What is the nature of the substrate of your site, and how does it influence the vegetation there?

At our site, we found upon digging our pit that the parent material was only a few feet from the surface. Consequently, we speculated that our site had shallow sandy soils with a pH of 6.5 (slightly acidic). For most plants and trees growing on top, a pH between the range of 6-7 is great for nutrient exchange and drainage from  water runoff.

We labeled our soil, Farmington Extremely Rocky Loam (FaE), which is associated with steep slopes and rocky bedrock. Therefore, the bedrock exposed and the rocky parent material below allowed for an optimal pH range for many understory and over story species to grow.

Main Types of Vegetation Found (in our rocky shallow soil)

·         Red Maple

·         Sugar Maple

·         Ironwood

·         Red Oak

These trees according to the USDA plant database prefer well drained, most, fertile soil. Therefore, an optimal pH range of 6.5 and a steep slope gradient allowed for the drainage of water and the concentration of many important macronutrients.

What are the three most common herbaceous species found there?

Due to the slope aspect and understory composition, we did not note many herbaceous species at our site. However, we did record only a few spots of ferns growing at the lower elevations of our site. Another type of species found growing at a few spots in our hectare was poison ivy.

1.    Sensitive fern

2.    Christmas fern

3.    Poison ivy

Despite only a few noted herbaceous species, we did however, observe moss (bryophyte) covering the rocky bedrock of our site.

How many woody plant species are there on your site, and how are they distributed?

Here is a generated graph of the types of woody plant species found at our site. The numbers along the y-axis are arbitrary but their purpose is to illustrate what you would most likely see walking around our site.

Is your site representative of the surrounding forest?

Despite the forest topography changing from flat to a steep slope it seemed evident that the types of trees found in our specific site coincided with the surrounding forest. The only major observation when surveying the surrounding landscapes is the amount of noted exposed bedrock found at our site. Regardless, trees such as; red maple, red oak, sugar maple, red pine, and iron wood were the most common trees seen. Regardless of our site being the highest in elevation, the type of trees found were consistent throughout the Niquette Bay State Park.  

However, soil composition and fertility will change throughout the landscape of the forest due to the fact that there was a stream at the bottom on the valley and other topographic aspects not found at our higher elevated site.

What will our site look like in the year 2111?

In roughly a hundred years from now our site in Niquette Bay will remain a forest dominated by trees like the red maple, American beech and the sugar maple. It can be seen the mid and low story (young trees) were mostly red maples, sugar maples and American beeches. These trees are normally found together and can survive a degree of variation in soil pH and water availability. Even if there was a forest fire that destroyed all canopy layers at our site, these trees would still dominate the rocky landscape as they are competitive early successional/ fast growing trees.

What do we think the forest was like 400 years ago?

Our hectare of forest at Niquette Bay State park was located very close to the beautiful Mansfield Vista along the Muhley trail. Every time we had a lab section, we hiked about 1.2 miles, gaining 400-420 feet in elevation by the time we reached our site. It easily took us 20 minutes just to get there!

Even though it took us a while to figure out the exact location of our site, I can remember the first time I saw it. The forest was composed of a dense stand of Ironwood (Ostraya virgiana,) American Beech (Fagus grandfolia,) Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra,) Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum,) Red Pine (Pinus resinosa,) and the occasional Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata). By definition, the composition and location of this forest community species indicates that the forest can be identified as mid-late successional. According to one age estimate, mid-late successional forests can generally span from 50-150+ years old, (“Georgia Farm,” 2012).  As we were walking down a rocky embankment, I can remember seeing a gnarled sugar maple- 43.3 inches in diameter, 80 feet in height, and approximately 6o years in age. It ended up being the biggest, and quite possibly the oldest, tree in our plot. However, as we got thinking, this tree has only been in that spot for the past 60 years or so. What did the land look like before that?

400 years ago, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain brought the first white explorers to Vermont (Guyette, 2012). Immediately, he fell in love with the un-interrupted beauty of the natural landscape. In the valleys and lowlands, forests were composed of dense stands of hardwoods: oaks, maples, Eastern Hemlock and birches. In the mountains, pines, spruces, and yellow birch reigned. Generally, I think our site would follow this same regional trend. This hypothesis is furthermore supported by the optimal seedbed of rich leaf litter, glacial till, and bedrock that exists in our site today. 400 years ago, our site at Niquette Bay State Park wouldn’t be a bad place for a forest to thrive!

Literature Cited:

"Georgia Farm*A*Syst: Forest Resources Management B 1152-18." Georgia Farm*A*Syst: Forest Resources Management. The University of Georgia: College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, 21 May 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.caes.uga.edu/publications/pubDetail.cfm?pk_id=6977>.

Guyette, Elise A. "Gathering and Interactions of Peoples, Cultures, and Ideas." French Settlement Of Vermont. Flow of History, 2012. Web. 22 Oct. 2012. http://www.flowofhistory.org/themes/movement_settlement/french.php.

What are our team’s favorite characteristics of the site?

Here is a diagram of some of our favorite things and what we loved doing at our site.

What signs of humans (past and present) were there in and around our site?

The most obvious sign of human disturbance at our site was the Muhley trail itself. As seen in our hand-drawn map, the trail transects a portion of our site. Another sign of humans close to our site was an old fence post just outside the north end of our hectare. Also seen around the trail were remains of dog scat.

Management recommendations we have for park managers?

Our site was dominated by red maple and, therefore, one of the suggestions we propose for park managers is a forestry technique known as “single selection.” By removing a few of the red maples you can allow for other species to grow and compete, instead of a forest dominated by a single tree. As they say, “too much of anything is never a good thing.” By removing a few red maple we can allow the growth of other species (sugar maples and oaks).