Fieldwork

As it was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatues well into the 50s, I decided this morning to make a trip out to the Blackwater Ecological Preserve where I'm conducting my thesis research. It's still a month too early in the season to begin the actual fieldwork, so today's trip was one of exploration. There are many places in the preserve that I have not had the opportunity to visit so today it was a matter of heeding Frost's advice about the road less traveled. Actually, roads are few, so it's a matter of selecting a patch of woods and bog less traveled. And today I knew exactly where I wanted to go.

At the back of the preserve is a stand of long leaf pines which was burned I believe last year. These pines comprise a part of a unique ecosystem in which fire plays a key role in clearing out plant species that compete with this particular type of pine tree, which indicentally is fire-tolerant. From what I've heard, the preserve comprises the northernmost stand of such pines in the U.S and is also home to many unique or otherwise rare plants in Virginia. Or so I'm told. I'm not much of botanist at all. My goal for today was to cross this charred, sandy terrain dotted with the occasional cactus and pine and explore the lower river floodplain on the far side.

So across the pine "barrens" I went then disappeared into the thickets. The terrain here is a mix of oak, pine, and assorted scrub and drops off to a seemingly impenetrable bog. But it's only impenetrable if you don't want to get your feet wet. As I accept this sort of thing as a minor inconvenience I maneuvered across the bog, hopping from one dry "patch" to another and using falled trees as bridges to gain access to the high ground on the other side which ultimately dropped off again, culminating at the river's edge.

I had no real goal other than just being outside enjoying the quiet and grandeur of nature. Other than taking a few pictures with the digital camera and jotting down some observations in a field notebook, I occasionally rolled over or broke open a fallen log and by doing so found more than few insects, all still sluggish from the cold. I would have collected a few as has been my habit for years now, but I already have a backlog of specimens at the lab in need of processing, so I let them be.

Later on in the day I ran into my advisor and one of her other graduate students in another part of the preserve busy with a spider project. As I was on my way out, we spoke only briefly but managed to set up a meeting for later in the week and then some fieldwork for next weekend, weather permitting. So it looks like the transition from hours in the library to hours in the field is about to begin.