Category: Out in the Woods

Out in the Woods

As Shoots Push Upward, Skunk Cabbage Warms the Soil Skunk cabbage at Great Works Reserve Photo: Kevin McKeon By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust Kindly described as having a “fresh cabbage scent with a slight suggestion of mustard,” skunk cabbage’s botanical name, Symplocarpus foetidus, roughly translates to “bad-smelling compound fruit” and nature has reasons for this infusive adaptation. It blooms in very early spring, prior to the arrival of most pollinators. Skunk cabbage’s rotten odor and liver-colored streaks…

Out In The woods

Wood Frog Photo: NHPBS Wood Frogs Emerging from a Frozen State By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust The duck-like, barking sounds of the wood frogs calling for their mates are among the first sounds we hear during our early spring walks, especially along the wetland areas of the Rail Trail. Built through Springvale’s damp valley, there are numerous vernal pools along this trail; breeding habitats loved by these early spring singers. When not breeding, wood frogs are found…

Out In The Woods

Vernal pool at the McKeon Reserve Photo: K. McKeon The Big Night By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust About 370 million years ago, the first animals crawled out of the oceans to live on land. Known as amphibians (two lives), they still require water for part of their life cycle, and later develop lungs and legs for their life on land. They are also cold-blooded and assume a body temperature equal to their surrounding environment - warming themselves by…

Out in the Woods

Melting snow cover reveals the tunnels used by the critters in the Subnivean Zone Photo: Kevin McKeon Warming Temps Expose Survival Tunnels By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust There are many ways that forest critters handle winter’s cold. Some, in fact, rely on snow cover for survival. In our area we can sometimes see slithery, tunnel-like and bumpy shapes on top of spring’s melting snow, as shown in the photo taken on a McKeon Reserve trail. These were…

Out In The Woods – Stone Walls Tell Stories

Like wall wardens of old, Steve Mallon inspects a wall forming the boundary between Springvale and Lebanon Photo: Kevin McKeon By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust Earth was born in a fiery blazing tempest 4.5 billion years ago, molten lava forming a bubbling, red-hot ocean. Heavy metals sank, forming a solid inner core of iron and a liquid outer core, surrounded by an enormous pliable rock mantle. Gasses boiled up forming a primal, noxious atmosphere holding almost all…