Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Sandy Wolkenberg
Posted in Behind the Scenes, Science on September 16 2011, by Sandy Wolkenberg
Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.
The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber.
The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Wisdom of the Sands, (translated from French by Stuart Gilbe.)
Following a major wind storm in the spring of 2010, the volunteers that make up the Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology program walked the trails of the Thain Family Forest scrutinizing each tree. We were mystified by the fact that Tuliptree #93, a giant tulip poplar, appeared to have vanished. We walked back and forth searching for the tree, and then searched again. Where could it be? We noticed a huge root ball attached to a large upended tree that had fallen back into the Forest. We speculated that this fallen giant must be Tuliptree #93. Our suspicion was confirmed during a walk with Jessica Arcate Schuler, Manager of the Thain Family Forest, when she found tag #93 on the reclining giant. Alas, our first–but not our last–loss.
The circle of life comes full-circle in the Forest.
Posted in Behind the Scenes, Science on September 15 2011, by Sandy Wolkenberg
Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.
In the fall of 2008, at the beginning of the Citizen Science Tree Phenology program, the Volunteer Office encouraged those of us participating to find partners to work with. Because of my variable schedule at the Garden, I ended up walking the Spicebush Trail in the Thain Family Forest by myself. These walks often occurred in the early morning when intense sun glare or mist made identification of phenological phases difficult. In retrospect, although I treasured those quiet phenology walks, I had so little history with the program and so very many questions about what I was seeing, or hoped I was seeing, or imagined that I was seeing, that the prospect of walking with other volunteers was compelling. So it was a fortunate time when, in the spring of 2008, phenologists received the following email from Volunteer Services:
The Citizen Scientists band together below.
Posted in Behind the Scenes, Science on September 14 2011, by Sandy Wolkenberg
Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.
Now, imagine that it is early to mid-March, the beginning of the spring season. Citizen Scientists excitedly descend upon the Thain Family Forest! We scan the designated trees looking for “emerging leaves.” Protocols describe ”emerging leaves” as follows: ”In at least 3 locations on the plant, an emerging leaf is visible. A leaf is considered emerging once the green tip is visible at the end of the leaf bud, but before it has fully unfolded to expose the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base.”
Aching necks and high fives! Learn more about the joys of phenology below.
Posted in Behind the Scenes, Science on September 13 2011, by Sandy Wolkenberg
Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.
As volunteer phenologists, we are tasked with observing and entering data on ten different trees in the Thain Family Forest, usually two or three trees on each of the three Forest trails: The Spicebush, Ridge, and Bridge Trails. We monitor these trees weekly for three seasons, winter being the exception. It was all very new and a little intimidating. Sometimes even finding the trees can be daunting after spring leaves reach full size and each tree’s marker becomes obscured. Each tree in the Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology program is marked with a tag about 6 feet from the ground–these tags correspond to the tree’s numbers on the data entry sheets.
So here, come and meet tree #95, Acer rubrum, the Red Maple:
Posted in Behind the Scenes, Science on September 12 2011, by Sandy Wolkenberg
Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.
On June 16, 2011, volunteers in the Citizen Science Tree Phenology program received the following email from Jessica Arcate Schuler, Manager of the Thain Family Forest:
Hi Everyone!
I hope you are all enjoying this late spring, soon-to-be summer. I have an update on the Spicebush Trail. Unfortunately, Tuliptree #98 had to be removed this week. As many of you know, it has been struggling these past two years as a result of a severe lightning strike in summer 2009. We were hoping that it would come out of winter okay, however, it did not. The arborists felled the tree on Tuesday. I just counted the rings and it seems to be just under 150 years old. We will plan to find a healthier tuliptree to add to the project starting in spring 2012 to replace this lost tree on the Spicebush Trail. In the meantime, just ignore #98 on your datasheets for the remainder of the season.
Alas! How shall we ignore Tuliptree #98? Citizen Science Phenologists who chronicle the Spicebush Trail have lost an old friend–a tree friend, to be sure–but a friend we have been observing since the Citizen Science Tree Phenology program began in 2008. This program grew out of a long-term phenology study started by Dr. Charles Peters with the help of students and Garden staff. In 2008, the Citizen Science Phenology Program was initiated with an email to Docents from Volunteer Services. A small, curious group of Docents met to hear about this intriguing new venture. The program was quickly opened to all volunteers and soon training sessions and on-site support followed.
Learn what phenology means below.
