Wednesday Journal:
Today, we spent our time at the Audubon Center of the Northwoods in Sandstone, Minnesota. The weather was sunny with splashes of clouds and it felt especially humid. The first part of the day was spent contrasting the prairies we observed yesterday at Sherburne Wildlife Refuge with the newly restored prairie at Audubon. Historically, the new prairie was an old agricultural field; the team removed the old plants, sprayed to remove the plants, burned off the older vegetation and then replanted with specific species. Bur oaks were planted to model the savannah. Their plantings are hoped to attract a couple of species in particular including the red-headed woodpecker, grasshopper sparrow, lincoln's sparrow and ham’s sparrow. …show more content…
The temperature was 62 degrees and the pH was 6.2 from the many needles that were dropped on the forest floor. This area was never logged so it represents the old growth forests. There were old species here that we’d already identified, but many new species, too. The white pine was the species of focus at this location: it is often the tallest species in MN, one tree was found was about 275 years old. There is only about 7% of the pre-settlement white pines left in MN since many have been logged. Ferns were another species prominent in this area: wood fern (gold hairs on stem), and interrupted fern (spore production with leaves missing). Another unique find was Eastern Dwarf Mistletoe which is a parasitic flowering plant found in the upper parts of tree branches and resembles a pile of roots. Indian pipe was a cool plant; it is white and lacks chlorophyll and is a saprophytic organisms meaning it takes nutrients by absorbing them from dead, decaying matter like …show more content…
Pine Island is part of a SNA (Scientific and Natural Area) which is protected. There are a couple of islands on the lake that are also SNA’s. There was a large human presence here with many cabins, boat traffic and signs (no trespassing) on some of the other islands and lake shore. We unloaded canoes and left the public landing striving for our lunch spot on Pine Island. We traveled swiftly despite the winds and searched for a spot to unload our canoes; the island itself is very rocky which made this task a little more challenging. This old-growth forested island is covered in a duff layer which is the “soil” and was laid down by the glaciers. This is where the plants and seedlings take root which is surprising because it was such a thin layer. It took hundreds and hundreds of years to lay this layer down, and it is very delicate. Not unlike the north shore, the plants here are dynamic and slow growing. Many of the trees were white and red pines. There were newer species here that we had not previously identified including: sweet gale (nice fragrance), ground juniper (sharp), and polypody ferns (very small). Older species were also identified including: paper birch, bear berry, Canada Mayflower, pillow moss, pincushion moss, reindeer lichen, and blueberry. As you travel further north from this location, there are fewer red/white pines and more jack pines and black spruces which
Today, we spent our time at the Audubon Center of the Northwoods in Sandstone, Minnesota. The weather was sunny with splashes of clouds and it felt especially humid. The first part of the day was spent contrasting the prairies we observed yesterday at Sherburne Wildlife Refuge with the newly restored prairie at Audubon. Historically, the new prairie was an old agricultural field; the team removed the old plants, sprayed to remove the plants, burned off the older vegetation and then replanted with specific species. Bur oaks were planted to model the savannah. Their plantings are hoped to attract a couple of species in particular including the red-headed woodpecker, grasshopper sparrow, lincoln's sparrow and ham’s sparrow. …show more content…
The temperature was 62 degrees and the pH was 6.2 from the many needles that were dropped on the forest floor. This area was never logged so it represents the old growth forests. There were old species here that we’d already identified, but many new species, too. The white pine was the species of focus at this location: it is often the tallest species in MN, one tree was found was about 275 years old. There is only about 7% of the pre-settlement white pines left in MN since many have been logged. Ferns were another species prominent in this area: wood fern (gold hairs on stem), and interrupted fern (spore production with leaves missing). Another unique find was Eastern Dwarf Mistletoe which is a parasitic flowering plant found in the upper parts of tree branches and resembles a pile of roots. Indian pipe was a cool plant; it is white and lacks chlorophyll and is a saprophytic organisms meaning it takes nutrients by absorbing them from dead, decaying matter like …show more content…
Pine Island is part of a SNA (Scientific and Natural Area) which is protected. There are a couple of islands on the lake that are also SNA’s. There was a large human presence here with many cabins, boat traffic and signs (no trespassing) on some of the other islands and lake shore. We unloaded canoes and left the public landing striving for our lunch spot on Pine Island. We traveled swiftly despite the winds and searched for a spot to unload our canoes; the island itself is very rocky which made this task a little more challenging. This old-growth forested island is covered in a duff layer which is the “soil” and was laid down by the glaciers. This is where the plants and seedlings take root which is surprising because it was such a thin layer. It took hundreds and hundreds of years to lay this layer down, and it is very delicate. Not unlike the north shore, the plants here are dynamic and slow growing. Many of the trees were white and red pines. There were newer species here that we had not previously identified including: sweet gale (nice fragrance), ground juniper (sharp), and polypody ferns (very small). Older species were also identified including: paper birch, bear berry, Canada Mayflower, pillow moss, pincushion moss, reindeer lichen, and blueberry. As you travel further north from this location, there are fewer red/white pines and more jack pines and black spruces which