Field Journal 1
Jon Levinsohn
It was September 25th, 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.