ranges.
Invasive Plant: A Non-native plant that moves into native communities and may displace native organisms.  Invasive plants have ecological and economic impact.

It's a common misconception that all non-native plants are bad. In fact many don't spread or try to take over areas and many, such as wheat and many decorative plants are very beneficial. The jury, however is still out when it comes to invasive plants and what the best method of treating them is.

Multiflora rose is an invasive species that has a lot of controversy surrounding it. On the one hand its big boughs shade other plants, eventually out competing them. On the other, multiflora rose provides great shaded thickets, attracts pollinators and its sharp thorns protect small animals from predators, including the cotton tail rabbit which is endangered. 

multiflora rose

Burning bush was a common lawn decoration due to its bright red foliage in the fall, however this invasive plant spreads easily and shades out other plants. It is also difficult to remove because when cut down, the roots will simply send up new shoots. Sale of burning bush is now banned in New Hampshire; instead nurseries are now promoting decorative native plants.

burning bush

Compare these two leaves:

Which is the norway maple and which is the sugar maple?

The one that appears on the Canadian Flag (right) is the sugar maple leaf, the other is the Norway maple, an invasive tree that was often used for landscaping as they make great shade trees. However, being more shade tolerant than sugar maples, they are out pacing sugar maples. The problem is sugar maples are preferred due to their higher quality sap for maple syrup production, higher quality wood and brighter fall foliage. The Norway maple is an example of the economic impact that invasive plants can have. 


Dr. Lee also taught us the three main theories behind why invasive plants tend to be far more aggressive in a non-native region compared to their native region.
1) Natural resistance hypothesis: plants in their native land have developed methods to protect themselves from the plant. Eg. garlic mustard plant secretes toxins that kills the symbiotic fungi of neighboring plants in its non-native areas, does not affect plants in its native area.
2) Enemy release hypothesis: similar to invasive animals, the plant does not have the same predators that it had in its native land ( insects, disease, etc.)
3) Disturbance hypothesis: Disturbed habitats are more likely to be taken over by invasives. (When we were at Warren Farm, Randy pointed out the autumn olive which is invasive in some of the areas that he had cleared.)

There is still a lot for ecologists to learn about invasive plants, including preventing them, how best to control them, why they spread so rapidly and the impacts to the area.

After our time with Dr. Lee we went back to the classroom to participate in Kim's reading facilitation that compared the visible effects of forest fires vs. overgrazing.

It was great to review and make a clear list of the indicators of these past disturbances.


The last portion of the class was spent doing extensive brainstorming on the topics for our projects.  While it could have been a chaos of ideas, Lara stepped us through a process of first brainstorming on our own, then writing our ideas up on the board, then working together to combine and refine our ideas. I think I am leaning towards a project that would study an artificial pond created by a beaver dam where we would be looking at the characteristics of the pond (water temp, pH, DO levels) and the types of plants and animals living in the pond. I think my second choice would be studying the plant and animal species in areas where there has been significant disturbance such as the area where power lines cut across a meadow.

It's crazy to think how we will write our proposals for the project tomorrow, have six full days in the field, three days to prepare our presentations, present and that will be the end of the program.

Warren Farm

Week one done! I can't believe I am already 1/4 of the way through the summer institute. Today, we visited Warren Farm www.warrenfarmnh.com in Barrington. The property abuts the BHW and is owned by Randy and his wife, Heather Warren. Randy's father passed along the 244 acre property to his son and Randy and his wife have been growing berries, various veggies and Christmas trees to sell to the local community ever since. The back of the property has extensive woods (eventually connecting to the BHW) that allows the family to supplement their income by splitting and selling firewood.

The property itself has an interesting history that dates back to a time where the locals felt it necessary to build a garrison to protect themselves from the Natives (even though relations with nearby tribes were fairly cordial). In 1769, a man named Pelatirah Danniells built the house on what is today the Warren property. Like many of the area's first settlers, he used the property for sheep pasture. The wool market was booming in New England and there were many mills located in Barrington to process wool. In 1875, the barn was built using the roof from the garrison across the street which had fallen into disrepair. After the Civil War, cotton from the south flooded the market and the wool trade crashed. The mills in Barrington closed and homes were abandoned. Danniells left and aside from a brief inhabitance by a logger, the next owner was a family from Dover who used it as a vacation home. The wife however, never liked the rural setting and when her husband passed away, let the property become overgrown until Randy's father arrived in New Hampshire. A new professor at University of New Hampshire (then almost exclusively an agricultural and mechanical school), he brought his family from Ithaca, NY, purchased the land and began farming it.
 At one point, the state tried to take the Warren farm area, which eventually lead Warren to have the land protected as conservation land, never to be subdivided or developed.

 As somewhat of a side project and the belief that it is the right thing to do, Randy Warren has taken a portion of the land and converted it into a bird and wildlife sanctuary. He told us how most of New Hampshire is made up of "forest, grass and pavement (including houses/buildings)" and that the environment in between forest and grass is missing. This habitat characterized by low shrubs, tall grasses and small deciduous trees is an important home for birds, rabbits and other small animals. Since he began clearing out large sections of woods (something that to many seems like the opposite thing to be doing when trying to "protect" an area) and allowing nature to follow its successional course, he has seen an increasing number of rare birds and other endangered species that have taken up residence at his farm permanently or during their migrations.

This is after a couple of years of regrowth after clearing the land. While it looks "messy" this area provides great habitat for all sorts of animals

This area was just knocked down this year, this summer and fall they will be selectively removing some of the wood while allowing the rest to decompose.

To help speed the process along, he will also be planting blueberry bushes which are one of the key species found in early successional areas. 

After a visit to the farm stand to buy sugar snap peas, blueberries, hand made soaps, maple syrup and pictures from a local photographer of wildlife seen on the property, we thanked Randy and Heather headed back to campus.

The afternoon was spent first with Betsy's reading facilitation, which conveniently was about local and sustainable food sources. We played a "guess the seasonal fruit or vegetable game" and then worked on a webquest that had us finding the regulations and process for a food to be USDA certified organic (which over the last couple of days I have learned has a lot more sides to it than meets the eye) and then looked up local farms.
After, we were shown how to use an excel based program that could calculate the biomass and carbon storage abilities of a plot of land. We used our data that we collected on Monday to calculate and make graphs.

For our 150 meter squared plot:

Plot Biomass (g/plot)			3,640,856
Plot Carbon Storage (g C/plot)			1,820,428
Biomass (g/m2)			24,262
Carbon (g C/m2)			12,131

Remember that DBH stands for Diameter at Breast Height. You can see that even though most of our trees were hemlock (orange triangle), most of our biomass (and carbon storage) came from the maple and oak category (which also includes beech trees) since they were older and much larger. It's interesting to note that our 1 mixed hardwood (the Basswood tree), had the second largest biomass, that was a BIG tree!

Well, week one closed, time to catch up on some sleep, complete some readings, relax and get ready for next week when we will begin our projects. One final picture:

Daisy, the adorable and apparently very resilient 2 year old who followed us all around the property.

Summer Camp or Graduate School?

Day three of the Summer Institute was probably the best so far. We met at the BHW with Dan Gardoqui, the founder and director of White Pine Programs www.whitepineprograms.org. It's no wonder he runs many successful youth and adult programs as he is both engaging and knowledgeable. The very first thing he had us do was something that is pretty much against anything I've ever been taught hiking and camping...go off trail. We set off east into the woods bushwacking our way through the landscape, climbing over fallen logs and tromping through (luckily mostly dry) wetlands. On the way we found some very exciting things.

Midden Pile: Pile of left over materials from an animal eating. Note the pieces of pine cone left over and in the lower left hand the stem of what was the inside of a pine cone.

This is a tupelo black gum tree with a large pile of porcupine scat at the base.

This image shows the porcupine claw marks as it climbs to the top of the tree to feed on the thinner bark up high. For the record, its a myth that porcupines can shoot their quills.

This scat pile at the base of a white pine tree is from a flying squirrel. First, carpenter ants colonize the tree (did you know they are edible?), then the pileated woodpecker pecks holes into the tree to get at the carpenter ants. After, the hole provides a perfect habitat for a squirrel. 

Bark scraped off by a deer that was incisor feeding. 

These holes drilled by the yellow bellied sap sucker form a ring that circles the trunk. The work of the sap sucker is also beneficial to hummingbirds during their migration since nectar is often scarce at that time.

and finally some more scat...because who doesn't like looking at poop? This is from a raccoon (located at the base of a large tree near a wetland)

        After our hike we returned to campus where I gave a  presentation to the class. For homework we had read two articles dealing with how environmental education is left out of most children's schooling. It was my job to come up with activities and discussions to reinforce the material and teach it as if it was a 45 minute class. First, I led an activity where students sat outside with a ring of string placed on the grass and they recorded what they saw on the grass over a 5 minute period. We then discussed how this activity could be used across many different curriculums. I thought the discussion went well and I got good suggestions for the future such as being sure to designate boundaries for where students can go and also to be sure not to restrict students choice of where they could place their circle.
After, I had the students work on posters that got them to think deeper about statements that were made in the article. Though I felt like I stumbled over the right wording for some of my questions, the students had a good discussion. I finished by having the students work on a writing prompt that brought together some of the themes. Overall, I thought it went well and it felt good to be up in front of a class again.

We wrapped up the day with some review of Carbon and it's impact on the earth. It was surprising to see the range of background knowledge that people come in with. It was a good refresher.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with Randy Warren, a property owner and farmer near the the BHW. He is going to share some of the history of the land.  From the bits and pieces we have gathered so far (the area was used for logging for some time and the old homestead), I think tomorrow should be really interesting.