Our Introduction to "The Woods"

As we will be spending quite a bit of time out in nature, we acquainted ourselves with two important places, one of which will become sort of like home in the next 4 weeks of the Summer Institute.  Tom Wessels calls plots of forest like these "the woods" because he remembers back to when he was a child and did not have a scientific or categorized way of looking at trees and life forms in the forest.  This was a raw, more purely emotional connection to "the woods," which is also the term I have always used for many of the same reasons of growing up in a rural town.

College woods, which I was somewhat familiar with from my undergraduate years, became more full and rich as I took this emotional connection and applied some dendrology and taxonomy.  On this first day, the class really helped me start to understand some general methods of identification and classification, and try to sort of come up to speed in my familiarity with tree ecology.  I was extremely fascinated by the way life thrives from the death of a large and integral tree.  I noted two phenomenons to be of particular interest in College Woods, and they both involved life sprouting from the death of a very old tree.  One thing we saw was a tree growing out of the broken trunk of the "Paul Bunyan" white pine tree individual.  It was very high up and difficult to identify, and I had never seen anything like this before.  It reminded me of a recent vacation I took with my family to Vancouver, B.C. (which was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen) in which a large tree was on the roof of a relatively narrow and tall apartment building.

My family and I contemplated many questions regarding this tree.  We asked how it got there (inside the building or outside?), how small it must have been when it was transported, how large its projected growth was, and whether the building was able to replenish enough fertile soil for the tree to flourish on the rooftop.  It really took me full circle to start asking questions about the young tree we saw sprouting a few stories up on top of the locally famous dead white pine today in College Woods.  Another thing we saw that intrigued me were downed trees which created a pillow and cradle effect and how much new life this phenomenon promotes.

On our second day, we met our new "home," Barrington Headwaters.  This plot of forest had many diverse micro-ecosystems that we explored through a fun scavenger hunt.  As Lara explained, the scavenger hunt was an excellent way to form a personal bond with a new place, and hopefully this bond will grow into a deep emotional connection over the next few weeks.  While College Woods got me thinking about science and sensory/perceptual experience, Barrington Headwaters prompted far more questions.  This was really fun!  I was happy to finally see this place we had heard so much about and begin to apply some of the questions we had been exploring.  We even saw a porcupine just 15 minutes into our first walk on these trails.  I can't wait to see how my perception and connection with this place evolves over the next few weeks.

Here is a map of College Woods provided my UNH Campus Recreation: