WEEK 2 | March 30, 2018

Bedrock Geology

“Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” – Will Durant. We’ll trace the geologic history of Vermont this week, looking at the early environment when our rocks were first formed and zipping through time past the powerful continental forces that forged the Green Mountains and right up to the edge of the age of the glaciers. We’ll walk from Salmon Hole up to I-89 looking at different types of bedrock collecting evidence to tell the geologic story of Vermont.

Location: Lime Kiln
Lecture: Geology
Due today:

• Tourist Test

Readings:

• Natural History of Vermont Mountains by Nancy Bazilchuk (PDF)
• Wetland Woodland Wildland pp58-75
• *** Watch The History of the Earth ***

Online Resources

• Google Earth
  • Bedrock Map Layer (.KML)
• VCGI (in particular the Interactive Map Viewer)
• ANR’s Geology Page
• Also good: The Evolution of Fish gives a great overview of some basics of geologic history and evolution.
• The youtube channel, Epic History, has a bunch of other great docs on evolution.

WEEK 3 | April 6, 2018

Glaciers + Surficial Geology

Glaciers have had a tremendous impact on both shaping the landscape but also creating the soils on which Vermont forests would grow. We’ll scour the ground looking for evidence of Vermont’s glacial history.

Location: Macrae Farm Park (Meeting at CCV @ 8:30am)
Lecture: Soils and Glaciers

Presentations

• Species Profile

Readings + Handouts:

• Ch 9 in Written in Stone by Chet Raymo (PDF)
• Read ch 7 in Reading the Forested Landscape
• Read “The Laurentide Ice Sheet and its Significance” (PDF)
• Handout: Soils

Presentations

• Boxelder
• Silver maple
• Staghorn sumac

Online Resources

• Web Soil Survey
• VCGI (in particular the Interactive Map Viewer)
• ANR’s Geology Page (particularly the surficial geology map)
• Movies
  • Extreme Ice (NOVA)
  • Chasing Ice (costs money to rent on YouTube, may be available in other places)
  • The Big Freeze (BBC)

WEEK 4 | April 13, 2018

Water + Beavers + Invasives

While natural communities can be helpful in understanding Vermont’s landscape, much of Vermont’s history is fraught with disturbances. Fires, glaciers, plowing, grazing, we’ve seen it all! We’ll look specifically at a disturbed landscapes to see primary succession in action. If we’ve got enough time, we’ll head to Colchester Bog to see an entirely different ecosystem in action.

Tree Species Presentations: 

• Silky dogwood
• Common buckthorn
• Speckled alder

Resources

• VCGI (Natural Communities mapping program)
• Slow Water Movement + ANR mapping of natural communities (link)

Help identifying trees

• iNaturalist.org (see where your tree grows)
• Sylvics of North America (help with ecology of your tree)
• Virginia Tech Tree ID (help with what your tree looks like)
• Tree ID with Donald Leopold (podcast)

WEEK 5 | April 20, 2018

Old Forests + People

Our focus today will be on pieces together clues from the landscape into telling stories. We’ll look at some of the legacies from the 19th century.

Location: East Woods
Due today:

• Twig Collection

Readings:

• Wessels Ch 5 & 6

Tree Species Presentations: 

• Eastern Hemlock
• Yellow birch
• White ash

Help identifying trees

• iNaturalist.org (see where your tree grows)
• Sylvics of North America (help with ecology of your tree)
• Virginia Tech Tree ID (help with what your tree looks like)
• Tree ID with Donald Leopold (podcast)

WEEK 6 | October 13, 2017

Reading the Farmed Landscape: Humans on the Land

We’ll spend our time this week and next looking at how human activities impacts the natural world. This week we’ll look at farming and the process of revegetation at Wheeler Natural Area.

Location: Wheeler Natural Area (map)
Due today:

• “What is a Naturalist?” Essay

Readings + Handouts:

• 1-24 in Time and Change in Vermont by Harold Meeks (PDF)
• Wessels Ch 4 & 8

Presentations

• American beech
• Red oak
• Sugar maple

Online Resources

• Ancestry.com
• Beers Atlas of 1869 (available online)
• Walling’s Maps from 1850s (download here)

Suggested Readings about Abenaki and early history

• Voice of the Dawn: An autohistory of the Abenaki Nation by Frederick Wiseman
• The Original Vermonters by Haviland & Power
• The Story of Vermont: A natural and cultural history by Klyza & Trombulak
• Changes in the Land by William Cronon
• New England Forests Through Time by David Foster

WEEK 7 | March 9, 2017

Field Final

We’ll put our skills to the test with a field final. You’ve got lots of practice interpreting landscapes. This will be an opportunity to test out your ability to go into a landscape and interpret its history. We’ll visit two locations with unique histories and see some other cool resources that help us tell the story of a landscape.
Location: My house (map)
Due today:

• Story of Vermont

Readings:

• Read Ch 8 in Reading the Forested Landscape

Handouts:

• Field final