Balancing Rock Trail on Long Island. Meet at trail head at 10:00 hrs. If you miss the Ferry at 09:30 catch the next crossing.
We will be near the start of the trail and looking for Skunk Cabbage in bloom, Dwarf Mistletoe flowers – male in bloom and female flowers ( the female will not be in bloom). We then return to long Island and search a bog for Curly Grass Fern. If time permits we will then try to locate and briefly explore a new trail near Acaciaville ( Nature Trust Property).
From Halifax take the 101 to Digby ( 2hrs): get Gas in Digby if required) then take the 217 to Tiddville and the Ferry to Long Island. The trail is about 1Km South west of the Ferry landing. Just follow the Road signs the area is well marked and easy to find.
Description: Winter is a wonderful time to get to know the trees and woody plants of the Northern Forest. Without the distractions of summer leaves, we can focus on the more enduring characteristics of the woody members of forest habitats. In this seminar, we will take a wholistic approach to winter plant identification, integrating information of many types, including habitat, growth form, bark, needles and leaf remnants, fruit, twig arrangement, and buds. We will discuss aspects of dendrology, forest ecology, and plant anatomy as they relate to winter identification of woody plants. The seminar will consist of weekly interactive lectures and discussions with field challenge assignments to collect photographic observations of woody plants in nearby forests or parks. We will share these photographic observations through a citizen science course project on iNaturalist. Participants who are not able to access forests in winter may focus their efforts on assisting with identification and curation of the online course project collection.
