Site Discussions

I have been a licensed forester for 20 years this month. Before that, I was a forest technician and worked on family Xmas tree farm (sold up to 10000 trees a year. Before that, I did TSI and thinned and pruned many, many plantations. I will send you some pictures of one plantation not far from here that my father (retired state forester) had planted in the 60s. I had thinned it and pruned it 30+ years ago. Pruned red pine again 20 years ago. The plantations have had one commercial thinning now.  Red pine were thinned and sold for saw timber (row thinning)in the 90s; the remaining 70% are going to be partially used for the pole market (the ones that make the grade).  The white spruce were thinned for the sawlog/pulp market.  Will send some pictures next time I am around there; probably next week late. Beautiful plantations; there are many around northern Maine; farmers planted trees when fields were no longer used or they quit farming.

The only time we get up close and personal with dragonflies is when they get caught in our bird netting. By this I mean the fine plastic mesh, designed for tossing over berry bushes to discourage birds from raiding, that I have hung over our large windows to stop bird impacts against the glass. (It works surprisingly well.) Inevitably, one or more dragonflies gets caught behind one of these loosely hung nets and we have to flap it open to rescue the thing. They are indeed beautiful and intriguing, and we get a good feeling when we help it back out into the wild.

Hi Edith,

The other berries were southern and northern arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum, V. recognitum, respectively), winterberry (Ilex verticillata), northern bayberry (Myrica pennsylvanica), black, purple, and red chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa, A. prunifolia, A. arbutifolia, respectively), American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), and American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).

To find out more you’ll have to track down the original paper, which I don’t have at hand.

Besides Arrowwood Viburnum, what were the other 11 berries studied?  Have McWilliams and Seeram published the list with the percentage of antioxidants for the berries of each species?

Where does glyphosate actually come from? What is its breakup of elements down to its natural form (as a derivative of oil or an extract of a plant etc.)?

I grew up on Gardiner - on the east slope of the ridge - and I agree that this place is changing rapidly as fire has been mostly eliminated from its previously significant role.  The berries have been over-crowded by oak, mountain laurel, sassafras, and red maple.  Many of the escarpment areas of the Catskills share a similar history and forest succession as well.  After WWII, the USDA and NYS DEC literally declared war on fire, and the rest has been history.  However, the locals don’t call it the gunks Dave.  The climbers from the city do.

I had one get into my croquet shoes and bite me, it took a small chunk of flesh, about the size of the tip of a pencil lead. It bit me in my middle toe, it felt like I had been stung by a hornet or wasp. Within the first half hour my toe was double the size and red, within the hour my foot was 1.25 the normal size and feeling very swollen. I took a antihistamine and the following day the swelling started to go down

Fascinating, it’s always great to hear how generations have made their way on the land, for good or ill. Blueberries would seem to be for the good.

Erik

Good article on growing mushrooms, didn’t know that Perlite for mushrooms is used to cultivate it.

That’s a great history, social, and forest management, lesson!  Thanks for the article.

My question is…how do you get rid of them? Cornell Cooperative Extension identified them in our siding…don’t want them there!

I just wanted to mention that the flower in the picture appears to be Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) This is an invasive plant species that has been really getting started in this area (Brownington, Vermont) over the last 5 years or so. It can really cut down on diversity in meadows if left unchecked and should be removed if possible.

I have 4 Viburnum lantanoides. How often should I water them in summer? Do I have to do anything for them before winter? They are in their second year since I planted them. They are almost 5 feet tall. Thanks.

I did this type of work for 7 years 1963-1970.

Anyone have any idea how this creature makes so much noise? I could hear the gnawing sound inside a dead spruce tree a hundred feet away from the tree. If it is actually thousands of the grubs, how do they keep in sync?

Last week, the first week of August, I brush-hogged a three acre field.  Six to ten swifts flew all around me as the tractor slowly made its way around the field.  It felt like they were dive-bombing me, though I knew they were really feeding on the various insects that the machinery was kicking up.  It only lasted for ten or fifteen minutes, but it made my day!

You’ve hit the nail on the head, describing the feelings at this time of the year. I would include watching my firewood pieces develop checking, knowing that I’ve got to get them under cover before Labor Day, after which there seems to be more rainy days than drying days.

I feel liked I’ve been doubly blessed while reading this week’s blog.  First,the poignant description of this late summer season as it slides toward autumn brings back so many memories.  Second, the tire swing photo summarizes all those recollections of decades of summers past into one all-encompassing and universal picture.

We live in Monroe, CT, and are seeing more and more bats returning here.  We also have a cabin in Newfane, VT, and we have not seen bats there for a few years, and now they are coming back there too.  Love to see they’re returning to both locations!

Aug 4, 2013 I spotted what is likely to be the very same type of snake at Independence Dam near Napoleon Ohio along the Maumee River.  I too have had difficulty identifying it by searching through pictures on the internet. I discovered that I had failed to pay attention to many of the traits used to identify a snake (eye shape for example).  What I did note was that the snake had no color pattern except that the body was the color of dried rubber tubing and the head became glossy black. The scales had the shape of elongated hexagons.  Although I was beginning to think I had spotted a blue or black racer, their body has been described as slender, but my snake was thick and roughly 2.5-3 ft long (it was curled up sunning on a rock).  What appears (at least from the pictures I am seeing) to be the distinguishing feature is the glossy head on the Northern Water Snakes.

I consider myself fortunate because some sites describe the water snake as aggressive and I was w/in about 2 feet of it before realizing that it wasn’t more trash, but an actual snake! It may have been sluggish and warming up from a swim!