Getting Into a Rhythm

On Thursday, we started with Sam's facilitation on Wessels' Stumps chapter.  It was fun to learn a new way to get learners involved and help them step out of their comfort zones a little bit.  And all that song and dance (kind of an exaggeration) led to some interesting discussion that clarified the structure of trees for everybody.  I am really seeing how this activity-based learning, which I rarely had as a child if at all, can enhance and deepen a learning experience.  And when the mundane facts become colorful and alive, they are easily remembered and readily retrieved in your mind.  Overall a great activity!

Awesome tree adaptation!  I still don't know the full 

history but I think I've pieced together most of it.

We spent most of the remainder of the day working on our group projects, and it is feeling nice to start to get into a rhythm, both with our projects and with the Institute as a whole.  We tune in to what we are doing in the woods so acutely that we are constantly losing track of time!  There is still a lot of work to do and it's taking longer than we thought, but I am confident that our group can rally and get all the planned sites plotted just as we have planned.

This dense plot made for slow recording of data, but it's fun to look so closely at a micro-ecosystem.  

You rarely get a chance to spend so much time in such a small area, and it really

gives you a chance to get to know the dynamics of that part of the forest.

MMMMMMM!   Sarsaparilla and wintergreen.

They often grow side by side, and as I learned recently, make an incredible root beer.  

I wonder if I could harvest my own and make some...

This weekend I took my first hike since starting the EE program, and I impressed myself with how drastically my perspective on nature has already changed.  I have always connected with nature more than most of my friends and family, but I feel this strange (but strong!) affection toward the earth and the vast diversity of life that inhabits it.  And for the first time I feel like one of those inhabitants.  Previously, I thought of myself as more of an observer, watching from the outside.  I now understand my relationship with nature on an entirely new level.

Beautiful views of Lake Winnipesaukee from atop Mt. Major in West Alton, NH

Itching to Get Started!

Today, we started with some individual work on our pedagogy outlines, and I think I am making some slow but steady headway on that, so I'm satisfied for now with that.  Then, Lara engaged us in some fun seed and bulb identification exercises before challenging us to go outside and find some seeds or bulbs right near the building.  It was eye-opening to see how easy this can be, and I hope someday to be able to open a learner's eyes in much the same way.

We then proceeded to work on our group research projects, and my group (Lara and Laura are my partners) chose to do ours on the plant communities of the disturbed areas within the Barrington Headwaters.  The main purpose of this is to identify and document any invasive species activity in these  susceptible areas.  Because our research inquiry had a few different layers, our procedure needed some critical thinking to refine.  Once we had this all mapped out, we realized that we did not have data sheets!  Unfortunately, making data tables with Microsoft Word wasted a bit of our time which was making us a little bit anxious to get out there, but we recovered this time with a very productive first data collection day.  Lara [G] was kind enough to join our group, help us with the GPS, and make sure we were able to put our procedure into practice once we got to our sites.

This was very helpful and now that we've seen how our procedure works, I think our group is confident and excited to get back out there!

Trailblazing with Dan

Dan Gardoqui gave us a great opportunity today to look at a new section of Barrington Headwaters' forest through yet another lens.  This practice is becoming very freeing as I am beginning to take the lenses we have used (readings from Wessels and Orr, classroom/field discussion) and combine them with my previous schematic to form my own personal perspective.  Dan's enthusiasm was inspiring, and I found myself hoping that someday I could be as engaging with my job as he is.

I also loved how he lacked any inhibition with making animal calls and imitating bird song.  This is something that I think we can all learn from.  In order to get in touch with nature, we must communicate with it.  This does not necessarily mean that Dan is having a conversation with birds, but rather he is connecting with the birds on their level instead of using the single dimension that comes from the human perspective.  I was fascinated to learn that people are naturally drawn to irregular or distressed bird song.  This immediately reminded me of my time living in Australia with my uncle and his family, where there are extremely territorial birds called magpies.  The magpies are found in many parts of Australia (other species of magpie are found elsewhere in the world) and are very heavily populated in the suburbs of the major port city of Brisbane, in southeastern Queensland.  The first day I went to go for a jog with my uncle's dog, I did not realize that it was magpie mating season.  I was alarmed to find them screaming hideously as the docile Bedlington Terrier Lucy and I trotted past the first trees with magpie inhabitants.  I knew right away that something was not right, that these birds were extremely agitated.  It took me a moment to realize that it was me, or more specifically, the dog.  The birds began to dive-bomb the dog and even my head at times!  Luckily I was never hit.  Lucy thought it was a game (as I struggled to keep her from getting pecked), but I know a couple of people who got minor injuries from the birds and I heard accounts of more serious eye and facial injuries.  Some cyclists even wore helmets equipped with giant googly-eyes and pokers sticking out a foot in all directions, just to keep the birds away from their faces.

It's very rewarding to look back on what you thought was a minor or insignificant experience, or a funny story at best, and see it in an entirely new light.  My immediate reaction to the magpie screams, which in retrospect was entirely instinctual, was ingrained deeply into my memory.  Maybe a jolt of adrenaline helped build this "subconscious" memory, who knows.  I do know that I usually only remember distant or relatively insignificant events in detail if I continue to think about them. From Psychology courses I have taken, I learned that over time your memories are usually not direct unless they are of very significant or traumatizing events.  Your distant memories are usually just memories of memories (of memories...).  So, when you remember back to your first day of school or your favorite toy as a small child, it may be that you're just remembering how you last described it and this will evolve over time.  That's not to say you can not picture your memory, but this picture is almost always going to be distorted by time. For this memory of mine, however, I did not think of it as any more than an interesting and funny story until today.  Yet now after learning how instinct can drive human reaction to bird activity, I am remembering the exact feeling of alarm and subsequent focus on my surroundings that I experienced immediately after this phenomenon began.  My description of this event is distorted, but my memory of the feeling I had of being alarmed is likely spot on.  The feeling I had certainly feels much clearer than the act of watching birds dive-bomb sweet little Lucy.  I just wonder why my Uncle John didn't warn me...

As our morning with Dan went on, we did some heavy bushwhacking which is always a little more interesting than sticking right to a trail.  We learned a lot about tracking and identification of animals through scat, and spoke about the role of various invertebrates within the micro-ecosystem of a tree.  Dan had a wealth of knowledge and offered some fascinating insight for each question he was presented with.  He really knew how to spark our interest and excitement.  In fact, I was so focused on this that I all but forgot the question I originally asked him in the morning.  I still wonder about whether the beaver pond at Barrington Headwaters is part of the Great Bay Estuary/Piscataqua Watershed.  Though "headwaters"certainly does seem to suggest just that, I would still like to find out some more specific information about the flow of that small stream draining out of the beaver pond.  But I am glad I forgot my question and came up with new ones based on our interaction with a section of forest that was new to us.  One thing that really stuck with me was Dan's response to a question about staying on the trail with smaller children or not (a perfectly legitimate question), which was a staunch "Oh God no!"  Even though not all of our future careers will allow this "trailblazing," it's great to see how much he values physical immersion in the subject matter for both you and your students.  This is something I really want to make sure I encourage when I have students of my own.

I did some follow-up research and it looks like Department of Environmental Services did a report The Oyster River - A Report to the General Court which states that the headwaters of the Oyster River are "west of Hall Road in Barrington."  I believe this means that the water flowing out of the beaver pond at Barrington Headwaters, though east of Hall Road and with no visible tributary connecting to Oyster River from satellite view, is part of the Oyster River watershed and therefore the Great Bay Estuary.  It may not be the main headwaters for the Oyster River, but I do believe that it is part of the same network.  Satellite View of Area (no visible tributaries flowing out of BHW)

Later on in the classroom, Mary got everybody involved in her facilitation when she brought us outside to observe a small plot of ground on campus.  It was interesting to see how each of us found such different micro-environments, and to start to understand how we can help learners build a relationship and a sense of place with their surroundings.  She did a good job of demonstrating this to us.

Brainstorming Plant ID in Disturbed Areas of Barrington Headwaters

This morning, Laura helped us to understand the relationships between Native vs. Contemporary Education systems.  We also explored the ways that rituals, as defined by Dolores LaChapelle, influence each system.  The Venn Diagram, which always helped when I was a pupil (I'm going to start using that word more), was a great way to grasp these connections.  Another, less obvious advantage of the Venn Diagram is that is can help people, especially children, to realize that the world is not black and white.  There are often gray areas, and these are represented by the varying degrees of overlap on the Venn Diagram.  Just because two systems are different, they may share some characteristics as well.  Different schools of thought can even collaborate to help us with our pedagogy statements, and these compare and contrast exercises get my brain in the right mode for this work.  Thanks Laura!

Later on we split into groups to work on proposals for our research projects.  The research question and procedure required some intense critical thinking, but I think we each contributed some solid ideas for a fairly cohesive and flowing research project.  The challenge was keeping the scope manageable enough to study in the short 4-day timeframe that we have.  We had to answer additional questions outside of our main question, but these must be limited so that they do not open up to entirely new projects.  I think we succeeded - for now.  We'll see how these ideas materialize in the field tomorrow, but for now it feels good to have a direction that everybody in our group agrees on.

Below is a map of the Barrington Headwaters as it borders surrounding property.  The [faint] purple line is the boundary that we must work within.  We chose various sites that are areas of disturbance, both natural and man-made.  We also decided that within each area, there would be two plots: one sunny, and one shady.  This would allow for us to see how distribution of invasive plants compares to that of natives and exotics.

We divided up which materials we would bring and which ones we would need to borrow from the University.  I can't wait to bring my camera out there and get some beautiful photos of the Barrington Headwaters flora.

It was helpful to look at projects from past summer projects on the Barrington Headwaters to see how our final product should look, what it should cover, and how to make it interesting while keeping it informative.  We have some big shoes to fill, but I am confident that by the end of our project we will come up with an informative set up data that can be easily navigated and aesthetically enjoyed.

Invasive Plants

Invasive plants have always interested me, and today's exploration of some common exotic and invasive plants with Tom Lee allowed me to reflect on my own experiences with invasive species in New Hampshire.  After graduating UNH in 2008, I spent the summer working at the NH River Council in Concord.  We were trained to look for Didymosphenia geminata, an invasive algae that comes from Siberian Russia.  It originated in a lake, but adapted to the cool mountain streams of New Zealand, where it is believed some fisherman (or one fisherman) transported it with felt-soled waders.  Scientists theorize that the felt made an excellent mode of transport keeping the didymo alive and fresh for its subsequent introduction to America's cool, high altitude Western rivers, northern New Hampshire as well as some streams in Vermont and Canada by those very same fishermen.  Years after this experience, I noticed didymo, or "rock snot" (sometimes it's useful to give invasives nasty names to remind us how undesirable they are) out West in the Snake River located in Grand Teton National Park, and remembered the map of distribution I was shown when training for this job.  I was nostalgic in making the connection, but it was troublesome to see how well established rock snot had become in the beautiful rivers of America's Western ranges.  Rock snot looks to be slimy and smooth and is named for how it appears, but the texture is more accurately compared to that of wet cotton.  When dry, it is very coarse and can live for very long periods of time out of the cold, wet ecosystem in which it normally thrives.  This is one of a few very favorable adaptations that makes it a successful invasive species.

It was very helpful to become familiar with the terms exotic/non-native and invasive.  It is important to understand that not all exotics (exotics and non-natives can be used interchangeably) are "bad" or invasive.  In fact, the number of vascular plants in NH is around 2,500 and around 500 of these are non-native!  At first, this can be a daunting and frankly, depressing number.  But it is important for learners to understand that the number of invasives is far lower and more manageable at around 30.  It's going to be important not to discourage students with big numbers and to encourage solution-based thinking.  For example, you can propose the following to students: "instead of wondering how problems occurred, why don't we focus more on how we can reduce the number of invasives?"

Even pristine ecosystems like College Woods and Barrington Headwaters have invasive species growing in them.  For the most part, these invasives have been kept out or at least kept to the outer edges.  I wonder why this is - have we managed the invasives with Early Detection and Rapid Response?  Or has the ecology self-managed to resist the invasives? 

The social and more specifically, economic impact of invasives is actually quite quantifiable.  With Norway maple, for instance, it is spreading throughout the Northeast and compared to the sugar maple it has inferior sap (yields less sap sugar).  This is a real threat because the maple syrup harvest has long been a staple to the region's economy, and many families rely heavily on its production to supplement their income.  Tourism is also a major source of income in the region, and the autumn leaves are most vibrant on the sugar maple, which also displays many colors compared to the monotone Norway maple.  This tree species threatens our local economy, and I want to be able to teach future generations how to value the native sugar maple citing our economic dependence on it.  I hope that this awareness along with positive solution-based thinking will be a primary stepping stone for empowering society to manage these invasives.

Norway maple leaf (left), and sugar maple leaf (right).  We learned that an easy way to distinguish

 the two is to check the sap; Norway maples have white sap and sugar maples have clear sap

After our informative morning stroll in College Woods, we returned to the classroom for a facilitation from Kim that helped bring some of Tom Wessels' ideas to life.  The "Before & After" disturbance drawings were a really great idea, and I feel like they actually belonged in Wessels' chapter about Junipers and Weird Apples.  Fun activity, and as a visual learner this really helped me conceptualize the impact humans have on their ecosystem highlighting the effect we have on these types of plants.

The Importance of Local Food

On Thursday, our class visited Warren Farm near the Lee traffic circle on Rt. 4.  We were given a great opportunity to learn about some of the rich local farm history that 3rd generation farmer Randy Warren had to share.  He had so much to offer, and I really gained a deeper understanding of the surrounding land by learning how it has changed over time.  I was impressed to hear about how much time he has devoted to making his land a pristine habitat for a wide variety of species, and most notably the presence of indicator species which suggest the overall health of his land from an ecological diversity standpoint.  He also stressed the importance of local food, and reminded us to question labels like "organic" because meanings may change depending on whose standards are being used.  In order to avoid confusion, I prefer to stick with local foods when I can much in the same way that Randy does.  I find that not only is it much better for the environment, but the food I get is often of higher quality and of course, fresher.

Below is a photo of Warren Farm, a section that was leveled by Randy and his son this past winter.  He is hoping that this area can be re-used once the debris is consolidated into piles and some space clears up.  It was amazing to see his understanding of the natural succession of land, and to have a perfect example of this laid out in front of us on his farm.  Each section of land was in a different stage of forest succession, which allows for diverse and plentiful wildlife.

We each purchased produce and/or soaps from the farmstead on our way out, and I walked away with an even greater appreciation for the surrounding land.  Betsey offered us some good tools in exploring food classification with terms like "organic" and how this can mean different things in different places.  I like how we used the internet for this, because a lot of learning (especially younger generations) is moving in this direction and we will all need to use this method to varying degrees in our careers.  It's a way to allow students to be somewhat self-directed, but the goal is clear and defined enough so that they keep their focus.  This was very effective in helping us find some interesting information on America's food classification.

Over the weekend, I tried to dive deeper into this local foods venture, and I did not stop at produce.  Living on the Seacoast, what better source of fresh protein is there than seafood?  I have always seen the Marconi family lobster business, marked by the hundreds of lobster pots piled up on their waterfront property near the 2nd causeway on New Castle island.  I have often wondered where to buy their lobsters, and once I even wondered whether I could get a job with them harvesting the delicious sea critters.  I went to McKinnon's, which is a locally owned grocery store that has a great selection local meat, local and not-so-local seafood.  I am a big fan of their King Crab Legs because they are usually very reasonably priced there, but I immediately was drawn to the lobster tank because they were Bill Marconi lobsters!  Finally, I was try some of this local family's lobster.  And it was excellent!  At $3.99/lb, I bought a few lobsters and my visiting family was able to enjoy some of this local delicacy.  Knowing that this seafood was harvested sustainably under the relatively stringent fishing laws of New Hampshire was reassuring as we indulged in the classic New England summer dish.  Distance from my apartment to where lobster was harvested

I then remembered that I had 2 massive striped bass fillets in my freezer, which came from one incredibly large (40 inch) bass I caught last week.

This fish was caught recreationally, and I know that the boat I was on was far under its quota/maximum for the day.  I have kept every edible part, including two very large fillets.  I gave one to my family and they cooked it today for some friends at a barbeque.  It fed 8 people, and I still have the other fillet.  This is from one fish, and it will likely end up feeding 16+ people.  I did some research, and a striped bass this size is about 13 years of age, and it has been spawning for 6-9 years.  I hope that it produced many offspring in that time, as the striped bass population continues to grow back in astonishing numbers since the sharp decline about 25 years ago.

I also purchased a root beer at the store that was made in Portland, Maine.  Although this is about 50 miles away from where I live, I do not know of any root beers produced locally.  It actually turned out to be the best root beer I have ever had!  It is brewed by Maine Root handcrafted sodas, and the flavor is "Sarsaparilla" (one of the many spellings).  It has a stronger root flavor and more subtle spices than their original root beer, and tastes more like the actual root than any other root beer I've had. http://maineroot.com/

The lobster from with Warren Farm's garlic, garlic scapes, sugar snap peas, and root beer made a delicious local meal, in both culture and actual origin of the ingredients.  All of these things were purchased at a very low cost and were purchased very close to my home or as part of my daily travel.  I hope that I can continue with these practices and learn more as I experiment and explore the local food market.  My goal is to be able to teach people about local foods, both farm-to-table and "wild-to-table."  I feel as though people's lives are changed when they can personally experience the natural cycle of their food in this way, start-to-finish, cradle-to-grave.  Randy Warren has been a great inspiration in his display of this philosophy, both with his crops and with his land management.  The land needs an endless cycle of life and death to be productive, no matter how you define its productivity.  The more deeply I explore, the more this theme appears as it becomes a key value to my philosophy.

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: