Maine Land Conservation Conference

Whoo! I spent Friday, April 5th, and the morning of Saturday, April 6th assisting with a presentation at the Maine Land Conservation Conference, sponsored by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. What a fabulous conference attended by tremendously dedicated people all with a vested interest in land conservation "...to train on best practices in all aspects of land trust work..."

Ken shows a diagram of a FIG Plot

I had the privilege of working with Ken Laustsen, the retired biometrician for the Maine Forest Service, on a field course workshop titled, "Using Data to Explore Carbon Pools on a Forested Acre." Ken is a superb forester and number cruncher, and his goal was to give participants experience in creating a FIG (Forest Inventory Growth) Plot by measuring trees, and to discuss where carbon is stored in forests and how carbon pools change over time. 

We went to the Tardiff Land Trust, on Middlesex Rd. in Topsham, for the outdoor portion of our workshop. Here you see Ken showing participants how to use Biltmore Sticks to find a rough estimate of the height of a tree.

He also showed participants how to use a Diameter Tape to measure the dbh (diameter at breast height) of a tree. After this and other demos, participants measured all the trees above 5" in diameter on the 1/10th acre plot.

On Saturday, Ken discussed the data with participants which lead to very lively discussions about carbon pools.

I got to chat with participants about how I use this data (on a very simplistic level) with my grade 9 science students. They have to design carbon cycle posters for a forested acre, inspired by the Project Learning Tree e-unit, Carbon and Climate (all of which follow a Forest Field Day where I have foresters, a soil scientist, and Ken lead short 25 minute presentations throughout the forest of Thorncrag Nature Preserve, in Lewiston.) Fun, Fun, Fun!

Tick activity temperature ranges

Tick found crawling on my sweatshirt!

My fascination with deer ticks, Ixodes scapularis, continues as we try to figure out how to hike in the woods without coming in contact with ticks during warmer-than-usual-winters. I have come across two reliable studies on ticks.

My first source is from the Journal of Medical Entomology, July, 1995: Lower temperature limits for activity of several Ixodid ticks (Acari:Ixodidae): effects of body size and rate of temperature change.  This article had a good table that gave me information about the Uncoordinated Activity Threshold of the blacklegged tick AKA deer tick AKA Ixodes scapularis (the temperature below which a tick can no longer seek a host in a coordinated manner; and ticks are active if temps. are above this temp. range) - The Uncoordinated Activity Threshold for ticks is as follows: Nymphs = 34.5F,  Females = 41.1F,  Males = 46F. I took the lower numbers in the mean. The Activity Threshold for Ixodes scapularis (The temperature at which all activity ceases and contacting a tick is not possible is as follows: Nymphs = 33.6F,  Females = 33.9F,  Males = 35.9F. I must note that I am not sure about the nymph numbers as the chart was difficult to read, but nymph numbers do not have much variability.

My second source is from the Hindawi Publishing Corporation - Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases, 2009 - Effects of Climate Change on Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases in Europe. This article gave me information about a related species of tick, Ixodes ricinus, in Sweden. These ticks can survive a 24 hour exposure to temperature ranges between -2F to 6F. Thirty-day exposure to outdoor high temperatures below 14F can be lethal to a high proportion of unfed nymphs.

Unfortunately, the way our climate is warming, it doesn’t look like the tick population will be decreasing any time soon. But, at least you know that you can traverse the woods safely when temps. are below 32F.

Pot Hole Season is in full swing!

Pot Hole Season is in full swing. It occurs just before and during mud season!

Caesar Pond snow and ice

I popped over to the pond to assess the state of the snow and ice. The snow is melting and the ice is getting pithy.

There are a few areas along the shoreline where the ice has melted and water is lapping against the shore! Of course, these areas refreeze each night, but we'll be seeing open water before too long!

Snow is receding

The snow is receding rather rapidly, from the photo I took a few weeks ago, with temps. in the 40's and 50's during the daytime hours.

Snowy Yard

Here we are at March 16th and we still have a good bit of snow. It is melting fast, however.

Water on Ice

I looked out the kitchen window and saw water on Caesar Pond. I knew that there was no way there was open water yet, but Drew and I just had to walk over to check it out!

And, indeed there was just melt water covering the surface of the ice. We've had several days above freezing (as well as two nights), and this has caused the snow to melt. There is a stiff breeze today causing tiny waves on the water. Ice-out will be sooner than we think!

Rain, rain go away...bring more snow! Unlikely;-)

It is raining as I write this post. We got 3.5" of snow before the rain began. But, there should be lots of melting this week. Check out these temps! Yowzer!

I've got a yen for gardening...but it's still winter!

And, this is how I feel right now!

Snow Day # 8

We got 6 inches of snow from a storm which closed schools in much of the state. At this time, school will go until June 19th for us.