Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Week 8: July 22 to 26

By Juliane Menezes and Sylvia Kinosian

This week we started our last project as a whole group! The Conservation Commission of the Williston, Vermont hired us to make ecological assessments in three different locations that may be placed under conservation easements. The three areas had some interesting names: Bur Oak Knoll (Bur Oaaaaaks!), Glacial Spillway (Ice Age) and Johnson Falls.


Kristian chillin’ on the tree hunting stand.


One person of each group was responsible to find historical data about their respective area. Sam, Liz and Rachel searched in hundreds of folders and files in the Town Clerk Office for valuable information about historical land use, property landowners, and easements. The rest of the crew were responsible for collecting info about natural communities, wildlife, natural and human disturbances, topography and hydrology. We also looked for historical maps and aerial photographs in UVM Memorial Library. It was kind of interesting to notice the changes of the landscape in time. In other words, basically everything that we have been doing on previous projects in this summer. We are masters at doing ecological assessments by now!


Glacial crew crossing this old bridge (One at a time!)  

We did the entire project, which includes the assessment of the properties and report writing, in only 3 days. Good job everybody! 

It's time to play What's That Small Nondescript Herbaceous Plant?!

Done with the Williston project, we started our Small Team Projects (STPs)! The projects chosen by our crew were: Gomo Town Forest (Kristian and Mike), Pease Mountain (Liz, Martine and Jacob), LaPlatte River Marsh (Julie and Sylvia), and WU Ledges (Sam, Maria, and Rachel).  We had to do these projects on our own, without the help of Emily or Laura; contacting the sponsors, planning, gathering all the maps and writing the reports are entirely our responsibility.  The results of our independent projects are still a surprise! Good Luck LANDS!

Martine enjoying the shade of a Quercus macrocarpa

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