User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Blog Post 1: Observations.
The area I have chosen is a piece of municipal-owned land in Sooke, British Columbia. It is a roughly rectangular piece of forested property approximately 150 meters by 300 meters surrounded on all sides by residential areas. There is a gated road from one street through the forest to the other end for use by maintenance vehicles to access a drinking water storage and pumping station. The lot is sloped with an elevation of 60 meters above sea level at the east end and 85 meters at the west. There is swampy terrain at the east which dries out just before the land slopes up. Red alders are the dominant tree at both ends with large western red cedar, western hemlock and Douglas fir in the middle section. Many animals inhabit this area part of the time. They include birds such as hummingbirds, robins, woodpeckers and owls. Herons had a colony here a few years ago but they have since moved on. Mammals that live here include squirrel, raccoon, black tailed deer and black bear. All of these animals are not permanent residents. They tend to pass through and use the area as a sort of shelter, but for the most part they not afraid of humans and roam the nearby streets, yards and other fragmented forest properties. The area does not see a lot of human activity. Maintenance crews drive in a couple of times a week and since their access lane is gated they are the only vehicle traffic. Occasionally neighbourhood kids play in here or cut across as a shortcut between blocks. Homeowners whose backyards border the property have encroached a few meters in with sheds and compost piles. This region sees only a few days of snow a year. The micro climate is so extreme that sometimes the higher elevation gets some snow and the lower end of the property does not. The past few years has seen fire bans from about May to October; it is so dry here that a few sparks would ignite the forest.
I visit this area all the time. My backyard borders it and I am often watching the deer and birds in here. In the spring a hummingbird built her tiny nest on a branch a meter from my childrens’ treehouse. We spent many mornings sitting on the little balcony watching the progress of her babies.
Some areas of personal interest that I may study:
-
Many animals live in both the forest and the surrounding urban area. To what extent do they rely on the forest?
-
There is a group of red alders growing in swampy ground. In the past few years they have begun slowly tilting but remaining seemingly healthy until they completely fall over. Why are they doing this now?
-
There are a few specimens of “nurse logs”, dead wood that new plants grow on. Why do some stumps and logs host new trees and some don’t?
