Field Blog Journal 9

Jonathan Levinsohn

Using the data I obtained when I examined the history of my site, I aim to predict the physical and biological future of the Eastlawn cemetery woods. My examination of the history of my site revealed that the lot that contains my site used to be used for both farming and pastoral means during the early 20^th century, though there are not enough data as to determine what was done specifically where the woods are now. These data could be helpful, as the type of land usage before influences the successional pattern, as shown in Farms to Forest: A Naturalist’s Guide. While one could try to back out the use, via looking at what species are there now and looking though the conclusions of Farms to Forest, the book is concerned with the Hopkins Forest and the successional pattern there would be different than at my sight for multiple reasons, chief among them the large amounts of exotic invasive plants at my sight. A photograph from the 1950’s demonstrates that the large Norway maples were planted long ago.

Intuitively, the lack of trees in the middle section (between the river bank and the upper border with the cemetery, seems to a likely candidate for relatively rapid biological change. The lack of plants larger than shrubs presents a potential niche for taller species, though the honeysuckle that populates the area complicates the matter. I might expect a species such as paper birch, a typical early successional species, to be likely to proliferate in this area, as is typical in unmowed fields, but the honeysuckle population would likely prevent this. Honeysuckle develops leaves early and loses them late. This would prevent young birch seedlings from getting the large amount of light that they require to survive. Thus the more likely successional progression would come from the larger trees near the river (mostly sugar and red maple) and the trees nearer to the cemetery (Norway maple, sugar maple, and sumac). There are two possibilities: either the honeysuckle proves to be too successful, and continues to choke out life in this section, and thus preventing the older trees from extending their range and as the older trees die of old age, the honeysuckle takes most of the area, or the larger trees are able to extend their range and out compete the honeysuckle for sunlight in nearby areas once the trees have matured, which would be repeated until the honeysuckle in the center of the woods finally dies out. This, of course, assumes that human impact on the area is minimal, however it is possible that if the honeysuckle started to take over the region near the cemetery humans might intervene as to protect the view (it is no accident that the Norway maple were planted).

Examination of other areas also along the Green River, specifically those older than sections might help suggest what the land might be like in the coming years. The flood plain might gain a Japanese knotweed population (that is found in flood plains on the Hoosic River, just a half-mile down stream), which could take over for the golden rod that currently resides in this area. The area around the Green River near Mount Hope farms, however, is dominated by white pine, at al in this area or anywhere nearby. This casts doubt as to how helpful such comparisons can be even along the same river over a short distance.

Physically, the largest change in the area would be the river straightening out due to erosive forces. This would make the bank next to the flood plain even steeper, likely causing more erosion. The end effect would be a cliff like feature growing taller yearly, though humans might try to avoid this (if it gets large enough), as they have a vested interest in keeping the cemetery and the road running through this stable and relatively untouched. Ultimately, the succession of both the physical landscape and the biological community lies in large part to what humans decide to do. If the area were to be burned as to create a meadow, the succession pattern would differ drastically (reverting to a more traditional pattern) from what is likely to happen.

Field Blog Journal 8

Jon Levinsohn

To examine the history of my site, I visited the Williams College Archives, and the house of natural history. At the college archives, the amount of information was sparse. An aerial photograph of the area in 1953 revealed that the area was mostly open, with only a handful of maple trees, which possibly may still exist as the large Norway maple that currently occupy the site, though the photograph does not present enough detail to determine if they are Norway maple, let alone estimate their age. The relative lack of trees and shrubs makes sense given the large amounts of honeysuckle, and sumac that currently occupy the area, which are earlier successional species. The lack of many species later in the successional pattern, though some small sugar maples are on the site, mostly situated very near to the river, also makes sense given these data. Given that the Norway maples are ornamentals, it is likely that they were planted, though there was no data as to when or who planted these trees.

The book, Williamstown: The First 250 Years, revealed that the oldest graves in the cemetery date back to 1820, before the cemetery was established, and it is speculated that the bodies were moved from Westlawn Cemetery on the other side of town. The cemetery was established in 1842, by a gift from Asahel Ford, however it did not yet include my sight. Later gifts expanded the cemetery to its current size, in 1887, which was purchased from the Ford family, in 1926 a gift from the Bosford’s, in 1932 a purchase from the Jones’ and the Fred Emore gift in 1932. The Emore gift was the section was said to be the section along the Green River, though several maps reveal this to not be the case. My site was on the Jones’ land, which was the largest addition to the cemetery.

A stone fence near the entrance was built in 1899, and in 1917 all buildings near the cemetery were supposedly removed. Both of these events did not occur on my site, however, as they predate the acquisition of the section of the cemetery that I studied. The various maps from the era show how varying paths of the river, especially the width and possible pond (according to the 1876 map) near my sight along with the varying amounts of winding immediately up stream. It is difficult to determine whether this is a real change over time, or due to inaccuracies in the older maps. It would not be surprising that the river would change over a couple of hundred years given the relative speed. Furthermore, the river appears to have eroded a deeper channel since the 1953 photo.  Since the property did not belong to the college, the archives provided little more information.

The house of local history had lost the majority of the data that they had on the cemetery, aside from who was buried where. However they did have maps. The land belonged to lot 297 in the original town planning, though no data on who owned the land was provided. In 1856, the Cole’s bought the land, along with a large amount of the land around, and moved to the lot from Main Street. H.T. Cole built a general store off of Water Street on the property, which burned down in 1874, and was re-built. The land itself, was used in a manner similar much of the surrounding land at the time. The H.T. Cole had a “sloping” orchard, a garden along with livestock. At this point the land was cleared of any forest had any remained though the unknown previous owners actions. When H.T. Cole aged, Charles S. Cole, H.T.’s only son and Treasurer of Williams College, took charge of the land, and bought the neighboring Walley Family’s land (which had the Walley Bridge, possibly explaining the stone ruins east of my site near the river) before 1873. Here the information concerning the site’s use and ownership disappears. I intended to pursue this further should the House of Local history find the missing binder.

As to usage of the land before Williamstown was settled, it is certainly possible that Native Americans could have had dramatic impacts upon the land, such as clearing it for growing corn. However, there is no evidence of any Native American activity in the area.

Field Blog Journal 7

Video of site

Jon Levinsohn

I went to the cemetery woods on Friday morning, November 13^th, 2009. It was relatively warm for this time of year, 12^O C, with a little wind. It had been dry and relatively warm for the last week. The flags in the cemetery were blowing, though not violently. I brought a recording device to take some video of the area. I started panning across the cemetery, which borders the woods, and the woods themselves from edge of the manicured grass. I then traveled down the slope through the woods, recording my 2-minute journey to the Green River that borders the woods to the north. I immediately noticed how much quicker this journey was than it had been during previous weeks. The main reason for this, besides increasing familiarity with the area, was that all of the leaves were on the ground instead of on plants. As I walked, the camera recorded sound of the crispy crunching of leaves.

Upon reaching the river, I recorded the area along the side of the river where the water will run (I believe this due to both the topography of the land, and the knocked over plants, that lean in the direction of the current), if the river overflows. I also recorded the sand that accumulates next to the river.

I then walked down stream briefly, which I have not done before, because the path was typically practically impassable until the majority of the green vegetation in the area had died. I discovered the large rock, (it appears to be marble; Stockbridge formation), which causes a large riffle, which is responsible for the majority of the noise in my section of woods. The rock has iron supports. They form an upside down “L,” with the long straight portion going into the rock through a drilled hole, with the top of the iron rod bent over the rock.  This unambiguously demonstrates intentional human influence in the area, though there are other structures that further support this conclusion. The purpose of these supports might be to keep the rock in place, though this seems strange, as the rock is so large, I have a hard time envisioning the Green River moving it.

Along either side of the river, there are stone structures. On the north side of the river is the remnants of what appears to be a wall, and is about a dozen feet tall. In similar style, along the southern bank is a wall with a large arch under it, which I pass through. I wonder if these are these stone structures are related to each other, as they seem in similar style. Furthermore, it is possible that the supports in the large rock are also related. Could these be part of an earlier bridge across the river, predating the route 2 crossing to the east?

Then, I filmed some Norway maple seeds falling to the ground. Many already had fallen, but some remained on the trees. I removed them by hand and threw them up into the air and filmed their helicopter-like descent. These seeds strongly resemble the sugar maples’ both in shape and in their helicopter-like behavior when they fall.

I next filmed some seeds sticking to my jacket, as they would stick to an animal’s fur. Though the plant was dried out, I attempted to identify it using the National Audubon Society: Field Guide to New England. I decided that the plant was likely the buttonbush. The seeds attached to my jacket were similar to Velcro ‘s mechanism.

The lone animal I was able to film was a squirrel. It was making lots of noise, chattering and squeaking. What I found most interesting, was that the squirrel was perfectly still while making these noises, which seemed strange to me. By making the noise, the animal was attracting attention to itself, but by not moving it was difficult to find the animal, and I struggled for a minute or so to find the animal, though it was 20 feet away from me.

Field Blog Journal 6: Smell

Jonathan Levinsohn

It was October 31^st, 2009 around 10:00 am. It was an uncharacteristically warm day, almost 20^O C, which is well above the average temperature according to the almanac (courtesy of “the weather underground:” wunderground.com) of 12^O C. The sky was overcast, though the radar did not show any cloud cover above us. Perhaps the clouds were too low to be picked up. The wind gusted frequently and there is a wind advisory warning in effect for the area as gusts were reported to have reached 37 kph in North Adams.

Braving the wind, I made my way down to the cemetery for the fifth time in a week to examine the different smells of the area. The mowed and raked grass bordering the woods had, unsurprisingly, the mild odor of freshly cut grass. I looked up towards the trees, and saw few leaves. Only the now yellow Norway Maple leaves still clung to branches. I grabbed a low hanging leaf and ground it up in my hands and took a deep breath. The leaf had little smell, but resembled the smell of the cut grass. Perhaps this is due to common chemicals in plant vasculature. I grabbed some of the sumac fruit and tried to grind it up using my hands. Though my fingers stained red, I was unable to break the hard casing of the fruit. I smelled the pseudo-smashed berries, and detected nothing.

I turned my attention to the ground, which was now covered by more than an inch of yellow, red and brown leaves (mostly maple). There was an exceptionally large pile of leaves in a ditch, which was likely the destination of any leaves that fell on the grass. These crinkly leaves had no apparent smell. There were more beer cans and bottles littering the area, though I did not bother to smell them. I remembered the distinctive smell of yellow and black birch, and decided to see if the decomposing black birch in my plot of woods still had the same smell; I peeled off some bark from a smaller branch and found that it had lost its former odor, and now smelled of dirt and rot. There was some wild garlic mustard along the edges of the woods, which had the familiar savory smell that their name suggests. The moss upon a rotting log also had no apparent smell apart of dirt. After smelling several of these plants, I was distracted by a crow’s caw. I paused to listen for a brief while, and also heard the chattering of a squirrel and the mewing of a catbird. The latter two, are sounds I have heard frequently, but the crow was a rarity. I saw a chipmunk dart into a crevasse in a large Norway maple, and I re-focused upon smelling the area.

The under story of the woods was surprisingly green, due mainly to the number of invasive exotic species (namely honeysuckle and buckthorn). The pokeberry, which was brown and wilted, still had two or three berries left. I grabbed them and easily mashed them in my hand. The purplish-blue smudge smelled like blueberries and V-8 juice. I looked for some of the buckthorn fruits, but saw that they were no longer on the trees. The winged euonymus’ orange fruits and the Japanese barberry smelled the same, a relatively strong odor, which I had difficulty placing, but finally decided they smelled like squash. The mulitflora rose, which was also still green had berries that had a weak, but sweet smell once they were pulverized. The leaves of the honeysuckle and buckthorn had no apparent smell.

In retrospect, it would have been better to have examined the smells of the area earlier, which I prevented from doing by a head cold. I do not have a particularly strong sense of smell, though it would have been nice to have more leaves, berries and even flowers to examine. For instance, it would have been nice to smell the butternut, which I mistook for a black walnut, so I could determine if the two smelled alike.

Jonathan Levinsohn

It took me several trips to the Eastlawn cemetery before I was able to get what I was looking for—a recording—however this was a nice opportunity to see my site at several different times throughout the day in relatively quick succession. My first trip was on Sunday, October 25^th, 2009, at midnight. It was bitterly cold. I did not measure the temperature, I could not only see my breath, it prevented me from seeing much with my headlamp. I stopped at the top of the hill as I decided whether it would be a good decision to walk down to the river and listened. I could hear the river and a slight breeze. I used the digital recorded and could hear nothing. I assumed that I needed to be closer to the sound’s origin to pick it up on the recorded and I decided that I would return when walking down to the river would not be so precarious.

The next morning, it was much warmer when I arrived at 9:30 (7^O C).  I heard the chatter of a red squirrel, which I have heard before in the site, some cars on nearby route 2, the mew of a catbird and the rushing of the Green River, which was still very full from the recent rainstorm. I was unable to hear any of this, however on the digital recorder. I decided to formally look though the site, anyways. I immediately noticed a family of white tail deer. I could only make out a smaller deer (the size of a faun) and a larger deer. I could only see their white tails. The winged euonymus’ leaves had finally turned bright red, and the Norway maple had a slight yellow tinge in its leaves. There was some sumac fruit on the ground, though most was still on the trees, which had no leaves left. The honeysuckle had its leaves, along with the grape vine; the honeysuckle’s was shriveled. The sugar maple had also lost all of its leaves but still had its brown-ridged helicopter seeds. The buckthorn and the multiflora rose still had all green leaves. The white snakeroot leaves were crispy and most of the fluffy seeds were gone, and the pokeweed was entirely brown save the base of the stem and the tissue that secure the fruit to the plant. Few of the ferns that I had noticed earlier remained in identifiable condition. The area next to the river was flooded. I could see several puddles and the plants were knocked sideways towards down river indicating that excess runoff had pushed the plants into this position. Among the new discoveries was a Japanese Barberry, that still had red leaves and fruit, and several new beer cans near the edge of the area.

I returned that evening with a borrowed camera to take some images of the site. Both how difficult it was to get quality images with reduced light and also how quiet it was astounded me. I could hear nothing other than the river, though I fully expected some animal activity, though I saw and heard none. Not ever squirrels. I have heard that animals are often most active at dusk and dawn, but I have seen the most activity of birds, and rodents in the mid-morning. Thus I decided to return the next morning to make a recording with a functioning digital recorder.

The next morning was windy and it felt cold (though it was only about 4^O C). I would estimate gusts were about 15 kph. They were mowing the grass in the cemetery, but I was unable to pick that up. All I could pick up was the wind, and the chatter of a squirrel, which carried on longer than usual. I heard some birds, but could not figure out where they were and was unable to point the recorder in the correct direction to get a recording. I do not know what species they were, but they did not sound like a catbird; it twittered instead of mewing. I also recorded the river flowing near a particularly swift and rocky portion, though the recording did not come out very well.

Sound from Tuesday morning (10/27/09) pictures from Monday evening (10/26/09)

Field Journal Blog 4

It was Monday, October 19^th, 2009 around 9:30 a.m. It was sunny, but cold about 1^O C. In the past week it was cold with a large amount of precipitation, followed by a dry but frigid (mountain day and) weekend. I had my first observed snow in the purple Valley on Friday at 6:30 a.m. We had no accumulation of snow. There was a moderate amount of wind that would blow intermittently.

There was frost on the flower boxes on the bridge leading into the cemetery. It was relatively thick. I left my finger on the frost for a few seconds and did not fully thaw the wood I had touched. There was also some frost on the roofs of several of the buildings in the cemetery and in select patches of grass that were particularly well shaded. By the time that I had left, there was no longer any visible frost in the cemetery area.

I heard a chattering noise, which was not a bird, as I had originally thought, but a small red squirrel. I also saw a blue jay fly across the cemetery, along with some black capped chickadees. This is drastically less animal life than what I had seen a week before at the same time. In part, this is probably due to some staff mowing the cemetery lawn with a large sit-on mower towards the end of my visit, which was very loud and could have scared off animals. However, this does not explain the difference, as there were few animals before any mowing. The weather could be at fault, but it does seem early for most of these species to leave the area. Perhaps the cold temperature this morning deterred too much animal activity.

The weather has had a noticeable effect upon the plants in the area as well. The butternut, formerly misidentified as black walnut, had lost all of its leaves and nuts. The leaves were still green and often still attached to a branch while lying on the ground below the tree. The leaves were wet and soggy, unlike the crisp maple leaves that blanket the ground within the woods. The Norway Maple is still green, and still has most of its seeds attached to its branches. The seeds are brown and have a dry, brittle and ribbed texture along the wing, and a smooth texture along the seed, itself. The pokeweed’s leaves were dead, but still attached to the plant. They lazily dangled, soggy, and wet. They were still green, but darker than the living leaves. The berries were all gone. Elsewhere in the cemetery, there were large pokeweed plants that still had living leaves and even some unripe green berries. The dramatic difference in timing seems strange, given the close proximity.

The sumac, which had fuzzy branches and fuzzier red fruits, still had a few leaves. Unlike the other plants, the leaves that were still on the tree were furthest out along the branches, near the fruits. This happens because the leaves closer to the center are shaded from the outer lying leaves. Since the shade provides warmth, rather than cold, the lower leaves change color later. This temperature does not explain the phenomenon, I suspect that this might have to do with attracting birds to the fruits or the amount of sunlight reaching the leaves, as both could explain why the leaves at the ends of the branches would turn last.

The honeysuckle that dominates large portions of the woods, still had green leaves that had a rough texture, and shriveled red or orange fruits. Buckthorn also had green leaves, but still had lots of black berries that looked very ripe. Grape had lost its leaves, but had some shriveled small grapes. The white snake root had seeds where its flowers used to exist, which had soft and scratchy white flowers.

The winged euonymus’ leaves were still green, which seemed strange because I have seen these plants with bright red leaves in town, along in the area outside of pine cobble. Due to the warmer climate at pine cobble, I would expect that the plants there would change later than those on campus.

Field Bolg Journal 3

Jon Levinsohn

It was October 9^th, 2009, a little after 10:00 am. It was about 12^O C, the sky was overcast and it began drizzling after about 15 minutes. The cemetery was being mowed on a sit-down-lawn-mower for the whole duration of my stay, a train whistle blared for a few minutes, the rushing of the Green River was louder than normal, and traffic on route 2 and route 43 could be heard, all of this made it difficult to focus on the bird songs.

The first noteworthy sighting was slightly outside my site, on the bridge connecting the cemetery to route 43. A group of third-graders were gathered at the far end of the bridge staring at the center of the bridge. Along the guardrail, about 6 meters away from me, and halfway between the sides of the bride perched what I believe to be a red-tail hawk. It looked more brownish than red-tail hawks I have seen before, and it was very large up close; from head to the end of its tail was probably a little shy of half a meter. The hawk seemed perturbed by the third graders and me. It spastically turned its head trying to scope out both ends of the bridge as quickly as possible. After several minutes, the hawk finally glided down to some rocks along the Green River, where it watched us from a distance in a far less agitated state.

I moved along to my site, and I had never seen so many birds at my sight before. I first saw two blue jays perched on a small maple tree. Silently, one inched toward the other. Suddenly, both took off, one trailing the other by a third of a meter flying with seeming reckless abandon as they weaved through trees and shrubs. Such games of chase quickly became a theme. I immediately started to notice many, many bird songs, most of which I cannot identify or even give an adequate description a sound that resembled rattling, which seemed to be orchestrated as a call and response between two birds. I did hear the call of the catbird, and subsequently saw many of these birds, but I could not observe any of them for very long as they were constantly moving from tree to tree and the foliage has not yet fallen. I saw a small woodpecker (perhaps 10 cm long from head to tail), though I could not get a good enough view to further determine the species. It perched in only dead branches, and would work its way around the branch in a circular method such that it made sure that it had pecked at every point along the circumference of the branch. I was astounded to the speed at which it pecked the branch; its head became a whir. A brownish colored red-tail hawk (which I believe to be the same one that was earlier perched on the bridge) then passed over the woods, gliding slowly, but the bird songs went uninterrupted. I heard melodic whistling, which proved enjoyable to hear, but unhelpful in identifying the birds. I heard and the “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” of the black capped chickadee, and saw several on my walk out of the cemetery. I then spent a few minutes confusing the fruit of the sumac tree with a cardinal, and decided to turn my attention to the ground, upon realizing my ineptitude and sore neck.

I immediately noticed mayfly hovering lazily among the leaves of a sumac, which seemed like an easy meal for a hungry bird. A squirrel darted out of the woods briefly, near the location where I have seen a small animal hole. It appeared to be reddish and small, but most striking about the small animal was the lack of fur on its tail. Losing such fur as it starts to get cold seems to be a poor survival strategy, though who am I to argue with millions of years of evolution.

As I started to leave, I noticed that the Norway maple seem to still be very far behind the other trees in terms of their leaves turning colors; they were still very green (with tar spots).

Field Blog Journal 2

Jon Levinsohn

It was October 2^nd, 2009 at 9:15 am. It was cold–less than 10^O C, and partly cloudy. There was a slight breeze. It had rained several times in the past week, ending the dry spell that lasted for the first half of September. Sadly, I had come down with a nasty cold and could not smell a thing; my nose was stuffed up. Instead, I focused my entire effort upon looking for what had changed in the past week changes at my site.

The first striking change was the change in color of the trees in the graveyard. There were several shades of yellow and orange on the Norway maple’s and sugar maple’s leaves. What made the change in color interesting was that the Norway maple and sugar maple that were in the adjoining woods (albeit barely) had not changed color in the slightest. The black tar fungus still remained on the Norway maple leaves, but they were as green as they had been last week and the week before. I find it curious that the small difference in location (less than 100 meters) can effect the changing of leaves so profoundly; both the maples in the woods and those in the graveyard must get similar amounts of water and be subjected to the same temperature and day length. I would have predicted if there was any difference that the trees in the woods would change first, as they would get less sunlight due to competing with other plants. Sumac, which still had its bright maroon fruit, had changed, leaving a reddish hue on the leaves. The sensitive fern also looked more yellowed and browned than previous.

The green river seemed to be running higher than previously, due likely to the recent rain. Its green color is from specks of phyllite. I also recognized the marble rocks poking out of the ground at the mini-cliffs as marble, and likely Walloomsac marble.

I noticed freshly cut bundled white snakeroot laid on top of the older dead yard trimmings of oak braches and grass.  Those cut plants, along with the white snake root that was living at the edges of the woods had lost many of there flowers and had a white dandelion-like seeds in their place that had not yet blown away. The golden rod had also begun to lose some of its flowers, which turn brownish-yellow as they die.

I then went about identifying several of the plants that I had not been able to identify previously. I had mistaken a black walnut (which I was helped to identify by my fellow Burns Park Elementary graduate Prof. Edwards) for an ash due mainly to not having seen an ash in-person before the Stone Hill trip. The black walnut had nuts lying (a few were still on the tree) on the ground encased in a covering that caused them to look like a small lime in shape and in color. I saw some multiflora rose with its red berries. The pokeweed had lost most of its berries. Since I saw none on the ground, I assume that they were eaten. Small wild garlic mustard was at the very border of the graveyard and the woods, and it made me regret my anosmic situation. The bright orange bulbs previously described in my first field blog journal were the fruit of jack-in-the-pulpit. Finally, I also found some winged euyonamus, which unlike the winged euyonamus we observed on stone hill, had small red berries.

I also noticed some lichen, but no moss, on a large Norway maple. It faced the south, which also was the direction that the tree seemed to lean. I am curious as to why there is little moss in the area. The only time I have observed lichen and no moss was in exposed areas like the top of Monument Mountain. The woods bordering the cemetery are not exposed and would seem like they would be able to sustain moss.

I did see a small red squirrel, and hear a bird, I would hazard a guess that it was a cat bird, though I am far from sure of my identification.

Field Journal Blog #0

East Lawn Cemetery Woods

Jon Levinsohn

It was humid and the temperature was hovering just under 10 Celsius, but it was sunny with a few clouds littering the sky; the dew on the plants was easily visible. It was around 8 in the morning. I could hear the Green River– the rushing of water over rocks– and birds. The birds were loud, and their calls came without any break. I could not identify the calling species and I quickly stopped noticing them. I thought I might hear cars from nearby route two, but I cannot be sure. About 40 minutes later, the birds stopped, and I could hear a roar of what I think was an airplane.

The land itself is composed of a steep section that borders the cemetery, which levels out as it approaches the river. The dirt was packed fairly tight, but rocks and small lose clusters of dirt compound the difficult angle making descending to the flat region tricky. Along with the rocks, which were typically no larger than a several centimeters in diameter, there were matted dead leaves, especially along the steep section, and dead branches. I saw a large fallen tree, at least 20 feet tall, that looked like it was a Birch tree, though it’s white bark had faded into brown. There were a few animal holes leading into the hillside, though none seemed large enough to fit much more than a large chipmunk–no more than 5 cm in diameter.

The vegetation is dense making it difficult to closely inspect the regions further from the cemetery. Though several of the trees elsewhere in Williamstown have started to change their colors, the trees in this area seem to still firmly fall under the category of completely green. There is only one evergreen tree in the area that I noticed, it was short, and very wide, and it resided in the flatter section closer to the river. I cannot identify many plant species, but I was able to notice that there were some maples, about 3 or 4. All were mature, large, and lined the outer boundary between the cemetery and the woods—none had trunks located more than a few feet into the woods. These maples had helicopter-like seeds still attached, but had not seemed to have dropped any yet. Large black spots of about 2-3 cm in diameter are ubiquitous on the almost all of the maple leaves. I looked at some maples along my walk back to my dorm and do not see any spots on their leaves. There are some oak branches, with brown, crispy leaves under a maple tree, but I do not see any oaks. Next to these oak branches is a paper cup and some evergreen leaves. I think there might be yard trimmings, as they seem wholly out of place and are not far from well-manicured grass of the cemetery. Furthermore, I wonder about if the maples might have an been planted as they seem to fit in better with the trees around the cemetery than the other trees in the sections of woods.

Along the ground there are small bright orange bulbs in clusters of about a dozen, which were about 1 cm in diameter. There were flowers that were white and large, yellow and small, white and small, and purple and mid-sized.  I noticed several Sumacs complete with the red clusters of fuzzy looking tiny spheres, along the steep section. The large trees, small ferns and grape vine, with leaves punctured with holes, that had lost most of their grapes that dominates the steep section, seem to give way to more shrubbery and smaller trees no more than 15 or so feet tall. Some of these plants have berries–some bright red berries and some purple ones. I think that some of these smaller trees might be ash, but I cannot be sure. I cannot identify these plants. The area is small, but seems relatively diverse in its plant life. The only animal life I actually see is a large contingency of pesky mosquitoes, though I do see a spider’s web hanging between two maple braches.

Field Journal 1

Jon Levinsohn

It was September 25^th, 2009, at 9:00 when I surveyed the site. The site is composed of three sections, which form consecutive bands that parallel the river on the north and the graveyard on the south. The first is a steep section that covers the area from the border of the woods with the graveyard to the flat meadow like area at the base of the incline. The meadow area extends for 50 feet to a sudden 3-foot mini-cliff, where the land once again is relatively flat and bordered on the south by the Green River.

The first section is composed of Norway maple, sumac, grape vine and white snake root bordering the manicured grass. As one walks downhill (north) towards the river the trees become less dense quickly and the ground is mostly free of vegetation larger than small ferns. The ground is, however, covered with dead branches and trunks of fallen trees and dry, decomposing leaves; only some of these leaves and branches resemble the living plants in section one. There are two divets the lead straight south. One is small, no more than 6 inches wide, and less than 2 inches deep. The second is 2 feet wide and 1 foot deep, and it contains sections of cement pipe, which were 2 feet long and 1 foot wide, along with yard trimmings. The downhill that defines the first section ends abruptly.

The second section begins and the canopy that blanketed section one in the shade, does not shield the ground in section two from sunlight. Aside from the patch of sensitive fern that is about 5 feet by 5 feet, the section is dominated by dense shrubbery; it took me 10 minutes to travel about 50 feet. Most of this shrubbery is the foreign invasive exotics of buckthorn and honeysuckle, however other plants do exist in this area, such as golden rod, though I could not identify the majority of them and many lacked any leaves; The species that made my travel so difficult was a species that has a dense network of thin branches that appear to reach everywhere emanating from a small area forming a fountain like shape, and no leaves. The section is so thick that it was difficult to examine the ground. Towards the end of this second section, there is another small area of trees, which I believe are mostly ash.

The 3 foot drop that separates the final two sections is mostly made up of a dark brown dirt and roots from the nearby ash trees, though several large rocks jut out and can been seen as well. These rocks appear to be marble as they seem to have parallel planes along edges. This is suggestive that the rocks are marble instead of quartzite, the other likely rock in the area. I was not equipped with a knife, so I could not test the hardness of these rocks and be more certain of the rocks’ identity.

After the drop, there is a large section of New York aster and golden rod along a flat section of land. The soil was still muddy. The golden rod, though, were not standing up straight. In fact they all stood at an acute angle pointing east, which happens to be the same direction that the water in the Green River flows. Upon closer inspection of the area, it is clear that this section appears to be an alternate route for the water when the rainfall is large enough. There is a small depression throughout the area it opens out into the green. West of this section, there is a pool of standing water next to immense piles of dead branches. I had difficulty in identifying the species that these branches belonged to as these branches all lacked leaves. There is another cluster of trees up a slight incline that leads toward the river. These trees are mostly Norway maple, though the cluster also includes a sugar maple. The ground slopes gently into the Green river on the other side of these clusters of trees. Small rocks litter the river and stick up through the shallow water. Houses can be seen on the other shore.