Peak Season!

It's Peak week at Headwaters Park!  It's hard to let go of our too-short, incomparable summers, but when fall arrives, it, too, reminds us of the beauty of other seasons.

A gorgeous day for a hike.

Multiple colors, set off by the blue of the sky and the beams of sun through the branches.

The water is still a standout, even reflecting colors of the surrounding trees.  It was relaxing to watch the leaves fall from the trees and transform into boats as they touched the flowing water.

Even though all the nature chatter is about hibernation and settling in for the oncoming winter, there are still plenty of signs of life.  Flowers are still blooming and there is plenty of evidence of wildlife enjoying the fall buffet.

Worth the effort to get outside.  Trust me.  

Check out our next post on how the Pumpkin Walk fared this October!

New Trail!

Since the approval of our Master Site Plan in March, we have been incredibly busy prioritizing projects, searching and gathering funds, and in general organizing what will amount to a several year project to keep Headwaters Park the beautiful gem that it is while offering a few more facets for visitors.

Two projects have been recently completed:  our new entrance trail to the trailhead and a revamped tree trail and guide.

NEW TRAIL

Pictures can tell most of the story, but I will add in a few details as necessary.  Two weeks ago, we began with this:

Some heavy equipment was needed to grade the new trail at the appropriate slope.  We wished to make the trail ADA accessible.  It is now stable and wide enough to accommodate strollers, walkers, and wheelchairs.  There was a LOT of survey, checking, rechecking, and perhaps a bit more checking to ensure we were on the right track.

The trail is quite a bit longer now, but the surface is covered in DSA, or Driving Surface Aggregate.  Varying stone sizes, the surface is stable yet allows water to permeate the surface to help rain become filtered before it enters Mill Creek, just a few short yards to the south.

However, the machine work did a number on the slope, which opened up an opportunity to seed it with native wildflowers from Ernst Company in Meadville.  It is our intent to plant several trees along the slope in the spring of 2016.  

Although we are still doing cleanup work, we have seeded, mulched, and prepared the slope for the fall and winter.  Thank you all for your patience during our construction period!  We are happy to speak with patron more about our project and future plans - stop in our office Monday - Friday from 8:00 - 4:00pm.  We have more projects lined up!

TREE TRAIL

It has been revamped and returned!  Our new self-guided tree trail offers 20 tagged trees throughout the Park.  Look for the map and accompanying tree information guide in the white mailbox at the trailhead.  It will also been available online within a few days.  New trail, new information, and new species!

You can download the trail guide here - enjoy your hikes this fall!  Look for upcoming information on the October 3rd Pumpkin Walk soon!

Erie Gives 2015

It's coming soon!  Erie Gives 2015!

On August 11th, between 8am - 8pm., please consider donating to Headwaters Park at www.eriegives.org.  Funding goes directly to your Park and the educational programs offered there.  That being said, here are several other reasons to help us maintain the beautiful Park for everyone:

Please consider donating!  Thank you!

www.eriegives.org

Spring Frenzy

In Erie, spring usually does not arrive sweetly and gracefully.  Most years, it tends to arrive in a blast of downpours, heat waves, ice and/or snow events, and hurricane-like winds.  It is anything but quiet, and 2015 did not disappoint.  As a matter of fact, even though it's mid-June, we are still swimming through a daily occurrence of rain showers, it's just a little warmer than April.

However, despite of (or because of) the energetic spring weather we see each spring, nature awakening seems to happen with equaled enthusiasm.  The frogs and birds are at top decibel, competing for attention.  The rainbow of colors seems to appear overnight (sometimes it really does).

Luna moth found on our office deck

  Fun fact about toads, frogs, and salamanders:  The males have a larger thumb than females called a nuptial pad.  Now, of course, you all need to go find a passel of frogs to compare thumbs.

American Toad - the students could have watched him all day

Check out facts about American Toads.

Or about spotted salamanders

Baby robins are always fun.  There were two nests near trails in the Park, enabling visitors to keep tabs on them for the short time they hatched to being on their own.

Right before they all left the nest, I kept thinking "How do all four fit in there comfortably?  I'd want to leave too!"

Our local forester and I collaborated on an experiment with red oak acorns.  He'd collected approximately 1 1/2 5 gallon buckets of them, which we split between a cold frame and a marked plot out in the Park.

A surprising number of acorns actually sprouted.  The cold frame protected them a little from frost, but mainly from critters looking for food.  

It's been interesting watching the strength of the root split the shell of the acorn.  

We've had hundreds of students visiting the Park during end-of-school-year activities.  They've been able to enjoy all of the aspects of the Park in spring, including the creek.  It was FREEZING, but they didn't seem to mind.

Exploring water flow - upstream/downstream

2nd graders exploring Mill Creek.

Check back soon for updates on the red oak seedlings, the oak tree plot in the Park, and our newest additional activity - letterboxing!

Dropping Trees

Part Two of our tree planting event this weekend.
  

 I realized it seems counterproductive to be cutting down trees when we just spent a weekend planting 500 of them.  There are two very good reasons for yesterday's effort; Park maintenance and forest management.

Let me explain.

We'll start with Park maintenance.  There are two parts to the maintenance aspect.  We pulled down trees in key areas.  If you are hiking the Park, you will notice that they are actually blocking the paths that used to run along I-90.  However, that is the location of our new evergreens, and we are trying to buy them some time to establish themselves and grow without people inadvertently stepping on them or harming them.  Dropping trees is a  natural way to form a protective barrier for the newbies to the Park.  Plus, the downed trees form a nice wildlife habitat for ground-level animals.

The second part of the maintenance is the deterrent aspect yet again.  We do have a no-motorized vehicle policy at the Park.  We know patrons aim not to destroy, but enjoy.

 However, once in a while we get a rogue visitor.

We believe our Park visitors enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of the Park, and all that it entails.  Headwaters is not the site for dirtbikes, ATVs, or similar vehicles, but there are numerous locations within Erie County that are available.  There is room in Erie for everyone's recreation, but not necessarily in the same space.







So we hope that some well-placed trees will help us deter motorized visitors.








The forest management part of the tree-felling is also interesting and multifaceted.  Thankfully, we had our state forester heading up this part of the project.  Not only did he demonstrate proper protocol for taking trees down, but he suggested which trees would be best and why.  Each tree that is now down was thought out before action was taken.

Note the proper gear

The wedges (orange) were cool to see in action - they helped guide the tree to fall in an intended direction.

The trees we chose to take down were either dead already, or white ash trees.  The dead trees were considered because, well, they are already dead.  But also as a safety precaution.  If they looked to be a near-future hazard for the trails or patrons, it was a good idea to take them down before they came down on their own in an unmanaged situation.

Notice we also took down white ash.

In our area of the country, there are two concerns for the ash:  ash decline and the emerald ash borer.  In these cases, our forester chose the ash tree to take down before others, as they will succumb to either the decline or the insect in the next few years.  In this way, we are managing our forest looking into the future health of the overall Park, rather than a short term fix for the moment.

Hikers will also notice that some of the fallen trees are on the ground, and some are at varying heights due to branches, etc.  We intended to leave them in that way to, again, deter vehicles from simply riding right over them.  I like this photo because I caught the tree in mid-fall :)

This summer we are intending to create a new east-west trail to reconnect the trails lost by our tree planting.  If you have any questions regarding our projects, trails, or plans, please feel free to call the office and our staff will be happy to talk with you about our plans for the Park.  Enjoy spring hiking!

Green Carpet Treatment

Mother Nature rolled out her green carpet this weekend, and not a moment too soon.  From 4-5 inches of snow a week ago on Easter Sunday to 70 degrees this past Sunday, it couldn't have come soon enough.  It is very appreciated.

 Upon closer inspection, the trout lilies are popping out of the ground right on time.  They are speckled, as a trout, and tend to arrive just at the beginning of trout season, which begins this coming weekend.

Their beautiful yellow flower are so cheerful, especially when embedded within the leaves of the previous year.

Perhaps a delicate white or crisp red is more your style for spring.  The trillium are popping up also, but you'll have to hike the Park to find them.  I don't divulge their location because I'm always afraid folks will trample or pick them.

I wonder which color this trillium will be?  We'll find out in a short while...

Perhaps a very cute spring beauty?  When these wildflowers carpet the forest, it's like the floor is covered with tiny candies.

Another project was begun this weekend as an Eagle Scout project.  As per our Master Site Plan, which will be available soon on our website, we have intialized a living buffer of evergreen trees along the I-90 border.  Consisting of red spruce, black spruce, and Norway spruce (diversity is key!) we hope to have a beautiful sound barrier and green buffer to the Park in the future.

The boys spent the weekend at the Park in beautiful weather, putting in many hours of work.  The troop also had incredible support from their families and troop leader.  Friday evening was spent with the forester learning how to properly plant the trees.

Saturday morning dawned bright and quite cool.  It didn't stop the scouts from breaking a sweat and working in shirtsleeves.

The scouts had a great system going regarding properly measuring out the distance between trees, digging the hole to the width and depth necessary for the root system to grow well, and covering up the bare roots.  The boys found out that the trees need a hole dug a little bigger than they expected.  They also discovered that when covering the roots, the soil should be at least level with the surrounding area, if not a little raised.  There should not be a 'cup' shape around the tree.  A few light steps to tamp the soil down and then it was time to move on to the next tree.

Other scouts made sure that the trees were carefully unwrapped and the area was clean of litter as they went down the line.  By the end of the project, 500 trees were planted, covering over 1,600 feet of fenceline.

The scout leading the planting is working on his Eagle Scout project.  He was very pleased with the efforts of his troop and the results of the weekend's work.

There will be a change in our trails, as the I-90 trail is now closed.  We will be working on a new trail this summer to connect the east/west sides of our Park.  Please come out for a beautiful spring hike and check out the new changes!