Wetlands and tree coring

It was beautiful today, sun filtering though the canopy of the forest without the oppression of humidity.  We spent our afternoon exploring the forest in some new ways.  First, we learned the definition of a wetland, which is somewhat long winded so I won't get into that here.  Just know it has to do with hydrology, plant types and soil types.  We set up a spot to survey 10 meters in diameter and from there we found the 3 most plentiful species of tree, shrub and herbaceous cover.  Turned out that there were maple trees in all three categories 20 ft tall, three ft tall, and tiny baby saplings.  There were also a lot of high bush blueberries just coming into season.  These two examples of vegetation indicate a wetland.  However, there were some plants that didn't belong, white pines, witch hazel, etc.  This just showed us that the beaver pond had experienced some recent flooding and the forest was undergoing a successional change.

Then we learned how to use GPS equipment, it was way more complicated than the one that talks to me in my car but very interesting all the same.  And last of all we cored trees.  This was one skill I was excited to learn.  We screwed the corer into a soft hemlock and a hard maple and oak.  My muscles got a work out but after some effort we got our reward.  A thin extract of inner tree.  The rings were very defined not yet having dried out, we could get an accurate age count of the trees and even examine their growth cycles for signs of disruption due to climate change or other environmental factors.

We ended our day brainstorming project ideas, we will be starting next week so stay tuned for more....