13 Oct, 2011 Author: Glorianna Davenport
The first weeks of fall are always busy times at Tidmarsh, this year the more so with the confluence of harvest, the launch of the engineering-design phase of our restoration project and ever expanding activities related to the Living Observatory. In our microclimate, the cool nights give rise to morning fog on the river, and as the water rises floating fields of red cranberries are first boomed then corralled and trucked to Ocean Spray.
Prior to a hard frost, the eastern bogs that are waiting restoration sport a richly textured mix of native grasses, native asters, goldenrod, late stage milkweed pods and many more species that only our plant ecologists, Irina Kadis and Alexey Zinovjev dare to name. Going out in the field with these two is a joyful learning experience. Despite their extensive knowledge of native species, they admit they are still learning. As we walk, they stop frequently to discuss a particular plant, for Alexey to take a picture and GPS code, and to gather and add specimens to their bag. In the process, Irina will often check the species in in the handbook “Native species of The Vascular Plants of Massachusetts: A County Checklist, Original version. We are thilled that one can now acquire the The Vascular Plants of Massachusetts: A County Checklist, First Revision (2011) by Melissa Dow Cullina, Bryan Connolly, Bruce Sorrie and Paul Somers.
(http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/publications/nhesp_pubs.htm)
