User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
On December nineteenth 2018 I went to the Marshlands Conservation Area in Kingston Ontario. It is located west of Queen’s University and Kingston Penitentiary stretching just shy of Lake Ontario (southern extent) northwards towards Princess Street (main street leading you to the downtown hub if you head east along it). The conservation authority is wedged between the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club to the east and the Little Cataraqui Creek to the West (for most of the property). The vegetation in this region includes woodlands, wetlands, and commercial lands (roads or private property). The Conservation Area is relatively low lying than surrounding land because it’s proximity to water. It does not have drastic changes in elevation.
https://crca.ca/wp-content/uploads/PDFs/maps/Marshlands.pdf (map of Marshlands Conservation Area)
I arrived at the site around 2 p.m. in the afternoon. The temperature was 3 degrees Celsius with broken cloud cover in the sky. The temperature was slightly warmer than average for December but there was no snow cover since there had been little precipitation of any kind in the previous week. I walked along the Rideau Trail up until it intersected with the train tracks before heading back. On my walk I noticed that some of the butternut trees and ash trees had large fissures in the trunk and some were leaning to one side or have already fallen over.
Figure 1: Field Journal
Figure 2: Rideau Trail
Figure 3: Leaning Tree
Figure 4: Damaged Trunk
I’m interested in answering the following:
-What effect do emerald ash borer and butternut canker have on recreational trails?
-What are the ecological costs and benefits to removing those hazard trees and potentially reforesting the area?
-Can the risk of further infection to other trees be mitigated in any way?
