While thinking about what I should write about for this conservation journal entry, my mind wandered to all the places and species I’ve seen, people I’ve met, and the things I’ve learned. I quickly realized putting such a list together would be no small task. However, these things can be boiled down to a fairly simple list- the Squam watershed offers an immense amount of beauty, I’ve seen an abundance of plants and wildlife, the community never seems to run out of great, generous people, and the list of things I have learned is extensive, much of which was unexpected.
Before my interview with SLCS, I heavily researched their website and the details surrounding such language as “land trust” and “conservation easement”, as I knew very little beyond the overall goal of this sort of organization. Since the interview, I have learned about the legality of a conservation easement and the work that goes into developing it, along with building a relationship with the property owner. I am very grateful to have gained this knowledge, as I’m sure it will aid me in future work. However, I believe I have gained the greatest amount of knowledge talking with those around me and while in the field monitoring and exploring these easements.
Early on in my time here, Ben, our supervisor, gave Skye and I a book to read that he thought would be beneficial for understanding what is occurring on the easements. This book is titled, Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England, by Tom Wessels. For a fairly short book, it covered a plethora of topics. These include age gaps in the canopy, understanding growth in stands and how that can translate to previous land use, storm effects on the forest, beaver impacts, glacial impacts, and what our forests may look like in the future.
As I’ve read this book, then spent more time in the woods, I have found myself noticing small details in the landscape that I hadn’t noticed before or didn’t know the cause of. One of my favorite things has been evaluating trees with scars on them. Did the scar come from fire, a collision, or the cold? As I read the book, I was shocked to learn how the cracks in tree bark come to be. This happens when the trees are cold in the winter months, but are exposed to a great amount of sun and heat when the sun is setting on the horizon. During this time, the core of the tree dramatically increases in temperature (over 70 degrees depending on the tree type!) and as it heats, the wood expands. Then the sun dips below the horizon and in a matter of minutes the tree is back to an environment with negative temperatures. The core and bark are both cooling and contracting, but at different rates. The bark cools quickly while the core is still warm, causing it to crack open. This is what’s known as a frost crack! I also notice things like seeing a plethora of “pillows and cradles” or “pits and mounds” (the mounds you see where a tree once stood, glacial boulders rest, or is the result of water pooling). In the case of it being where a tree once stood, the direction of fall for the tree and even the date of the storm that blew down the tree can be determined. Such simple features can tell us so much! And I have often thought of trees as such sturdy structures, but knowing all that the forest went through for it to look the way it does now gives me a new appreciation for it.
During my time here, I have learned so much not only about the environment, but about myself and who I am. I’ve always considered myself a fairly observant person, but with a mind that is constantly jumping from thought to thought, my time with SLCS and LRCC has taught me to truly take in all that is around me. To take time for the things I enjoy doing and reflection on what makes me happy and applying that to next steps in life. I am very grateful for my time at Squam, as I have built many professional and personal relationships, and created memories that I am sure I will carry with me through all of my future adventures.
