Sometimes I repost some of these reports to my own group on Yahoo. I've had my group for almost 9 years. It's for people interested in the Pine Barrens, and members can discuss nature and the ecosystems, hiking and other recreation, local history and ghost towns, churches, cemeteries, folklore, Geocaching, Letterboxing, and also books and maps, and anything else on topic. Oh geez, I just checked my membership stats. It says I have 495 members. I had no idea. I thought it was closer to 300. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ghosttownsofsouthernnj/ Anyway, about a half hour ago I measured a tuliptree in Egg Harbor City. I'll post about that within the hour, and send along the pictures. Barry
--- On Sun, 5/24/09, JennyNYC <[email protected]> wrote: From: JennyNYC <[email protected]> Subject: [ENTS] Re: Bogs and bog plants, etc To: "ENTSTrees" <[email protected]> Date: Sunday, May 24, 2009, 7:14 AM Barry, Thank you for this evocative description. I feel like some of these "day reports" should be printed in some local paper or newsletter. People appreciate and protect when they know how special a place is. Maybe local people already do, but even then, it would be nice for people to read. I know it's a hassle to get things in print anywhere, I just wish your community could read this as well as us. (Maybe they do if you post on another group too. Hope so.) Jenny On May 23, 11:54 pm, Barry Caselli <[email protected]> wrote: > ENTS, > Today I went up in Wharton State Forest to eat my lunch and then to search > out wetlands plants, especially carnivorous plants, to photograph with the > digital camera. First I went to the ghost town of Harrisville and saw some > sundews there. I'm not sure if they were round-leaf or spatulate-leaf > sundews. The Harrisville pond had thousands of Swollen Bladderwort on it, in > full bloom. That was cool. Then I went up to the ghost town of Martha > Furnace. Near there, there is a bog along the Wading River. I checked that > out and photographed tons of either spatulate-leaf or round-leaf sundews and > also thread-leaf sundews. There are dozens or perhaps hundreds of pitcher > plants there, many of them in full bloom. But I estimate that there are tens > of thousands of sundews, probably of all three species. After spending time > in that bog and along the river bank I went into Martha Furnace and checked > out all the Catalpa trees there, which I've discussed here before. I > wanted to see if all the ones I thought were alive actually were. They are! > One was barely hanging on to life, while all the other half-dead-looking > Catalpas that I thought were alive last winter definitely are. Catalpas seem > to be a really tenacious tree. They are amazing, living with the roots half > out of the ground, trunks hollow or broken in half, etc. > > After I was done there I drove to the ghost town site of Calico, arguably the > most mysterious and least known ghost town in the Pine Barrens. I wanted to > see the wetland where the beaver pond is. The beavers have expanded a > pre-existing wetland into a good-sized pond, making two large and deep > puddles in the sand road that goes through there, the Calico-Warren Grove > Road. When I got to the beaver pond I found a man there who was sitting in a > lawn/beach chair, relaxing, listening and watching birds, and whatever else. > I hung out there a long time. Every now and then some frogs would call. > Finally some Pine Barrens Treefrogs started calling. I turned on my digital > camera to video and recorded the sound during the last time the frogs were > calling. That was very cool. > > During the entire day I photographed trees and ferns. I took pictures of > several Blackjack Oaks. Most of them are either very young or stunted. I only > saw one that was tree-sized, and it wasn't big. It's rare to find a large > fully grown Blackjack Oak. I also photographed some Scrub Oak. Most Blackjack > Oaks are about the same size as nearby Scrub Oaks, even though they are > supposed to get to be tree-size. > > So it was another fun day out. The day I stopped at Batsto to see the > chopped-up oak tree I photographed a lot of Blue Flag iris along one of the > roads, and then tons of Blue-eyed Grass in an open semi-wetland near Batsto. > > By the way, the Mountain Laurel, all around, is now in bud. In fact I found > one or two that were starting to bloom. I also found blueberry bushes with > blueberries on them. The berries are small and green right now, as it's still > early in the season. While I'm out in the woods I often wonder how old and > how big a blueberry bush can get to be, or how old and how big a Scrub Oak > can get to be. It would b e interesting to know. > Barry --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
