July 17, 2013

Notes and Changes since last report

• It must have been 90°F, at 1:00 PM on July 17, 2013. And it was humid... with partly cloudy skies and light breezes.
• Definition of dilemma: the difficult choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives, e.g. to roast in the sun or to be drained by mosquitos in the shade.
• Juniper hairstreaks and Appalachian browns were around today.
• Why visitors are asked to stay on the marked trails.

The Trails

• The milkweed in Gifford parking lot was pretty much done flowering and was forming seed pods.
• Also along the edge was white vervain.
• Its blossoms, like blue vervain's, are minute but I check because once in a while blue will have a butterfly.
• The invasive spotted knapweed attracts a few more butterflies.
• Behind the Carriage House, pokeweed was budding. Birds later enjoy the purple berries.
• I was surprised to find the bottom of the Old Gravel Pit was flooded. That's usually a spring time event.
• The detour past the Deer Management kiosk also took me by the disturbingly named fungus, dead man's fingers.
• In the Fern Glen's limestone cobble, queen-of-the-prairy was up and blooming.
• I understand this pretty native to the West can be aggressive.
• A photographic challenge is lopseed, another good size plant with minute flowers.
• At the front of the pond, Joe-pye weed was getting ready to bloom.
• In several places, white wood aster was doing well.
• By the stone bridge, the alien orchid, helleborine was budding up.
• Not far away, spotted wintergreen was in full bloom.
• On the way out of the Glen, I had to stop in spite of the mosquitos to get these most interesting little cup-like mushrooms.
• At the Appendix, as I like to call the area around trail marker 11 on the Wappinger Creek Trail, were numerous "anthills". Nothing was coming or going, but I suspected it was actually a bee or wasp.
• In the back Old Hayfield, several American coppers were on yarrow. Yarrow doesn't seem to attract many insects, but those that do show up are usually interesting.
• Northern broken dashes were all over the intermediate dogbane, but so were a number of juniper hairstreaks.
• When I got to my favorite milkweed patch, my jaw dropped in amazement: a path had been trampled into the milkweed patch; crushed plants were lying along its length.
• It wasn't just a path but an entire network with some intersections expanded into clearings.
• As a secondary effect after the initial damage, plants now unsupported by their neighbors were collapsing into the gaps.
• As noted in the 7/10 Trail Report, research field work at the Cary Institute can be encountered anywhere and may or may not be immediately obvious. This is one of the reasons that visitors are asked to stay on the marked trails.
• The milkweed patch will certainly recover. But consider this kind of activity repeated over and over...
• Crushing heels, choking dust, trampled food plants, and disturbance to their winter slumbers are threats monarchs face from the same eco-tourism (if not carefully regulated) that is a promising alternative to logging and ranching in the monarch's overwintering grounds in Mexico.
• Closer to home, even with tight regulation, thousands - millions of visitors are "Loving our National Forests to Death".
• One of many finds on the web, was the book Tourism, Ecotourism, and Protected Areas by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It considers ecotourism's many facets - positive and negative - with case studies from around the world including mention of the two above. Section 3. Negative tourism impacts was of particular interest with descriptions of the far reaching cumulative impacts on soil, wildlife, vegetation, landscape and beyond.
• We humans are many and are growing on this small and shrinking planet. If we are not more careful, the next thing we step on may be our own toes.