User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
For my field observations, I have chosen Cottonwood Park in Prince George, BC. This is an interesting area, as it is a city park where the Fraser River and the Nechako River meet, but the majority of my study area only includes the Nechako river. This area is a river bottom, which is surrounded by industrial sites on the south side, and a very steep cut bank on the north side. My study area is in the SBSmh and is approximately 200 hectares in size, which includes the area of the adjacent rivers, but my observations will mainly occur on a 4.8km trail that I walk regularly (Figure 1).
Figure 1
However, I rarely walk the whole trail loop each time. As I do walk there often, I usually walk different sections at different times of the day and/or week.
To begin my observations, I walked the western portion of the trail on December 17, 2019, from 12:00-12:50pm. The sky was overcast, it was very windy, and was approximately 4 degrees. There was a big snowfall on the previous day, about 10-20cm, but it is already starting to melt due to the temperature. This park, as one could likely have guessed, contains many cottonwood trees. There are big veteran cottonwood stems all along the river bank, as well as many regenerating clones in the understorey.The understorey vegetation is surprisingly limited for a seemingly wet site. The only noted species were red-osier dogwood, black hawthorne, saskatoon berry, mountain ash, rose, as well as some different grasses. Parts of the river are frozen at this time, but only at the edges or in shallower areas. There isn’t much as far as animal signs, other than squirrel sightings today. However, as I do spend a lot of time here, I have seen chickadees, magpies, ospreys, hawks, eagles, hares, foxes, and bears during other visits. There are many signs of erosion here, as the trails have had to be moved in some spots, the retaining walls have begun to fall, and the concrete is cracked and broken throughout.
Some observations that I have made that may have potential for a research hypothesis are:
- Does the fur color of hares change due to temperature or snowfall?
- There appears to be only one fox that occupies the area, is this due to food, habitat size, predators, or industrialization in the area?
- Do cottonwood trees that are closer to the river rot faster or slower than those closer to the road?
