First Day in the Big City

 Today was my first dive into urban ecology in New York City. Since I had some down time before my position with the Natural Resources Group officially began, I decided to work with some of the other people and projects around the city involved with urban horticulture/ecological projects.

Patch of green along the Bronx River.

One of these people is Jessica Schuler. Jessica is the Manager of the 50 acre forest at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Throughout my job search Jessica was an amazing and generous contact. She is currently working on a project with some of the NYBG interns on a long term monitoring project in the forest to examine changes in forest composition and structure over time.

 The way this monitoring works:

Several 10 x 10 m plots have been set along transects throughout the forest. At each plot all the understory vegetation and canopy trees are identified. Cover is estimated for understory vegetation, leaf litter (decaying vegetation on forest floor), mineral soil, and coarse woody debris (fallen dead trees or branches) along a 5 m diagonal line, the DBH for all trees greater than 15 cm DBH.

Are you tired yet?

While I have done similar fieldwork projects in the past, this site presents new challenges.

The NYBG forest is filled with invasive plants, many of which are a product of the forest’s proximity to the NYBG grounds. On early seed collection trips botanists and plant collectors would often gather seeds from exotic trees without realizing the invasive potential of these plants. In the NYBG forest Alianthus altissima, the tree of heaven, Phellodendron amurense, amur cork tree and Aralia elata, Japanese Angelica Tree are such plants. As part of the NYBG forest management plan, herbicides have been applied to some of these trees in an effort to suppress their growth in the forest.

Opposite compound leaves of the Tree of Heaven; the large quantity of seeds in the center allow this tree to have prolific growth in many environments. Photo from: https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/engineering/design/landscape/trees/is-vegetation

Fortunately there are still native species throughout the forest including the prickly Rubus alleghensis and Rubus hispidus. The prickly trunks and leaves of the Aralia and the constant threat of poison ivy (Toxidendron radicans) means we have our work cut out for us.

Fruit and leaves of the Allegheny blackberry, the fruits of this native plant are an important food sources for wildlife. Photo from: http://www.nps.gov/plants/pubs/chesapeake/plant/1269.htm.

After spending a day balancing on fallen tress, contorting my body around the ominous looking Aralia spines and learning lots of new plants I am exhausted. The subway ride home lulls me to sleep as images of Aralia and Toxidendron flash each time tops of my eye lids sneak down to meet the bottom lids.