Site Discussions

You there, Mike? Should we contact next of kin?

The bee, the wonderful being builders of honey, seems to have been the first animal “domesticated” by man. Art in handling to use their products, care for their illnesses raise them to fight, knowledge of beekeeping and the union of us involved in it, is the main reason for my job.

The Manomet Center is a disgrace to science.  Suggesting that Biomass is as bad as coal or worse is patently stupid and completely unjustifiable.  What people fail to understand is harvest occur every day and hundreds of thousands if not millions of tons of wood waste is left to simply rot on the ground.  That wood will release its carbon.  Because of idiots like those at Manomet, selling ideology instead of science, we have no market for that waste wood.  We should be paying loggers to collect it and deliver it to Biomass Plants for fuel.  This would support the forest industry and allow it to thrive and provide quality jobs to bright young professionals who can ensure that the forests are properly managed and harvested sustainably. Manomet has only harmed the forest industry and in so doing has put forests in jeopardy, not saved them.

I have these birch polypores I found at the lake from birch trees and I’ve heard that they can be medicinal. I want to use them as a daily tonic but I’m not sure (of these old ones I found) can be of use for anything. I’d be interested if you have additional information on these.
I was initially looking for chaga mushrooms, but found these instead.
Thanks

I hung one up today; it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.  The tree was leaning in an opposite way I intended for it to fall and landed against another tree in the wrong direction.  Headed back tomorrow up Griffin Creek with a come-along to encourage it to fall without killing me.  If it was a buckskin larch it would be an anticipated trip rather than an obligation.  However, since it is a lesser tree, it’s an obligation to just get it down.  If it doesn’t kick out and kill me, I’ll be in touch.

I found one this morning it was blueish white and about 3 inches long, is this the same species that you found?

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?