Site Discussions

I have seen these traps alongside the road. I don’t know why these traps are not set in a stand of ash.  Most I see are hung from a pine tree. I would place the traps where the ash borers would most likely be.

i saw a catamount right outside my front door two days ago. the beast crouched low and rumbled at me a few times before letting out a blood curdling scream.

cool site.

USDA-APHIS is running the trapping program; they subcontracted with local foresters/environmental groups who are in charge of putting out and checking the traps. The bug trappers put the traps out in late May, checked them once mid-summer, and are now in the process of taking them down and checking them one last time. Yes, the outside of the traps are coated in stick. Don’t know the answer to the morphology question but i’d guess the sheer numbers of the bug have something to do with it. Get a big enough sample pool and you’re going to have variation. The bugs entered the country in Detroit, Michigan in 2002. They’re spreading through people (firewood), and through their own dispersal. TO learn more check out the piece we did on page 20 in our summer issue.

Is there a sticky substance on the exterior of these traps?  Are all these insects attracted to the smell of damaged Ash?  How is it that there is so much variation in EAB morphology?  Can I assume that there are multiple sites where EABs have entered our country?  No one seems to know how they arrived in Ulster County near Kingston, NY.  And now a trap has discovered a single EAB in Orange County.  There have been several road blocks and vehicle inspections along routes 17 and 209, looking for people moving firewood.  It’s difficult to believe that this will stop EABs.  Why aren’t we demanding that foreign imports come in with an alternative to raw wood products?

Who’s putting these traps out?  Is it a state program?  Is this an effort to see if the traps are effective?  There’s a trap hanging on our road just south of our place and we’d wondered what it was.  We have lots of nice ash in our forest, but much of it is bored and it would certainly be great to fight back these critters and save the species here in VT.

What about the snakebite victim?

Hello - I don’t believe for 1 second that the snake-bite victim was bitten “as he was attempting to remove [the rattlesnake} off the road with a stick” - of course, I’m not saying that such a scenario is impossible, but it is so unlikely as to strain credulity. In light of the purported location of the bite, it is much more likely that he had attempted to pick up the snake by grasping it behind the head (it is entirely unnecessary to pick up a rattlesnake in that manner, unless your only purpose is to “milk” it, i.e., collect its venom), and employed an improper/insecure grip; a 30-inch stick would have been more than adequate to keep the snake moving toward the side of the road and still stay out of the “danger zone.” I also feel compelled to comment on the ridiculous, even comical, illustration of a timber rattlesnake by Adelaide Tyrol - one would never in a million years see a timber rattlesnake assume such an unnatural pose (i.e., holding its head so high, with its belly scales visible) - unless, perhaps, it was in the throes of some sort of seizure! I would have thought that a more authentic-looking illustration of a timber rattlesnake could have been used for this otherwise interesting and enjoyable article. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to throw in my “two cents”!

why sdon’t you do a story on the problem of winter ticks and what they have done to moose?

Take a hand full of ginseng seeds and throw them to the forrest…..they will grow. GINSENG SAVED!

Had to remove a stand of black birch at a site for the future home of the Ramapo Saltbox Environmental Research Center in Ramapo New York. This is a re-assembly of a two hundred year old American Saltbox House that was used by the iron works community in the area. The research center is a field classroom to study the ever changing nature of the Torne Valley in this part of lower New York State. This is a collaboration of Town of Ramapo with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County along with students from an Environmental Studies program with Ramapo College of New Jersey. Anyway, the ‘cutting crew’ worked in a very cold time late this past winter taking down the black birch and the aroma was so powerful and so wonderful that they all had to stop and take it in. We all wound swapping stories of our parents and grandparents making home-made birch beer and root beer and such. It was really magnificent.
Chuck

Not sure, Larry. I’d love to see pictures of those chambers, though. If you have any, send them along to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

I have recently become involved in the investigation of the numerous stone chambers in Putnam County NY and environs, and during my first tour of around 12 chambers, noticed that many were directly adjacent to a swamp, and many others directly adjacent to a road. One was on a hillside, with stone wall enclosures going down the hillside to the edge of a swamp. My thought is that the chambers along the swamp would take advantage of hemlock growing in the swamp, and the use of the swamp’s water as well for tanning purposes. Would this be a feasible explanation? Thank you.

How is the wood dried after chipping?

We cant find any recipes for butternuts either. Queries just bring up butternut squash. I would assume black walnut recipes would work.

I am finishing up Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.  It’s a fascinating book and I recommend it.  Forestry facts stated by the author:  In the 1650s the grown children of the original settlers built post and beam homes covered with clapboards and shingles.  It took twelve tons of wood to build even a modest house.  It also took fifteen cords of wood per year to keep the home’s open hearth going for heat.  A town of 200 homes required the cutting of as many as 75 acres per year.

This past week While trying to ascertain what animal was in our back yard creating havoc. Using a hunting camera that flashes when motion is detected, we got a beautiful picture of a catamount. Not very large, but clearly a beautiful animal checking out our yard.

A book I recently read that blew me away was Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto (Viking, 2009).

It’s the most positive and inspiring work addressing environmentalism in general and climate change in particular that I’ve yet seen.

We all know what the problems are; this book is about solutions. You must get through the first chapter and on to chapter two in order to appreciate it, though.

Just thought I’d say that this is one of the best articles I have read on poison ivy, (and others).  I have read many as my husband’s reactions are extreme while I can walk in the exactly the same ares and remain unscathed.  Very informative - thanks.

By the way, the staff of the Memory Clinic in Bennington, Vermont reportedly got a very good look at a Catamount lion recently. He was standing there for a while by all reports, so they got a good look and apparently it looked just like the pics and statues of the catamount.