May 2020 - May 14th Walk
ACTIVITY ALERT - We've found her! A mid-spring walk in our neck of the woods.
May 14, Saturday. A walk through the springtime forest to see the new foliage and hear our resident birds welcoming spring
Meet at 9 a.m. at the intersection of Copicut Road and Dam Road, Fall River.
Directions to meeting location from Route I-195 or Route 6:
Take the Reed Road exit, north, off Route I-195. If on Route 6 turn north at Reed Road, Dartmouth.
Reed Road becomes North Hixville Road and continues north through Hixville.
Still on North Hixville Road you will pass the New Bedford Rod and Gun Club which will be on your right.
Approximately 1 mile from the New Bedford Rod and Gun Club sign, still on North Hixville Road, take next right onto Copicut Road at the Copicut Chicken Farm. Just beyond the farm will be a road to the right, closed to vehicular trespass by a yellow gate. We will park adjacent to the Jersey barriers that line the road at that location. Do not block the gate.
Walk as far as you want or stay with walk leaders for the entire, approximately 3 mile, walk. Wear appropriate shoes/boots for walking mid-spring trails.
Water is always a good idea. A snack is nice too. May starts mosquito and black fly season. Insect repellents containing DEET or Picaridin work best.
Rain cancels walk.
Forsythia gone wild at Wernick Farm Reserve, a Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust (DNRT) property, adjacent to the southern edge of the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve. Forsythia's original home range is southeastern Europe and Asia.
Gill-over-the-ground (Glechoma hederacea) arrived in North America with the first Europeans that brought it along with their cattle and their fodder. This alien invasive groundcover has a square stem and is in the mint family. Gill-over-the-ground has human medicinal and culinary uses.
Yea! An early blooming native. Shadbush, juneberry or serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) grows in wet areas and received one of its popular names because it blooms in the spring at the same time American shad (Alosa sapidissima) are ascending local rivers to spawn. Shadbush produces an edible berry in early summer.
A cluster of shadbush blossoms.
Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) flowers. Other Vaccinium species and huckleberries, Gaylussacia species, are blooming now too.
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ACTIVITY ALERT - Reminder - A mid-spring walk in the woods
May 14, Saturday. A walk through the springtime forest to see the new foliage and hear our resident birds welcoming spring
Spring brings flowers, lots of green and new beginnings. It only comes once a year. You don't want to miss it.
Woodsy babies are enjoying spring too. If you find a wild baby, leave it alone. Momma is probably nearby and nervously watching you.
Meet at 9 a.m. at the intersection of Copicut Road and Dam Road, Fall River.
Directions to meeting location from Route I-195 or Route 6:
Take the Reed Road exit, north, off Route I-195. If on Route 6 turn north at Reed Road, Dartmouth.
Reed Road becomes North Hixville Road and continues north through Hixville.
Still on North Hixville Road you will pass the New Bedford Rod and Gun Club which will be on your right.
Approximately 1 mile from the New Bedford Rod and Gun Club sign, still on North Hixville Road, take next right onto Copicut Road at the Copicut Chicken Farm. Just beyond the farm will be a road to the right, closed to vehicular trespass by a yellow gate. We will park adjacent to the Jersey barriers that line the road at that location. Do not block the gate.
Walk as far as you want or stay with walk leaders for the entire, approximately 3 mile, walk. Wear appropriate shoes/boots for walking mid-spring trails.
Water is always a good idea. A snack is nice too. May starts mosquito and black fly season. Insect repellents containing DEET or Picaridin work best.
Rain cancels walk.
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ACTIVITY ALERT - Past Saturday's hike and upcoming June Turtle Walk
After a cold and often windy April, lasting into mid-May, this past Saturday's sunny and warm weather was spring perfect for a walk in the woods from Miller Brook and the Copicut Reservoir, south, to Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust's (DNRT) Wernick Farm Reserve.
June's walk will be our turtle walk if we can find some cooperating turtles. An email will go out on that walk the last week in May. Watch for it.
Walk photos, below, by Liz.
Walk leader Roger leading the way.
Our beautiful American dogwood is slowly disappearing from area woodlands due to an alien fungal disease. Losing another piece of biodiversity. More on American dogwood below these photos.
Viewing old cellar hole on the Wernick Farm Reserve.
A farm pond at Wernik Farm Reserve surrounded by frogs and a few calling American toads. To hear an American toad call, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6-8pC8o5fw
Here's more on our imperiled American dogwood:
American dogwood is an understory tree, one of our most shade tolerant tree species, found growing in well-drained uplands at the forest edge and on ridge flats and hillsides in open forest from southern Maine to northern Florida and west to east Texas, east Oklahoma, southern Missouri, east to southern Michigan over to extreme southern Ontario.
In the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB) the dogwood blooms in early May. The inconspicuous white to yellowish-green flowers are grouped in terminal clusters surrounded by four large and showy white bracts (petals) that are 2 to 3 inches across. Flowers open just before the leaves begin to unfold. The dogwood flowers are bisexual, but they can’t self-fertilize. Other dogwoods must be in the area for only cross-pollination will result in fruit and viable seed. Dogwood leaves are oval and opposite each other. They are 3 to 5 inches long, light green in summer turning reddish-brown in fall.
The fruits of the dogwood are bright red drupes (fleshy fruit with a central stone). They ripen in early fall and are much sought after by many forest birds and mammals. The drupes are inedible to humans. They were formerly used as a quinine substitute in treating malaria.
Most local wild dogwoods are 8 to 15 feet in height. Extremely favorable conditions may produce a dogwood 30 feet in height with a trunk 12 to 15 inches in diameter. The American Forestry Association’s “champion” dogwood tree is 55’ tall with an 18 inch diameter trunk.
The reddish-brown wood of the dogwood is very fine-grained and dense. It is used to make knife and tool handles, golf club heads, mallet heads, game calls, spools and other small wooden items requiring hard wood.
The effects of alien fungi and insects on our tree species are well known. Few North American tree species have been spared attack by introduced fungal and insect pests. Our dogwood is no exception. Our beautiful dogwoods are under attack and succumbing to anthracnose.
Anthracnose, Discula destructans, is an alien fungal disease that arrived in the United States around 30 years ago. It is deadly to dogwoods.
Dogwoods attacked by anthracnose have purple-bordered leaf spots and wrinkled tan areas that soon spread shriveling the entire leaf. These dead leaves often stay hanging from the tree’s infected branches. Branches die back, cankers form under the bark and the tree weakens and dies.
Dogwood is also attacked by various native leaf eating insects and wood borers, but the tree evolved with these predators. Not having evolved with anthracnose, leaves dogwood defenseless when it is attacked.
Some dogwoods seem to be developing genetic resistance to the disease. Dendropathologists are also trying to save the dogwood using new genetic technologies to produce an anthracnose resistant strain.
Take a walk in the SMB and say a few encouraging words to any dogwood you meet while on your ramble. If no one is watching, a hug is okay too.
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