I am delighted to report that Hartford now has a tree on the list of Vermont State Champion trees.  It is a Paper Birch, growing beside one of our trails. I nominated the tree after Matt Dragon's students in the Natural Resources Program at the Hartford Area Career & Technical Center helped me to measure its height, crown spread, and trunk circumference.  This past Saturday, Gwen Kozlowski of the VT Urban & Community Forestry Program visited the tree, took official measurements, and added the tree to the list of state champions, with a total of 154.63 Big Tree Points (height + circumference + 1/4 crown spread).

I encourage everyone to visit the tree. I put a celebratory blue ribbon around the trunk today.  See the map below, and also this link to the entry at the Vermont Big Tree program: Vermont Big Trees (arcgis.com)

Have you ever wondered what is happening in the woods at night, when we are not there to watch?  These photos give us a glimpse.  They were taken by a trail cam that was strapped to a tree on the upper part of the property in mid-April this year, as part of a wildlife research project conducted by the US Department of Agriculture.  Many thanks to the USDA for sharing these photos. 

​In the second photo below, the coyote is hard to see.  Look on the far right side of the photo.  The bright white dots are the coyote's eyes, reflecting light from the camera flash.

Students will return to Dothan Brook Elementary School on Sept. 8, but they won't be spending much time indoors this year, because of the global pandemic.  The school has been a leader in outdoor education for several years now, and we have encouraged teachers to use portions of our land to expand their use of outdoor classroom spaces this year.  Every class in every grade now has a separate, designated outdoor classroom space.  Teams of teachers, parents and students have done a great job getting the forest ready for class! 

When you walk on the trails, please be aware that there may be classes in session nearby, and please keep your dogs on leash until you are well past the brook and up the hill, so that no dogs will disrupt classes.  All of the classroom spaces are located either in the woods near the brook, or adjacent to the school building, or on the school's athletic fields.

Our brontosaurus contractor, Faun Koplovsky, has had a series of unfortunate equipment breakdowns this summer, so it now appears that his return for Round 2 of the land clearing, to grind up the stumps and branches into wood chips, and to knock down the second growth of buckthorns and other invasive shrubs, will happen in spring 2020, not in 2019 as originally planned.

Here is a link to a nice article by Andrea Shortsleeve of VT Fish and Wildlife, describing the benefits of creating young forest for wildlife, while also managing invasive plants, which is exactly what we are doing here at Dothan Brook Trails.  The article even mentions the use of a brontosaurus grinder to manage heavy infestations of invasive shrubs.
https://vtinvasives.org/news-events/news/creating-young-forest-while-managing-for-invasive-species

The photo above shows the restored field just south of the brook.  As you can see, we have opened up space around this venerable old apple tree and a cluster of hawthorn trees, all of which will provide pretty flowers in the spring and then fruit for wildlife in the fall.

Our land clearing and wildlife habitat restoration project is nearing a milestone.  The first round of initial clearing work will be finished by the middle of March.  At that point, the work will pause while the snow melts.  It will likely take several months for the ground to dry out completely, because the layers of wood chips on the ground will insulate the layers of snow and ice underneath.

Then in June or July, Faun Koplovsky will return with his brontosaurus machine to follow up to do a second pass over the cleared areas.  They will grind up the stumps (currently buried under snow) and the coarse woody debris into finer wood chips that will decompose more quickly.

I apologize that the land will look a bit messy and rough until summer, when the second round of work gets done, but I hope you are already enjoying the improved views from the land.

Clearing work has begun on the two once-and-future fields adjacent to the brook.  A second pass will be done on these fields in the spring to grind the stumps, which are currently buried in deep snow, down to ground level.  The clearing will benefit the native trees that we have left, including the big sugar maple tree shown below, and the restored fields will eventually attract birds, such as woodcock, that need open areas for their mating rituals.

After completion of these two fields, the clearing work will move uphill to some other portions of our land.

The brontosaurus machine arrived today, and will begin land clearing work tomorrow, Jan. 8.  Our contractor is Faun Koplovsky, owner of Land and Mowing Solutions.  Faun has many years of experience doing wildlife habitat restoration projects, similar to this one, all over New England.  We are delighted to have his help with this project!

​See other recent blog posts below for discussion of the background and goals of this project.

We are planning a wildlife habitat restoration project on the Eastern portion of the property, beginning January 7, 2019.  The goals are:

1. To restore and improve habitat for birds and other wildlife, following recommendations from an Audubon Vermont study of this property.  (See previous blog post on this topic.)
2. To reduce invasive shrubs (especially Glossy Buckthorn; see photos below), which are rampant in the areas to be cut
3. To open up views from many of the walking trails

The work will be done by a hired contractor with a "brontosaurus" machine, which chews up the trees and shrubs and distributes wood chips in a layer that will decompose and enrich the soil.