Welcome to the Natural History of Vermont
ENV 2050 / Spring / CCV
“Wherever he goes, this winter, I will follow him. I will share the fear, and the exaltation, and the boredom, of the hunting life. I will follow him till my predatory human shape no longer darkens in terror the shaken kaleidoscope of colour that stains the deep fovea of his brilliant eye. My pagan head shall sink into the winter land, and there be purified.”
WEEK 1 | March 23, 2018
Intro to Class
Our first day we’ll spend covering the different frameworks that we’ll use for the class, reviewing the syllabus, and going over the assignments for the course.
Location: CCV Winooski
Lecture: Day 1 Overview + Frameworks, Tree ID
Handouts:
Assignments:
Help identifying animal tracks
- iNaturalist.org (see where your animal roams)
- Keeping Track (Sue Morris, wildlife expert extraordinaire)
- Wildlife Tracking
- A Study in Animal Gaits by Steve Lekman (YouTube video)
- Tools for Identifying Tracks (website)
Other resources: As general references in natural history, the following are wonderful resources
- List of books by Naturalists (for essay prompt)
- The Field Guides (natural history podcast)
- Natural History Radio (BBC podcast)
- PBS Nature (weekly wildlife show)
- PBS Nova (weekly science show)
- Life on Terra (podcasts, short docs on lots of subjects)
- Neature (hilarious)

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:
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
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.
- Wessels Ch 2 & 3
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:
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:
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:
Readings:
- Read Ch 8 in Reading the Forested Landscape
Handouts:
Lectures
Assignments
- Tourist Test: Due week 2
- Tree species profile: Due week 3
- Twig Collection: Due week 5
- Tree presentations: On weeks 3-6
- What is a naturalist?: Due week 6
- History of Vermont: Due week 7
Resources
GENERAL | Natural history and ecology resources in general. Usually have pretty wide scope in content.
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