Trees in Delaware River floodplain near Frenchtown NJ

I wrote a few days about my walk along the Delaware River south of Frenchtown NJ along the Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath. Now I am not a Forester or otherwise an expert at tree identification, I am an amateur at this. And I have books that I use to help me. In particular, I found this book in our home library a few days ago:

Collins, Reryl Robichaud and Karl H. Anderson. 1994. Plant Communities of New Jersey: A study in Diversity. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.

They have a chapter on freshwater wetlands in northern New Jersey. While not specifically describing the Delaware River floodplains, perhaps because it forms the western border of NJ and PA, they do describe the floodplains of a river that is in the same physiographic region of NJ. Broadly speaking there are four physiographic regions in New Jersey, the portion of the Delaware River that I visit and the town I live in are in the piedmont region.

Collins and Anderson describe the plants located in the floodplain of the Raritan River in the piedmont regions. Two of the trees that they say are found in these floodplains are the River Birch, and the Sycamore. The links that I have provided are from a wetlands plants database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They have a web interface that allows you to narrow your search of wetlands plants to your specific state and by plant type. If you are so inclined, check out the information provided on each of the links I provided for River Birches and Sycamores.

Speaking of Sycamores, I got to know Sycamores because they were numerous Sycamore trees located in the Hundson County town where we used to live. They line many of the residential streets in this town, and are also located in the parks, including the green area along the Passaic River.

I wrote about these two trees, because these were the common trees located in the region between the towpath that we were walking on and the Delaware River. Other trees that we saw were species of Maple and Oak, Hickory and/or Ash and Sweet Gum.

A word about Hickory and Ash. Both have what are known as compound leaflets (5 to 9 leaves). For more information on leaf terminology, see this webpage. There is an important but perhaps subtle difference between the leaf structure of Hickories and Ashes. I'm not sure that I can explain this in any way that will make sense. You will have to trust me that this difference can make it sometimes difficult to distinguish between Ash and Hickories, at least for me. Any tree guide, I have several tree guides including some very good guides put out by the Audubon Society, will have a chapter where they discuss various leaf types and other basic terminology used to identify trees.

Anyway, it was hard for me to distinguish between Ash and Hickory because the foiliage was too high for me to distinguish between the leaf structures of Ashes v Hickories. As for identifying trees by their bark, I am getting better, but it is still hard, sometimes requiring more study. Having read up on Ash and Hickories on my tree guides, when we go back, I may be better able to distinguish between the two.

Walking along the Delaware River

We are frequent visitors to the Delaware River in Hunterdon County, NJ. Usually someowhere between Frenchtown and Washington's Crossing. We pick a spot, park our car and walk for an hour or more usually along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. We share the path with bicyclists and the occasional jogger.

Given how much I love trees, I have been bothered that I have not been paying much mind to the trees that we pass. So, this week I paid attention to the trees as we walked. Given that this area is in a floodplain along a major river in the Piedmont section of northern New Jersey, I had an idea of what to find. And later ran through my list cross checking it with my Audubon tree guides and a book I have on NJ Plant Communities.

I would not call myself an expert at tree identification. When most of the tree is tall and most of the foliage is upwards of twenty feet or more high, it is sometimes hard for me to identify a tree off of the leaf structure. But between my friend and I, we at least have a good idea of some of the major trees that we saw on this walk. I'll write about these later, with links to pictures and the like.

I wish I was brave enough to wonder through the undergrowth between the canal path and the River to poke and get a closer look at the trees. However, the thick undergrowth of poison ivy discouraged me. And I was wearing shorts.

So, stay tuned . . .

Ballons

I'm taking a short break from my writings on the Pine Barrens, in part because I need to finish up another writing project. So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post some photographs that I took at the 2006 and 2008 Quick Check Festival of Ballooning at Solberg Airport in New Jersey.

Brendan T. Byrne State Forest

In recent years almost every day trip we have made to the Pine Barrens involves a visit to the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest (formerly Lebanon State Forest). We first visited this forest sometime in the late 1980s during our annual late summer visits to relatives with a summer home in a nearby town. I expect that it was during this time that we were first introduced to the 49.5 mile Batona Trail.

The Baton Trail goes through the Byrne State Forest and its terminus is in nearby Ongs Hat, a short drive from the forest office. In addition to this trail, there are a couple of other trails in the forest. The trails go through a pine/oak forest, along side a pond known as pakim pond and an atlantic white cedar swamp. We have hiked in all these areas but I only have digital photos of the pine/oak forest within two miles of the forest office.

I don’t have pictures of Pakim Pond, but I did find this set of photos of pakim pond on the flikr site. These photos are incredible, of much better quality then anything I could do with my little digital camera. These photos are almost as good as being there in person, if not better.

In my recent wonderings on the internet, I found that the NJ Forest Service has an initiative to restore Atlantic White Cedars. Information on this initiative can be found here, and here is a related site, a paper on restoring the Atlantic Whites.

fort dix fire contained

The small fire in a remote section of Fort Dix that was burning last Thursday while we were in the Pine Barrens was contained either last Thursday night (Aug. 28) or early on Friday morning (Aug. 29).

See this news account.

Interesting

I had a dream about fires last night. I was either a fire fighter or an observer, there was no actual fire only the expectation of a fire. Interesting. This says something to me about my involvement in the writing and research that I am doing about wildfires. A few years ago I was a member of a research group doing some research about remediating the nuclear weapon production complex in America. At the time I would sometimes dream about nuclear waste. And at other times in my life, my work or school activities, coworkers, school buddies and friends would show up in my dreams.

Our visit to Penn State Forest

We did make it to Penn State Forest this past Thursday afternoon. We walked about three-quarters of a mile (or 1.5 miles round trip) up one of the sand roads into what appeared to a forest with normal sized pitch pines, smaller oaks, and blueberry bushes. We did not walk longer because we had already walked a couple of miles earlier in the day and were getting a little tired from a long drive. Anyway, the walk through the forest on this sand road was very soothing, quieting my soul. I saw the beautiful simplicity of this forest, and found all my cares being lifted. I suppose you can say that I feel replenished after our day in the pine barrens.

I think that the Pine Plains with the dwarf or pigmy pines would have involved a walk of at least three or four miles one way, or over eight miles round trip. Our hiking book suggested allowing five hours for the hike. Considering the length of time it takes us to get to this part of the pine barrens, this is more than we would want to do in one day.

When we did longer hikes in the pine barrens we were staying in the Tuckerton area, not far from Penn State Forest and other close by areas where we did longer hikes. The Tuckerton option is no longer available to us. Perhaps we will stay over a night in a hotel/motel next spring or summer and do a longer hike.

Anyway, I promised pictures and here they are. There are two pictures of Oswego Lake and another shot taken looking down the sand road we were walking on.

When we got to the parking area there was a group of young people getting ready to leave and a couple of kayakers on the Lake. When we left, about 1.5 hours later, the young people had left and there were one or two new cars in the parking lot. Otherwise, we had the place to ourselves except for the Park Police making a routine patrol. There is a small sand "beach" with a couple of picnic tables and a new composting toilet. There were no life guards so if you swim, you swim at your own risk. The most I have done was more along the lines of wading and otherwise cooling off and that was about fifteen years ago.

For those of you who are interested, the turn off for Penn State Forest is about seven miles south of Chatsworth NJ (intersection of County Rtes. 563 and 532 on County Rte, 563. The turn off, Lake Oswego Rd, will be on your left and is a paved road. If you get to Mikes Canoe rental or County Rte. 679 you have gone to far.

My trip to the Pine Barrens

We had a great day in the Pine Barrens yesterday. I got many pictures that I have to go through before I post my first batch. I hope to have the first batch ready tomorrow.

We walked for almost four miles in two different places, one of which was Penn State Forest, the one I wrote about recently. Those will be the first group of pictures that I post.

As for chigger prevention. Knock on wood is all I will say right now. . . I sprayed my socks, the skin under my socks and the bottom of my jeans. Then I tucked the jeans into my socks, and looked like an idiot. But I hope it kept those nasty little creatures away. When we got home, I took what I call my "uninvited guest" shower to wash off chiggers and ticks.

We drove about 300 miles all told, and we were both tired when we got home.

As we were driving home, I kept thinking that I saw smoke that looked an awful like smoke coming from a fire. And it turned out I was right, I saw a small article about the fire in my local newspaper, The Star Ledger. It turns out that the fire was in a remote section of the Fort Dix military base, located near the Pine Barrens. See this article and a second updated article, that will be freely available for 14 days or through September 12. At this point, the blaze is confined to a couple of hundred acres wholly within the military base and is no threat to the public.

At least I know that my instincts were right about the smoke that I saw yesterday.

Dwarf Pitch Pines

I have already mentioned that what makes the pine plains unique are the dwarf pitch pines (pinus rigida Mill.) that stand about five feet tall. Also present in the pine plains are blackjack oak (Quercu marilandica Muenchh.) and scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia Wang.). The pine plains ecosystem is specially adapted to fire.

The authors of the first chapter in Protecting the New Jersey Pinelands (B. R. Collins, N.F. Good, and R. E. Good) provide a good explanation of the relationship between the dwarf pitch pines and fire. In the pine plains, the dwarf or pigmy pitch pine has adapted to fire in that the seed bearing cones are closed or serotinous. These “serotinous” cones open only in high heat of the sort that occurs during a fire.

The distinctive character of this dwarf forest is probably the result of very frequent fires over hundreds or even thousands of years. Under such conditions the tree oaks, which are not found in the dwarf forest, would not have been able to maintain themselves, because they bear viable seed only on stems twenty years or more in age. The pitch pines present in this forest are genetically differentiated from other populations of the species. They are less upright, of shorter growth form, and produce cones at an earlier age. Unlike other pitch pines, whose cones open top disperse seed normalyy at maturity, the pitch pines growing in the dwarf forest have closed (or serotinous) cones that open to dispers seed only at high temperatures, such as those occurring during a fire (B. R. Collins, N.F. Good, and R. E. Good “The Landscape of the Pine Barrens”, p.15, in Protecting the New Jersey Pinelands: A New Direction in Land-Use Management edited by B.R. Collins and W.B. Russell, New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press. 1988).

See this link for images of the pine plains taken just after a fire, along with images of growth after the fire.

A more detailed description of the pitch pine, including sections on fire ecology, is found on this usda webpage.

To the Pine Barrens

Tommorrow I am making a day trip to the NJ Pine Barrens. I hope to get to Penn State Forest so I can post some pictures for you. I don't think that I will walk to the pine plains in Penn State Forest, but there is a section of the pine plains on one of major roads, Rte. 539, that traverse the Pine Barrens where I may be able to get some pictures if there is a pull off.

If the gypsy moths have not been bad this year, then I hope to get pictures of the young oak with the very large leaves to show you.

So stay tuned.

In the meantime, check back tomorrow for a post that will be automatically posted around 10 AM.

Penn State Forest

Our first trip to Penn State Forest, not far from Chatsworth NJ was to follow a hike we had read about in our Fifty Hikes in NJ book (by Bruce Scofield, Stella J. Green, H. Neil Zimmerman. 1988. Woodstock VT: Backcountry Publications).

We were attracted to the hike, in part because of the promise of seeing a dwarf pine forest where the pines are about four to six feet high. We had seen dwarf pines, also known as the pine plains, along Rte 539 in Burlington County near Warren Grove. This was a chance to see the dwarf or pigmy pines as they are sometimes known up close and personal. At least more up close and personal then is possible in a car.

Thanks to Google Earth, I have posted an image of what I hope is Penn State Forest and Oswego Lake at the top of this post. We parked in a parking lot near the Lake and walked north on the sand road. It was late August, and it was hot. Sometimes sand roads in the pine barrens are firmly packed and easy to walk on and sometimes the sand is not packed, making walking a little more difficult. Sinking an inch or so into the sand as you walk along these roads on a hot day is not always a easy walk. I think that we got about half-way into our five mile hike before we turned around. To be honest, I'm not sure if the reason we turned back was because we were hot and tired or if we were under a time constraint. We may have made it to the outskirts of the pine plains in Penn State Forest, I don't recall. But I did enjoy the pine forest. For me there is a simplicity and elegance in these pine forests.

Side bar: LA Times Big Burn Series

A while back I posted a link to a five-part series, Big Burn on different aspects of wildfires. I admit that it took me about three weeks to finish the series mostly because I kept saying "I'll finish it tomorrow." Well, I finished the series the other day.

I admit that when I read articles such as the LA Times Big Burn series, I don't always read the comments. There are 195 comments. I had been thinking recently that while I admire and respect the reporting job done by the reporters and the photographers, that there was probably another side to the stories they tell. It was my interest in another side of the story that lead me to read the comments. For example, in the first story, they write about the high cost of fighting fires using the example of the 2007 Zaca fire in California near Los Padres. The cost, according to the article was $140 million, in terms of monetary costs, this is at the higher end of U.S. Forest Services fires. The reporters also discussed the camps that the fire fighting crews slept in complete with what the reporters referred to as "sleeping trailers."

Of course, I know nothing about fighting wildfires. And not being from the fire prone western States, I know that I can not conceive of what these wildfires are like. We have wildfires in NJ, e.g. in the Pine Barrens, but even the biggest wildfires of recent years do not, in my opinion, compare with those in western States such as California. But the reporters were talking about a fire that cost a lot of money to fight and a fire that was near a populated area, Santa Barbara.

My point being that perhaps fires in more remote areas far from areas populated by humans are less expensive to fight. And perhaps the fire fighters don't live in the fancy and expensive sleeping trailers referred to in the article. Perhaps they sleep in tents as I had imagined. Do such fires cost less in dollars to fight than fires such as the Zaca fire? I am tempted to guess that the answer to this question is "yes", but what do I know?

So with these thoughts in mind, I decided to take the time to read all the 195 comments to the Big Burn article. Perhaps I could get some different points of view from those of the reporters. And I'm glad I did. I learned something, which is what this is all about. Some of the comments ripped the reporters and the LA Times, others applauded the LA Times. There were comments by wild fire fighters and comments by people who chose to live in areas at high risk for fires. Did I agree with all the comments, no. But I feel like the comments are an important part of this five-part series. As important as the articles, the photographs, videos, and graphics. For me, and I can only speak for myself, one of the ways that I learn about issues facing people in different parts of the country or the world is by reading the words of people who live in and/or write about issues of local concern. In this case wildfires in CA. If I want to continue learning about wildfires I know that I need to continue reading and the like, the LA Times article and comments along with the links I posted in late July regarding the basin complex fire are just a start.

So for those of you who are interested and have a couple of hours to spare, go read the comments to the Big Burn article. While they are still publicly available.

stay tuned

Sorry for the tease. We are leaving in about five minutes to go back to the Hunterdon County Fair to watch pig races at 4 PM and then a 4H drill team (horses) demonstration at 5 PM.

I have been wanting to write about an undeveloped State Forest, Penn State Forest that we went to a few times in the Pine Barrens. I was fortunate to remember that we first found about the Penn State Forest through our trusty and now old Fifty Hikes in New Jersey book byBruce Scofield, Stella J. Green, and H. Neil Zimmerman. A hike on the sand roads in the Penn State Forest was featured as one of the hikes. So, remembering the name of the Forest with the nifty little map from the USGS topological maps (Woodsmansie and Oswego Lake Quandrangles), I was able to find this on google earth and downloaded an image.

But I have run out of time, so this will be next entry.

After I return from the fair.

time out: more on tractor pulls

For those of you who have not seen a tractor pull before, I have a short video plus three still pictures that I took at last night's tractor pull at our local County 4H-Ag fair. The video should be self explanatory. The pictures include a shot of the pulling sled, the pulling "track", and what I call a worker bee tractor.

The "worker bee" tractor in the picture, a John Deere pulling a load of concrete blocks, tamps down the track before and after each pull. In the photo here he is tamping down the track before the start of the evening pulls. After each pull, two worker bee tractors go out and prepare the track. First (not picture) a tractor pulling a "grader" smooths out the track after the pull. The tractor pulling the sled then tamps down the section of the track that the grader smoothed over. Graders, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this equipment, are used to smooth out dirt roads. Rural towns with dirt roads will have a piece of road equipment called a grader. That is, a grader does not have to pulled behind a tractor, it can come with its own engine.

Getting back to the tractor pull. Last night's pull was fun. It started a little late, and we stayed for about 90 to 120 minutes. It was a lot of fun, especially the "open" classes were the tractor engines were souped up, complete with dark smoke and in a couple of cases, some flames coming out of the exhaust pipe. These souped up tractors could pull much longer distances than there weight equivalent "stock farm tractors."

Between each pull, the two worker bee tractors came out while the next tractor was being loaded on the sled. By the way, the sled had retractable wheels. The chain link fence that you notice in my still images and the video is there for safety reasons as required by NJ State Law.

One of the things that I like about tractor pulls is that it speaks to the agricultural heritage of counties such as the one that I live in. While my county has been suburbanized for a couple of decades, with people commuting to near by office complexes as well as commuting longer distances to "older" towns and cities, it has a long agricultural heritage. Recently, a friend asked me what was the dominant industry historically? I said agriculture. By agriculture, I mean farms as well as supporting businesses. Of course, there were factories here and there, a paper factory along the Delaware River, an old beverage plant down the road from me, and the like. But when I read about the history of my county, I read about the importance of agriculture.

The late fall fair has important traditions in many agricultural areas, both currently as well as historically. Historically, the fair in a rural county was a place where local farmers could show their animals and possibly win prize money or perhaps sell a prize winning animal. Produce, baked goods and the like were also given prizes. Currently, one of the focus points of our local fair is on the role of youth in agriculture with much the same contests where the youth are competing. And then there are the fun and games, including the tractor pulls. A chance to play before going back to the fields.

So, when I see the tractor pulls, not only am I having fun, but I am also thinking about the celebration of my county's past and present agricultural tradition.

time out: tractor pulls at County Ag Fair

Today is the first day of our local 4H Agriculture Fair. This morning we went to see the farm tractor pull. The concept is simple, tractors are grouped into weight classes and pull a weighted sled. I went to my first tractor pull at the Orleans County Fair in Vermont several years ago.

I suspect that some of you are wondering what a tractor pull is, I found this brief piece giving an historical perspective as well as this wikipedia article. The tractors competing in the tractor pulls at my local 4H Ag fair are what they call farm stock tractors. They are not souped tractors but ordinary farm equipment with stock engines. For more information go here.

There were a fair amount of people at the tractor pull this morning. Some like us were just spectators, others were rooting for their friends or family members.

The farm tractor pulls are going on all day into the evening. We are going back to the fair this evening for dinner and to watch more tractor pulls. I'll try to get some pictures.

chiggers and gypsy moths

One of my favorite sites in the uplands of the Pine Barrens are the young oaks. The young oaks have these really huge leaves. I mean really huge. Well last year I went to the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in the Pine Barrens armed with my digital camera. I was going to take some pictures of these young oaks. Well, we went and most were either stripped of leaves or the leaves were all chewed up. It was very depressing. And it wasn't just the young oaks, the scrub oaks and the oak trees had chewed up leaves, very small leaves, or were otherwise defoliated. I asked in the park office what had happened and they told me it was gypsy moths. It was quite depressing. So, I couldn't get any pictures for you. I hope to go back to the Pine Barrens in the next few weeks and perhaps I'll get some pictures of these young oaks for you if they haven't been eaten by gypsy moths.

But I did bring back some guests, unwanted guests. In the form of chiggers. Nasty things. For years, I wondered why I got what I thought was poison ivy while I was walking in the pine barrens, especially when I did not see anything that looked like poison ivy. Well, an internet search revealed that these itchy welts on my legs were chiggers. And noooo, I did not wear insect repellent. I think I was wearing long pants but the little nasties managed to get on my legs in spite of my long pants.

Now that I have figured out about chiggers, I will be sure to spray with insect repellent the next time I go to the Pine Barrens.

sand roads in the NJ Pine Barrens

Before I begin, I want to spend a very brief time on terminology. I have always used the term “NJ Pine Barrens” or the “Pine Barrens” when writing about the area some refer to as NJ Pinelands. I am going to continue to do so as I write about the Pine Barrens here unless what I am writing calls for using a more formal designation.

The Pine Barrens have miles upon miles of sand roads traversing the area.. Some go through designated State or Federal preserves, and others, well they just go where they go. The first time I spent some time driving on these sand roads, before I knew any better, I was not paying any attention to whether these roads were on State or Federal land. I saw a sand road, or what I incorrectly referred to as a “dirt road” and I wanted to drive on it.

At the time, I would spend time driving on various dirt roads in northeastern Vermont. These dirt roads were tough on the muffler on my little Honda Civic. I went through one or two mufflers thanks to Vermont. I quickly found out that these roads were a some times hard packed sand, not the rough and potted dirt roads that I was used to in Vermont.

My first tour on these sand roads was through what I now know is a pine forest, probably pitch and shortleaf pines. We had no map, so what I recall doing is driving in on this road for a while, then turning around and going back the way we came in. I was afraid to turn off on the intersecting sand roads fearing that I would get lost. And these were in the days of no cell phones so we would have been up a creek without a paddle. I loved the forest, love at first sight so to speak. There was something calming about the pine forest.

Then there was the time we were exploring other back roads, including sand roads not far from Tuckerton where we were staying. We started out going through another pine forest, and spending some time on sand roads. After several minutes, we passed through a small community. Perhaps a couple dozen houses give or take. It felt like magic and I was enthralled, a small community nestled among the pine forests of the Pine Barrens. We were never able to find this particular small community. I have even wondered if I am misremembering something. But I know what I saw, and I saw these houses.

As I spent more time in the Pine Barrens, I used more discretion in driving on sand roads in the Pine Barrens. Especially after walking on sand roads that I could not begin to imagine driving on. It takes effort to walk through loose sand! And there were a couple of times when we did a “k turn” on narrow dirt roads because we knew that if we went any further we risked getting stuck in loose sand.

I will get back to the Everglades

I have not forgotten about the Everglades, and I do intend to write more about the "Glades. I promise. In the meantime, I want to turn to my own State of New Jersey where I have started to write about one of my very favorite places, the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

New Jersey Pine Barrens

I first spent time in the New Jersey Pine Barrens over twenty years ago. For a period of about ten years, we used to spend a few days each summer at a shore town near the Pine Barrens, so I was able to get to know and love the Pine Barrens. For various reasons, our time in the Pine Barrens has been limited to a day trip here and there, but my love for the Pine Barrens has not diminished.

I want to set the stage for my posts on the NJ Pine Barrens with a brief discussion of different designations for the Pine Barrens. What do I mean by different designations? Ok, I’ll try to keep this simple. The federally designated Pinelands National Reserve covers about 1,719 square miles or 1.1 million acres. In 1981, the New Jersey State Legislature designated a smaller area of 1,460 square miles (934,000 acres) as the Pinelands Area, managed by the NJ Pinelands Commission. These two smaller delineations sit within the larger historical area that many in New Jersey still refer to as the Pine Barrens (2,250 square miles or 1.4 million acres). As I write this paragraph, I would like to mention a book that I am currently (re)reading about the NJ Pine Barrens from which I got these numbers as well as some maps that I am referring to as I am writing this.

For online viewing, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission has a Geographic Information Systems webpage with links to various maps, including this map which also includes the area included in the Pinelands National Reserve (PNR). If you go the PNR website, http://www.nps.gov/pine/ and click on the view map link near the top of the page, you will get a really cool map of the PNR that you can manipulate using online controls. If you do not already have it, I believe that you will need to download the freely available adobe flash player (v.9) in order to view this map.

Protecting the New Jersey Pinelands: A New Direction in Land–Use Management. 1988. Beryl Robichaud Collins and Emily W. B. Russell, editors. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.

As some of you are no doubt aware, there is a story behind the federal and state designations that I have referred to above. A brief history of the Pine Barrens including a timeline may be found here.

Conserving the Everglades

Wow.


Speaking of conserving the Everglades, yes there is plan to the restore the Everglades, known as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). There is a website that you can go to for information on the CERP, here.

And the site referenced in the above link, Everglades Plan, has a wonderful exposition on why we should restore the Everglades. It is a nicely written, multi-part piece that is easy to read. Please go and check it out.

Finally, Everglades Plan website has a FAQ page, a learn and teach page, news and events, etc.

Don't forgot about the group that Marjory Stoneham Douglas started, the Friends of the Everglades.

I want to put a plug in for the staff of the Everglades National Park (ENP), I had the privilege of talking to a couple of staff from the ENP when I was doing my research all those years ago as well as going on an ENP staff lead tour. All ENP staff that I spoke to were committed to conserving and preserving the Everglades.

Everglades History

I want to say something about the history of the Everglades. And yes, I could post something in my own words, based on the work I did on the Everglades in graduate school all those years ago. I still may, but not today.

Even when and if I do, I would want to point you to some information that you yourself can look at online. So, I am starting with a culture and history page from the Everglades National Park Service's website. Here you will find four links:

1. native peoples.

2. pioneer settlement.

3. development in the Everglades.

4. conservation.

Another brief history of the Everglades may be found here.

I'll point you to some online resources about conserving the Everglades in my next post, so stay tuned!

Everglades: habitats and vegetation

I want to give you with some places you can go to view pictures of the Everglades:

1. vegetation and habit images are from the Everglades Park Service.

2. The Florida Museum of Natural History has this webpage on the Everglades. I have not had a chance to check it out yet, but it looks really cool. I found it about it from the links page of the Friends of the Everglades.

Everglades wildlife

Well, I spent some time yesterday looking through my house for the pictures of the Everglades that I took on my 2001 trip to no avail.

We did see alligators reasonably close up, which means that we saw them in some wetlands from a trail from a safe distance of several feet.

I also recall seeing a couple of herons close up. We had just turned onto one of the dirt roads off of U.S. Rte 41 to drive north. Just after we turned, I saw a couple of herons standing in some water. I stopped the car, at first wanting to try to get a picture. They were pretty close, perhaps 5 to 7 feet away. I decided that this was not one of those photo moments because I did not want to risk having them fly away. Instead, I watched the herons go about there business for a couple of minutes. The image if forever etched in my mind. We drove away after a couple of minutes not wanting to disturb them.

Here are some links where you may go to view Everglades wildlife:

1. A page with wildlife photographs at the Friends of the Everglades webpage, and

2. The Everglades National Park maintains a wildlife image gallery that may be found here.

Visit to the Everglades over Christmas 2001

I had a chance to visit the Everglades over Christmas of 2001. We left early on a Saturday morning and drove to Lorton VA outside Washington D.C. where we caught the over night auto train to Sanford Florida, not far from Orlando. We stayed near Kissimmee, within a stones throw of Disney World and related theme parks. This may sound horrifying to some of you, but we were not all that interested in Disney World and the other theme parks. Rather we spent a quiet day or say at the complex where we stayed. Our plan called for us to leave on the day after Christmas to drive down to the Everglades, staying over night about 30 miles east of Naples. Instead, we called the hotel, added a night onto our stay, and left Christmas day.

The next day was our day in the Everglades. We got on U.S. Rte. 41, that I think may also be referred to as the Tamiami Trail. Our first stop was a tour boat service officially sanctioned by the Everglades National Park Service (ENP). I don't recall the exact nature of the affiliation of this tour boat service with the ENP except that I had the impression that it had some kind of "stamp of approval" from the ENP. It was a little cool for Florida and windy, so we were glad that we had some light jackets aka windbreakers with us. We spent about one hour touring around the islands and the water ways near Everglades City. I was awestruck. I have pictures from our day in the Everglades, but they are not digital. One of these days, I may try to dig them up and get digital copies made.

We grabbed some food, and drove back to U.S. Rte. 41 continuing our drive across U.S. 41. My friend drove, and I looked outside the window at the "river of grass." It was magical to see the "river of grass". I thought of Marjory Stoneham Douglas' words. I saw the canals and the infrastructure for various water control projects that changed the shape of the 'Glades. I tried to imagine what the 'Glades were like all those years ago.

After 90 minutes or so, we came to our next stop in the ENP where there is an observation, some short trails, and a chance to sign up for a tour. We walked the trail and took the tour. Again, I rejoiced in seeing the "river of grass", and seeing the wildlife that I had read about. We finished the tour and headed back east, spending a little time on some of the dirt roads off of Rte. 41 and stopping at a trail head and walking through a forest.

I wish that I had kept a written diary of that day, I did not. Nonetheless, the images of what we saw live on.

More on Horseshoe Crabs

A while back I wrote about horseshoe crabs in my blog. I recently got my summer edition of the Nature Conservancy's magazine. In May and June Nature Conservancy participated in a horseshoe crab census near Cape May, New Jersey. There is an article about their work with horseshoe crabs here.

Five part LA Times series on wildfires

The LA Times has a five-part series on wildfires. Not being a regular reader of the LA Times, I'm not sure how long these articles and associated videos will be freely available. Part 1 is dated 27 July, and part 5 is dated 3 August. By the way, the thumbnail of part 5 refers to Australia fighting wildfires differently then Americans do.

I first heard about the LA Times series a couple of days ago and only just know remembered to post the link. I have not read these articles yet, and intend to do so. Perhaps while I listen to the Yanks play the LA Angels. Anyway, I wanted to post this link now so that any of you who are interested can check it out.

As a frame of reference, I just checked the link for the article I referred to in my post on Apple Pie Ridge on July 19. The article is dated July 7 and as of today (August 2), the link is still active. Perhaps this will provide a frame of reference for how long this five-part series will be freely available

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

It was sometime in 1990 or early 1991 when I began reading about the Everglades for a research project I did as a part of my work in graduate school.. It did not take long for me to hear the name Marjory Stoneman Douglas in connection with the Everglades. I don't remember where I first heard her name, it may have been someone from the Everglades National Park. Not that it matters.

She wrote a book, first published in 1947, called The Everglades: River of Grass. I was urged to read the book. I found a copy at my University's library and read it. I later picked up a revised edition (1987) with an afterward, from the Everglades National Park Service.

The Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, you might want to check out their bio of her here. Their mission is to protect and restore the Everglades.

At the time I did my research, I had never been to the Everglades. In reading her book, especially her first chapter, the Everglades came alive to me. She had the gift of painting a wonderful visual picture of the 'Glades. Her first sentence is poignant:

There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, never wholly known. (Stoneham Douglas, 1987, p.5)

I felt her sadness as she told of the destruction of large portions of her beloved 'Glades. It was her advocacy on behalf of the 'Glades that was, in large measure, responsible for the establishment of the Everglades National Park in 1947. She died at the age of 108 in the late 1998.

Nature Conservancy

I met with some of the wonderful folk at one of the New Jersey offices of the Nature Conservancy today. I am going to be doing some volunteer work in their skylands office and perhaps help out with some field work once or twice a month in the warmer months. They do good work both within the United States and globally. For more information about what they do, go here.

I am honored to have an opportunity to help out the Nature Conservancy locally in whatever very small ways that I can. I may not be able to write more than this here, but be assured that I am looking forward to volunteering with the Nature Conservancy.

Global Warming and wildfires

I have been thinking about global warming for a few weeks now. I have known that the southwest is among the regions in the United States that have been experiencing an extended drought. I have to be honest that I had not thought all that much about the relationship between wildfires, the extended drought in the southwest, and global warming until I first heard about the wildfire outbreak in California in June.

When I began to spend more time reading about the wildfires in CA with a special focus on the basin complex wildfire, I started thinking about wildfires and global warming. Not that I'm in a position to make any sort of "educated" statement equating the recent wildfires in California with global warming. I'm not. At this point all I have are questions that I can only answer with hunches.

On the question of the relationship of the CA wildfires and the extended drought, it seems to me that there has to be a relationship between the two. It only makes sense. In my way of thinking, it is not exactly rocket science to say that when there is an extended period of drought conditions that their is a greater risk of wildfires. Are these wildfires more serious and occurring earlier? I seem to recall seeing something to that effect on either a National Park Service or a U.S. Forest Service wildfire website within the last couple of days. I'll need to go back and check this out to find my answer. What are the folk researching global warming and/or wildfires saying about global warming and wildfires? I'll have to check this out.

As I explore these and other questions over the coming weeks, I'll fill you in on some answers with links for more information on this blog, so stay tuned.

containment

The researcher part of me got the better of me this afternoon when I tried to find a definition of what it means when, for example, it was reported that the basin complex fire is 100% contained.

I finally found this glossary with short definitions of many of the terms that I have been reading about.

After reading some definitions in this glossary and the much longer Fireline Handbook (I should warn you that this Handbook is over 400 pages long and comes in at over 3 MB). I decided to keep it simple and not to worry about precise definitions of containment as used in connection to the basin complex fire because I was getting into multiple definitions. I also started asking myself questions like does the meaning of containment vary with measures used to fight individual wildfires? And does containing a fire in the NJ Pine Barrens mean something different than containing a fire such as the basin complex fire. I decided that the important thing is that the basin complex fire is contained.

The map was obtained on July 29, 2008 from http://165.221.39.44/incident/maps/large/1367/0/

hoses

For those of us who have had to deal with managing garden hoses . . .

After reading this post from Kelly O'Brien's blog I have different view of what I used to call my battles with my garden hose:

http://thefirelane.blogspot.com/2008/07/and-you-think-that-your-garden-hose-is.html

basin complex fire contained

A very brief update on the basin complex fire. kusp radio posted a report from the U.S. Forest Service reporting that the fire is at 100% containment. More work has yet to be done.

I had company this past weekend so did not have a chance to report that the voluntary evacuations were lifted either late Friday night or Saturday.

I'll post more on this in a day or so.

Photos of Basin Complex Fire

Speaking of Incaweb, here is a link to photos of the Basin Complex from Incaweb. You will also find photos here. If you take time to look at Life in the Firelane, you will also find photos. If you check out some of the other links that I have referred to in my earlier postings on the Basin Complex Fire you will probably find other photos.

Fighting Wildfires in the Everglades

I found this slide show of fire fighting equipment on the Everglades National Park website. If you put your cursor at the top of the photo during the slide show you will see the caption.

I suspect that some of the equipment is the same for all wildfires. However, one piece of equipment that you will see is called a flapper. It looks to me like it is made to fight fires in grasslands. Then again what do I know?

For photos of the Mustang Corners see incaweb and this photo gallery on the Everglades National Park webpage.

Maps of the Mustang Corners Fire

At the time that I am writing this, Inca web has some maps of the Mustang Corners fire posted. Go here for a map of the fire's progress as of May 22.

A map of the fire's perimeter is found here.

Wildfires in Florida in May 2008

On or about May 14, 2008 wildfires started burning in the Everglades National Park in South Florida. By the time the fires were contained in early June, just over 39,000 acres were burned. Known as the Mustang Corners fire, this fire followed a series of fires in the Palm Beach area, in Brevard County south of Daytona Beach, that burned 12,000 acres. Other fires included about 19,000 acres on the south end of Lake Okeechobee, 1,300 acres in the Florida panhandle near Apalochicola, 257 acres in the Ocala National Forest in Central Florida and a couple of smaller fires in the Everglades National Park.

Information on the Mustang Corners fire in Everglades National Park may be found here and here. The two smaller wildfires in the Everglades National Park are very briefly referenced in this press release. A CNN report on May 18 reviews the then current status of the Mustang Corners fire as well as other Florida wildfires. What is probably the final incident report on the Mustang Corners fire may be found on InciWeb. Inciweb goes down periodically so if the link does not work, try back again later.

Damage reports for the Brevard Çounty wildfires may found in this press release issued by the Brevard County Office of Emergency Management. They report that 194 buildings were affected by these wildfires with 42 residences being destroyed.

CNN reports on the arrest of a man alleged to have caused some of the Brevard County fires. Both InciWeb and the National Park Service report that the Mustang Corners fire was caused by humans.

Coming attractions

I am going to continue posting updates on the basin complex fire here and other issues related to this wildfire.

I am however going to start moving to writing about the Everglades. I believe that I mentioned several days ago that a couple of months ago there was a major wildfire in the Everglades caused, I believe, by an arsonist. I first got interested in the Everglades for a project I did in graduate school, beginning a long love affair with the 'Glades. So it seems fitting to devote some time to the "Glades.

No, I have not forgotten about New Jersey. I want to write about the Pine Barrens, but it might take me a couple of weeks or so before I get to this.

update on basin complex fire as of July 22 AM

kusp radio is reporting that the basin complex fire is 72% contained with over 137,000 acres burned to date. Voluntary evacuation orders remain in effect. I have not yet mentioned that one of contributing factors to the spread of this fire is sudden oak death in tan oaks. Stands of dead tan oaks have provided fuel for the fire. For more detail see this summary from the U.S. Forest Service (posted on July 22). Forest Service map obtained from http://www.kusp.org/fire/images/map_basin_7_22.jpg on 22 July 2008.

update on all fires in California

The focus of my writing has been on the basin complex fire. I want to pause a moment and provide an update on the status of other fires burning in California. According to the CAL FIRE webpage, maintained by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there are still 33 active fires burning. At the peak of wildfire activity (since 20 June), there were 2,096 wildfires reported by state, local, and federal fire fighting agencies. A total of 953,907 acres have been burned to date.

According to todays fact sheet 123 residences, 1 commercial building, and 138 out buildings have been destroyed. These are the stats for threatened structures: 4,958 residences, 139 commercial buildings, and 2,166 out buildings. There have been 15,573 personnel used to fight the fires to date. Evacuation orders are still in effect for portions of Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta, Lake and Mendocino counties. What CAL fire calls precautionary evacuation orders (aka voluntary evacuation orders??) are in effect for portions of Monterary (basin complex fire) and Trinity Counties.

For those so inclined, you can go here to download a map of what are known as the June Lightening fires in California. It is an adobe reader file. I spent a little time looking at the map. Fires range from counties near the Oregon border south to Santa Barbara County.

As I was watching the weather channel a little while ago, they reported on a wildfire of unknown origin burning on 100 acres outside Denver.

Apple Pie Ridge

I was first introduced, so to speak, to the Curtis brothers, owners of 55 acres known as the Apple Pie Ridge not far from the town of Big Sur CA while reading this entry from the Cachagua Store blog. Briefly, the Curtis brothers with the help of family, friends, and tenants set back fires and other fire fighting techniques and were successful in defending their homes from being burnt down by the fire. They did so because they were told that firefighters would be able to defend their homes from the fire. Their success came at a cost with the younger brother being arrested for arson.

The LA Times has a very good article about the Curtis Brothers, Micah and Ross, in the July 7 edition of the paper. I am accessing this article on July 19 and I'm not certain how much longer it will be freely available.

Reading these accounts of the defense of Apple Pie Ridge got me thinking. If I had heard national news media accounts of the defense of Apple Pie Ridge and the arrest of Ross Curtis for arson, I might have been horrified because what they did would have been completely foreign to me. I heard no such reports, nor have I been able to find any on the web. I am not horrified, quite the contrary. I found myself thinking about the courage and strength of character displayed by the Curtis family, their friends and tenants. They are the kind of people that I would want as neighbors.

Before closing I want to say that members of the Curtis family will be the first to tell you that they are not advising people to set backfires to save their homes from forest fires. Tyson Curtis, Micah's son commenting on an article on the LA Times article has this to say (comments made on July 11 from 3:01 PM to 3:25 PM PDT):

I have so much to say, but i'll be as succinct as possible. To those in favor of what we did: I DO NOT advise people to defend their homes and set back fires... we had two experienced fire fighters with us that understood the technique, and this is evidence in their flawless execution of fighting fire with fire. In fact, since we know every inch of our property I'm sure we executed our back burns better than any fire fighter could.

Second, this was more leading the fire than back burning, we were burning ahead of the fire only when it was several hundred feet from us... and so there was NO chance anyone was between us and that fire. Also, this made the fire burn down hill, instead of up, which kept the fire under control and actually put LESS fire fighters and neighbors at risk because it burned slower and more manageably.

I would like to thank the one fire crew who came up thursday morning and helped direct the back burn that we set in motion... (while we were cutting hand lines on the back side of the ranch where the fire was making a second assault) but as for the higher ups... well this is the third time our ranch has burned over, and i have little faith you'll be there when my kids are fighting the next one.

And a lot of people seem to think we waited until the last second to cut brush and clear around our houses; this isn't true. We cut brush every winter and maintain fire clearance around our ridge top... but in steep terrain flames can clear three or four hundred feet of clearance. The clearing we were doing before the fire was added precaution and when the fire crews showed up to evaluate our ranch it was nearly clear cut; they STILL thought it was indefensible... and were obviously wrong.

And as for burning down our neighbors houses, the main fire was coming, and if we hadn't taken action in a way that we could control the fire... it could have been disastrous for our neighbors. The proof of this is that everyone i've seen has thanked me for stopping the fire on top of our ridge, and not a single person has questions our means of doing so. Unless you know the terrain you wouldn't understand what we did... any fire fighter should know that!

The fire burned all the way to highway one a mile south and north of us... and it would have done just that here too, which would have threatened the seven homes at the bottom of our ridge.

(obtained from http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-backfire-gb,0,2173086
.graffitiboard on 19, July 2008)

Update on basin complex fire as of 7/18/08 PM

Kelly O'Brian, the author of the Life in the Fire Lane blog, who is also affiliated with KUSP radio (NPR) reported last night that the danger is not over for the residents of Jamesburg and Cachagua CA. These are the areas where the mandatory evacuations were lifted Wednesday night (July 16), and downgraded to a voluntary evacuation.

In an interview with Rick Hutchinson of CAL fire, Rick reported that the danger is not over for residents of Cachagua and Jamesburg. Specifically, they may have to go back to a mandatory evacuation at much shorter notice than the last time. The interview may be found here.

As I write this it is just past 11 AM EDT on Saturday, July 19. I checked my usual sources on the internet and have no later updates.

Kelly lives in Jamesburg and my friend lives in Cachagua.

I'll keep you updated .

Some mandatory evacuations lifted in basin complex fire

Kelly O'Brian, author of the Life in the Fire Lane blog, reported last night that many but not all of the mandatory evacuations have been lifted, at least temporarily.

I want to point out that many of those affected by these mandatory evacuations chose to stay behind, sometimes separated from their loved ones, to defend their property from the fire. Apparently this is not unheard of in this part of the country. This meant that they could get out.

If I understand correctly, at least some of the mandatory evacuation zones were a few miles from active fires so those staying behind were not necessarily in imminent danger from the fire. Where some of the zones were declared mandatory evacuation zones so that fire fighters could have needed road and other access to do their work. I think.

Five Zen Monks fight fire

The story of five Zen Buddhist Monks from the San Francisco Zen Center on Tassajara Road in Carmel Valley CA who returned to their compound after an evacuation on July 9 to fight the fire in their compound.

You may find a link to their story on this web page along with links to various updates.

Finally check out at least some of these awesome photographs taken by the five monks.

How the Basin Complex Fire got started

According to today's report (18 July) of the status of the Basin Complex Fire in Los Padres National Forest (near Big Sur) in CA, over 128,000 acres have burned. It is 65% contained. The estimated total cost just to fight this fire is $53.8 million. These figures were obtained from Inci web's basin complex fire page.

The fire was started by lightening on June 21, as were several of the other wildfires that are or were still burning. In my wonderings on the internet today I found this account with some photos from someone who was on a trail with a view of the start of the fire.

NJ Forest Fire Service helping fight CA wildfires

The NJ Forest Fire Service has sent 31 members to CA to help fight the wildfires.

For more information see this press release from the NJ Forest Fire Service.

Basin Complex Fire

I have been following one particular fire that is still burning in CA, the fire known as the basin complex fire currently burning in the Los Padres Forest (near Big Sur).

Why am I writing this? Perhaps it is to make a statement that this blogger who lives in the northeastern United States cares deeply about what is happening. Mention of your fires may be relegated to a small corner of my newspapers (if mentioned at all). I think about all affected by the basin complex fire and the other fires still burning in California every day. Perhaps what I am writing is an act of prayer, of letting you know that you are not forgotten.

One thing that has touched me in my readings of a couple of blogs as well as some e–mail updates I am getting from a friend who is living very near the basin complex fire is their strength of character, and the love they hold for their forest. I suspect that most know of the danger of living where they live, in an area known for fires. I am moved beyond words, so I won’t even try.

But to set a very brief context, please allow me to speak very briefly about living in fire–prone areas and evacuations.

Just as there are things that residents in areas such as Florida and the Gulf of Mexico do to hurricane–proof their homes there are things that people living in fire–prone areas can do that may reduce the chance that the home will be burned down:
clearing up debris from around the house, using flame retardant roofing shingles, not planting trees close to the home and the like. I suppose for many, these measures are a part of life. See this July 2008 graphic from The National Geographic Magazine about ways to make a house less forest-fire prone.

The house where my friend lives is, I think, still in a voluntary evacuation zone. But at last word, she was only one mile from a mandatory evacuation zone. So, since she is still voluntary, she can come and go as she pleases. But once a voluntary goes to a mandatory evacuation, residents are not permitted to go back to their houses after they leave. So, residents in a mandatory zone are living like rats in cages as some blogger’s have put it. They cannot go to the store. And if someone in his or her family was out of the house when the mandatory evacuation went into effect, well tough luck. Of course, hurricanes and floods can lead to evacuation orders. Not that I have been through either I have not. For more information about the meaning of various types of evacuations, see this webpage (courtesy of kusp radio) with definitions of the various types of evacuations.

If anyone in or near the region affected by the basin complex fire in CA or who has been affected by other forest fires in the west has any comments that you would care to make, I'd love to hear from you! :-)

For more information on the basin complex fire see:

1. Life in the fire lane

2. Cachagua CA Fire Department. Cachagua is one of the communities affected by the basin complex fire.

3. Inca web: basin complex wildland fire information (this site has current information about the fire. It gets a lot of traffic and you may have trouble accessing the site.)

4. kusp radio (near Big Sur CA, I think). This site has current fire maps, evacuation orders, updates, good links.

5. Monterey CA (I think) TV station (ksbw): videos, links

6. SurFire08 (community website)

Map of fire as of July 14 obtained from http://www.kusp.org/fire/images/map_basin_7_14_large.jpg on 16 July, 2008

copyright 2008 K. Tyler Miller

Speaking of fires

When I was in grad school I spend a lot of time reading about and then writing about urban encroachment on the Everglades in Florida. So, one of the things that I read about was the role of fire in the ecology of the Everglades. I hope to write about the Everglades and the recent fire of a few weeks ago in a later entry.

Fires in CA

I am switching gears.

Before going to Vermont, I had heard about wildfires in CA as well as fires in the Everglades in Florida in the late spring. While we were in Vermont, I heard about all the wildfires in CA on National Public Radio, especially the one in Big Sur.

These wildfires have touched me in a way that I can quite explain here.

Rather than try to find wholly inadequate words to explain what is going on, for those of you are interested, here are some websites where you can find out more.

The Big Sur community has a website called surfire2008.org There is good blog with updates about the fires and a link for donations. A friend of mine from the region has assured me that the money will go to people who have lost their homes and possessions. And they take paypal and snail mail donations.

Here is another fire blog, this one by a woman who lives not far from the basin complex fire.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there were 1,781 fires at the peak, 1,458 fires are contained, leaving 323 fires still burning. Over 675,000 acres have burned. Many but not all the fires were started by lightening.

This is a local television station, ksbw, that has newsupdates and links on a webpage devoted to the fires.

When the ordinary is extraordinary in VT: wildflowers

One of the nice things about coming to my cabin in June is seeing all the wildflowers around my cabin and in my meadow. They are especially beautiful this year, and I have never seen so many different varieties. Some of these flowers may be from the garden that my great-aunt Marjorie keep fifty some odd years ago. I suspect that birds and other natural processes account for some of the others. Some are probably invasives pr weeds and all are beautiful. Funny, what I consider a "weed" in New Jersey" is not a "weed in Vermont.

In any case, I have enjoyed seeing these flowers this year because they are natural. Here are some pictures of some of these flowers.

When the ordinary is extraordinary in VT: glacial erratics

A couple of days before I left for Vermont I was having an e-mail correspondence with a friend of mine from Australia. For no particular reason, I sent him five photos of my property in Vermont and the surrounding area. One of these photos is the photograph of the Lake in front of my cabin taken at sunset showing a large granite boulder sitting in about eight feet of water.

This is a favorite photo of mine (see the top photo), and I have about five different digital photos and who knows how many photos that predate digital photos. I have showed some version of this photo to many people over the years.

When my friend wrote back to me thanking me for the photos, he inquired:

“I find myself wondering how the rock got there?”

This very simple question got me thinking. I wrote back telling him the very short story of the geological history of this part of Vermont, that when glaciers passed over this area several thousand years ago large boulders were dropped at random and haphazardly. When the ice sheet retreated, these boulders, sometimes called glacial erratics were often left standing alone in a field, in a forest, or even in a body of water. In case you are wondering, according to local geologists, many of these erratics are granite.

Because it was only a few hours before my imminent departure, I had time for only the briefest of explanations to my friend, who also marveled at the trees. I wrote him a shorter version of the preceding paragraph and sent him some Internet links explaining local geology and forestry.

I was very glad for my friends question about how the rock got in the lake for it made me think about how unusual this rock is. I have taken this rock for granted for more years than I care to admit here. I never wondered how the rock got there because I always knew how the rock got there. I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who had never been to this part of America before. I don’t take the erratics that are all too common in this part of New England for granted any more. I wanted to find one photograph that showed an erratic boulder in all its glory to show my friend (bottom photo). And I remembered this erratic on the high spot of a shoulder of a mountain. This photo is for my friend in Australia.

back in the land of the internet

I am back in the land of the internet. That is I choose not to have internet access (in this case dial-up) at my cabin in Vermont.

I'll tell you a secret. The entries that I wrote from 19 June on were all written before I left home. I did not make any postings from Vermont. But I did write two more entries that I will post now. One is on wildflowers and the other is on glacial erratics (written for a friend in Australia).

The ordinary is extraordinary in VT: maple sugar taps

Many of you, at least in the northeastern part of the United States know that Vermont is well known for its maple sugar. In march of every year when the days start to get at or above freezing and the nights are still cold, the sap in the sugar maples run. Maple sugaring is still very much alive and well in the northeast kingdom, as it is in other sections of Vermont.

Maple syrup comes from a stand of Maple trees, usually Sugar Maples, known as a sugar bush. I say my first and only sugar bush when I was fourteen, I won't tell you how many years ago that was. I was with my Dad and my Great-Uncle John in his wood plot on some land he owned on the side of the mountain adjoining the Lake. Uncle John had on old jeep that he used in Vermont, the type of jeeps that you might have seen in movies about World War II except it was gray and not olive drab. There was an old woods road that he could use to access his land from one of the town gravel roads.

Uncle John's idea was to cut a road from the old woods road down to the highway so he would be able to access his land. By this time, Uncle John was in almost seventy. My Dad and I went along to help him on this task that took about three days. I had a great time, by the way. Uncle John had an old chain saw that he used and I cleared brush and perhaps hacked away at smaller trees with a hatchet or a camp axe.

As we drove along this old woods road the first day, Uncle John pointed out a sugar bush owned by one of the local farmers complete with taps (in the trees) and tubing. I thought this was pretty neat.

I have tried without too much success to find this old road, all these years later, including a concerted effort about twenty-five years ago with no luck. Uncle John sold his land in the woods to his younger brother before he died. Uncle John got sick with what we know now as post-polio syndrome a couple of years later. For he had polio in one of the polio epidemics in the first part of the twentieth century when he was about ten. I don't think that he ever used the road that we built down to the highway, but I had a lot of fun and remember the sugar bush.

The ordinary is extraordinary in VT: a butterfly

I think that it was three years ago that I was outside my cabin in Vermont with my digital camera and was able to take this picture of a butterfly in the ferns that grow outside my cabin. I thought that this was pretty cool. Not exactly an award winning photograph, but I was happy to capture an extraordinary moment: seeing the butterfly when I had my digital camera

The ordinary is extraordinary in VT: cows

There are many dairy farms in the northeast kingdom of Vermont. At least I think that most of the cows that I see are dairy cows and not beef cattle, but I am hardly an expert. So seeing cows grazing in a field is a common sight. I sometimes great them as we drive by with a

"Hello, ladies."

Not that they can hear us we drive by.

When I was a kid growing up in the sixties, my Dad who went to boarding school in Vermont and summered not far from my cabin, used to say that there were more cows in Vermont than people. I think that the time is long past that that was true, if it ever was. But it was a nice story.

The ordinary is extraordinary in VT: wildlife

Being on a lake in northeastern Vermont, there is an abundance of wildlife. The call of the Loon’s is not hard to miss once you know what to listen for, usually around dusk. More often than not you are more likely to hear the Loons before you see them. And if there does happen to be one floating by within eyesight, if you do not happen to be looking right at the Loon at the right moment, it will dive under the water and you will miss it. I think that there is a breeding pair of Loons on the Lake. I think. However, I usually only see one at a time.

About a three minute swim from my dock is a large rock sitting in the water with a large ring in it. At one time someone may have used this rock as a mooring for a boat. Personally, I can not see mooring a boat to that rock because the lake is rough enough at times that I wonder if a boat would be smashed to smithereens! But the birds love to come and stand on the rock. Here is a photo of a seagull standing on the rock. There are some Merganser Ducks that breed near the lake. In the summer, Mama (or is it Papa?) will sometimes take her brood (sometimes as many as ten or more) to the rock where they climb up on the rock and sun themselves. They are quite a sight. I see them most every summer. It is hard to get a picture, as I have to be sitting out on the dock with my camera when they arrive. If I am successful this year, I will try to post a photo so you can see.

The sounds of the loon and the visits of the Mergansers are common. Harder to see are other animals such as beavers and minks. I think that I have seen a mink once or twice scurrying along on the rocks near the shoreline. I saw a beaver once. Every so often I’ll see a fish jumping in the water. Hummingbirds come around as well. I see the bees visiting the fox gloves on the side of my cabin, or the butterflies visiting the lilies.

The ordinary is extraordinary in VT: night sky

A few weeks ago I was writing on the general theme of when the ordinary is extraordinary. So, I thought that I’d revisit this theme as I prepare postings that will made to my blog when I am in Vermont and away from internet access. For those of you who are not familiar with Google’s blogger, there is this nifty setting that allows you to write a post ahead of time for publishing at a future date and time. So, as I write this, I am drawing on post memories of my time in Vermont.

In the section of Vermont where I spend time every summer, the night sky is relatively free of light pollution. On a moon free clear night, the sky is extraordinary. The stars are indescribable. There are so many stars that are visible to the naked eye, including but not limited to the band of stars known as the Milky Way. Most of you know that the Milky Way is the galaxy where our solar system is. But in a clear, light pollution free night sky, we can also see a faint band of stars of another section of the Milky Way.

My cabin faces west, so I am very familiar with the constellations in the western portion of the summer nighttime sky. I love to go out and lay on my dock looking up at the night sky. I am reminded of the magnitude of creation and find the stars comforting. I also get to see Venus when it is the evening sky as well as whatever planets are setting during the summer. In May, I saw Mars low in the western sky around 10 PM. Saturn was a little higher in the sky and should still be visible next week. Perhaps I will be to see the rings with my astronomical binoculars.

I’ll write back after I return and let you know if I was successful at making out Saturn’s rings with my binoculars.