A little Wild: The Hemlock Forest

Things are changing. The way people think is changing. The natural world around us is changing. Everything is changing. This has always been the case; change happens. But one thing is different now. We humans are altering the global environment at a pace and scale that from the perspective of geologic time looks a lot like the great natural cataclysms of the past. Think in terms of huge super volcanoes that shook entire continents or the asteroid that killed of the dinosaurs. We are the human asteroid. We are in effect running a giant experiment on how the earth reacts to change at scale and lots of data is coming in. Our instruments and satellites capture immense amounts of data every day. Leaving us with the questions: "what can we learn?" and "what should we do?". That's the context for this blog.

OK, setting that cheery opening aside, I'm planning to write about very specific places that I think are interesting. One of those places is a small (300 acres) forest that is part of Saratoga Spa State Park. I call it the Hemlock Forest though that name is completely made up. Before going any further, let's look at a map (Figures One and Two).

Figure One: The City of Saratoga Springs, New York and surrounding areas. The green outline represents the boundary of Saratoga Spa State Park. The Hemlock Forest is on the right wedged in between Rte. 9 and the I87 (the Northway). The park covers approximately 2800 acres and that includes a tree nursery two golf courses, a Hotel and an outdoor performing arts center that seats 20,000 people (SPAC).

Figure Two: The Hemlock Forest is outlined in red. This section of Saratoga Spa State Park covers about 300 acres. The forest is separated from the main body of the Park by Rte. 9 (on the left). The northern edge of the forest runs into the rapidly developing urban/'suburban fringe of the City of Saratoga Springs. The southern margin is mostly undeveloped with a connection to the Kaydeross Creek other nearby natural areas.  

There are several interesting things going on in this little bit of forest. One is the presence of wetlands of several different types including an uncommon "perched" swamp (perched referring to how the swamp interacts with the local water table). This particular wet area, though small, hosts an uncommon ecological community anchored by the presence of old growth Swamp White Oak trees. The forest also includes an old growth hemlock forest and good stands of American Beech trees that so far have held up against the Beech Bark Disease that has devastated Beech trees elsewhere. The State Park maintains a two mile long trail that loops through a 150 year old forest that includes hemlocks, White and Red Pines, and Oaks. The existing trails provides direct access to less than half of the total area though the un-trailed southern portion of the forest is hardly an untrammeled wilderness. The entire area is crisscrossed by stone walls, old farm and field tracks, and unofficial trails. Still, parts of the forest have a distinctly wild feel and the range of habitats present make this an important natural preserve.

I enjoy walking the area and capturing data that represents the "current state" of the ecological communities that are present there and that will be one of things I'll write about in this blog. This "Field guide to the Hemlock Forest" will also include information on technologies and methods that I use, and that anyone can use, to gather real data about places like this. I'm sure that some posts will start with something like "saw a  Barred Owl today", but my emphasis will be on acquiring and managing data that represents the ecological and environmental state for this area. My hope is that this data will be useful in the future. In particular, I'm interested in how invasive species interact with native communities and I'm hoping to capture a data set that can be used to learn more about how those interactions change over time.

When I was a kid I loved to read about the explorers and naturalists who traveled the world finding species not known to western science. Unless you are willing to spend a lot of time looking through a microscope it's unlikely that any new species will turn up in northeastern New York, but spotting the arrival of a species that has not been present in the past is a very real possibility. We have tools at our disposal that were unimaginable even 20 years ago. A smartphone with GPS, environmental sensors, and on-line identification guides doesn't match a tricorder quite yet, but that's where we are headed.

If you are reading this it might be because you live nearby and can visit these places. Or maybe you are interested in nature generally and my writing is not so bad as to ruin it for you. Or, maybe, and this is my hope, you want to do something like this where you live. I'll be writing about citizen science and how we can contribute data towards a better understanding of our world.

That's all well and good but you may get an inkling that the for me this is fun. The Forest is less than a mile from my house and I like to walk in the woods. I used to play golf but, to paraphrase Mark Twiain's famous quip, "that's a sure way to ruin a nice walk." There is a parking area with trail access on the northern edge of the forest (access is from Crescent Avenue). The trails are lightly used and I'm yet to see another person while wandering off trail. Much of the area is swampy so if you do go off trail you can expect wet feet. And I'm not worried that publicizing the area will bring in swarms of hikers. For much of the year the hemlock forest is well defended by armies of mosquitoes and ticks (beware: Lyme Disease, seriously I have captured many many Deer Ticks while walking in this area). For now the Hemlock forest is well protected.

Resources:
Saratoga Spa State Park Master Plan (pdf)
Saratoga Spa State Park Master Plan Map