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Blog Post 1 – Observations
The location I have chosen to study is along Coquitlam River Trail on the Port Coquitlam side. It is a large area spanning many kilometres, but I have chosen a plot of about 75m X 75m. Weather was cloudy, 19 degrees with no visible wind. Area was visited on September 7th 2019 at 15:00-16:30. It features a large river, flowing moderately with clear greenish brown water. In the river is a small rock dam, most likely built by humans. In this area there is less water flow and about 15 bugs are present on the waters surface. Lining the river are large elm trees and shorter plants with large and flat green leaves. These shorter plants host many spiders in their webs. Western sword fern are approximately 4-5 metres from the rivers edge on a higher bank. Pine and maple trees are in the same area, and are more present further back into the forest. Trees with flat branches and soft needles are present as well – possibly hemlock. One log on the rivers edge is covered in Oyster mushrooms, including one large one about 20cm long. No other logs nearby have these mushrooms present. There are a few small paths going into the forest with trampled vegetation, possibly from humans, dogs, bear, coyote or deer. Birds can be heard but not seen.
Questions arising from this observation:
Why are the Oyster mushrooms only on this one log?
Why are most of the Elm trees leaning towards the river?
I noticed that the larger trees are beginning to change colour, but the shorter shrubs and younger elm are not. Is there a reason for this?
The river bed contains sand and large rocks, but nothing in between. Why are there no smaller stones present? And why do only the rocks on shore have moss, not ones that are partially in the river?
Why are there no maple trees near the rivers edge?
Do only certain plants survive near the rivers edge?
