The field season is in high gear and we are approaching the Thanksgiving Day week-end. October and November were kind with mild weather and warm days. The surprise of the season was a damaging snowstorm which hit areas north and west of the city very hard but left Queens County and the wetland preserve relatively untouched.
On one of our major field days there was an NRG planting crew putting in maybe a thousand small potted plants and shrubs on the newly restored areas near the boardwalk. This is obviously part of the overall restoration contract and includes a selection of conservation plantings, both trees and shrubs that will add greatly to the plant diversity. With a fully outfitted work crew, a professional planting plan and a tremendous number of container shrubs and trees this day probably costs at least several thousand dollars. This is a wonderful finish to the boardwalk restoration project and should show some excellent results next spring.
In a similar but much less costly fashion my students have been accomplishing their own planting plans. In our travels we located a couple of mature Walnut trees ripe with large husk covered nuts. They varied in size from lemons to small oranges and they were so abundant that we collected a couple of bags. Along the trail, we punched planting holes at 50 to 100 foot intervals just deep enough into the trailside brush that saplings would avoid the seasonal mower. I know that not all of them will make it but I am quite sure that some of them will. As we walked and planted and walked some more I asked the group what they thought these future trees might be like 30 or 40 years from now? Someday, when these “20 somethings” turn “60 something” and they take their grandchildren for a little walk in the preserve I’m willing to bet that those yet unnamed children will discover a wealth of walnuts and families of eastern grey squirrels that love the nuts as much as I do.
On another day walking through another section of the park I came across a particularly attractive flower covered in butterflies and bees. I recognized it as a flower I had seen on the campus at St. Johns and found out that it was the Purple Coneflower. Although it was in full flower in October (and still has late bloomers even this week) the plants on campus had already completed their full cycle and offered up their enlarged seed heads. Planted along with the coneflowers were equally attractive stands of Black-eyed Susans with their smaller, denser and tighter seed heads. It only took a couple of willing student volunteers 20 minutes or so to ‘dead-head’ (isn’t that a great word!) the stalks and to brown bag their collection. These came out to the preserve at the next opportunity and found their way into the trailsides and side brush where they will bloom next summer.
Finally, while walking through a newly restored area of a nearby park I discovered a couple of great stands of tall, wispy, seed-ladened grasses – Perennial Ryegrass and Switchgrass. These grasses are famous for their excellent wildlife and conservation values. They produce ‘free’ bird seed and produce a root system that holds and enriches soils. I was happy to collect a couple of small bags of seeds and gave them to the students to spread their wealth into the preserve.
Native grasses, flowers, trees and shrubs are all around us. Sometimes they are less common than they use to be but that makes them all the more important. They are still an important part of the landscape. This seasonal planting activity didn’t cost thousands of dollars. It didn’t cost ANY dollars! All it cost was a little bit of time and energy and attention to what is all around us.
Actually handling plants, collecting seeds, putting them into the ground is such a human activity. It is delicate, creative, peaceful and thoughtful. Next growing season is going to be exciting seeing if these no-cost collecting efforts begin to pay real dividends
Monday, November 21, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Field Work Season Fall 2011
The field work season is in full swing and I haven’t taken enough time to get all of this recorded. No excuses. I should be doing this regularly but so much is happening that it is sometimes hard to take time to record it completely. Last post was near the start of the term on Sept. 5 so maybe I should try to put this in some sort of chronological order.
Since the last post my colleagues and I organized and completed a major orientation day on Sept. 24 in conjunction with National Estuary Day at the center. We had almost 70 of the first year students attending and getting their first taste of the site. I had the assistance of three other STJ professors and we had a great turnout on a fabulous weather day.
One week later October 2 the board hosted a ribbon cutting on the new boardwalk –“Brunch on the Boardwalk” and we had a wonderful turnout of political leaders, friends, family and the general public. I led a short walk along the boardwalk heading to Alley Creek and when we made it to the end, on a wind-swept and crystal clear day, there were the egrets to greet us as if to say good-bye before they make their long journey to the south. It seems so natural that this board walk is so popular with both families and with wildlife.
(Pictures of the event are in another location and may be posted later)
That set the stage for a follow-up orientation at the University the next week where I turned some of our field photos and “before and after” photos into a classroom orientation to the field site. I don’t know if it is possible to post the entire product here because it is a large file but I’ll give it a try and see if it works. (File also located in another location and may be posted at later date).
Then there are the senior students. I have a wonderful group of senior leaders who wanted to implement some of their own projects and plans in the preserve. I organized them into a small “band of 5”. They all work on their own schedule but when they are at the site they provide the on-site supervision to beginning student as well as work on some of their own activities. I’d like to write more about each of them and what they are doing, but as a group they are GREAT; I couldn’t be more pleased with their work.
This brings us to today.-November 1. This is an official school holiday -All Saints Day- and since there are no classes it became the day that most of the AS-L students this year selected to do some of their field work. These students are from my own classes and from other classes all with the common interest of working in the outdoors on natural resource and park projects. We had two sessions across the day, one from 9 to 12 and another from 1 to 4, dividing the work accordingly. In the morning we worked close in and accomplished a great deal of planting and seeding near the boardwalk and in the afternoon we took the long trail (wet, muddy and messy to say the least) and did two tasks that had been neglected for far too long. Pictures from today may be a better way to show what we did but I am very please with the results.
Since the last post my colleagues and I organized and completed a major orientation day on Sept. 24 in conjunction with National Estuary Day at the center. We had almost 70 of the first year students attending and getting their first taste of the site. I had the assistance of three other STJ professors and we had a great turnout on a fabulous weather day.
One week later October 2 the board hosted a ribbon cutting on the new boardwalk –“Brunch on the Boardwalk” and we had a wonderful turnout of political leaders, friends, family and the general public. I led a short walk along the boardwalk heading to Alley Creek and when we made it to the end, on a wind-swept and crystal clear day, there were the egrets to greet us as if to say good-bye before they make their long journey to the south. It seems so natural that this board walk is so popular with both families and with wildlife.
(Pictures of the event are in another location and may be posted later)
That set the stage for a follow-up orientation at the University the next week where I turned some of our field photos and “before and after” photos into a classroom orientation to the field site. I don’t know if it is possible to post the entire product here because it is a large file but I’ll give it a try and see if it works. (File also located in another location and may be posted at later date).
Then there are the senior students. I have a wonderful group of senior leaders who wanted to implement some of their own projects and plans in the preserve. I organized them into a small “band of 5”. They all work on their own schedule but when they are at the site they provide the on-site supervision to beginning student as well as work on some of their own activities. I’d like to write more about each of them and what they are doing, but as a group they are GREAT; I couldn’t be more pleased with their work.
This brings us to today.-November 1. This is an official school holiday -All Saints Day- and since there are no classes it became the day that most of the AS-L students this year selected to do some of their field work. These students are from my own classes and from other classes all with the common interest of working in the outdoors on natural resource and park projects. We had two sessions across the day, one from 9 to 12 and another from 1 to 4, dividing the work accordingly. In the morning we worked close in and accomplished a great deal of planting and seeding near the boardwalk and in the afternoon we took the long trail (wet, muddy and messy to say the least) and did two tasks that had been neglected for far too long. Pictures from today may be a better way to show what we did but I am very please with the results.
This has been a wonderful field season and it is not even close to being finished. We have some momentum right now and I’ll see what we can make of this in the remaining time before winter sets in.
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