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Jamboree 2009

Maryland Chapter, Sierra Club Jamboree 2009 Outdoor Activities /Bioblitz report

Elks Camp Barrett

1001 Chesterfield Rd,

Annapolis, MD 21401

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Friday, October 2nd 2009

5 pm

Bioblitz: Expert Led Hike on Native Plants and butterflies, Randy Phoebus

9 attendees

See complete list of butterflies and plants below for all the hikes. 

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Saturday, October 3rd

7-9 am Bioblitz: Expert Led Hike on

Birds, Fred Fallon

9 attendees  

Blue Jay, American Crow (they are coming back recovered from West Nile Virus), Robin, Piliated Woodpecker, Cardinal, Wren, Red Winged Blackbird, Flicker.

Seven Directions Sunrise Meditations, Ron Henry  

Original Message-----
From: R&R Frezza [mailto:rrfrezza@verizon.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 8:02 AM
To: Marc Imlay
Subject: Sierra Club Jamboree: reptile and amphibian count

 Dear Marc:

    On the reptile and amphibian walk, we recorded the following herps:

    Snapping Turtle: 1 (hatchling)

    Eastern Box Turtle: 1 (female with badly damaged shell eating a worm)

    Fowler's Toad: 2

    American Toad: 2

    Pickerel Frog: 1

    Wood Frog: 1

    Green Frog: 1 (heard calling)

    unidentified frogs: 6

            Robert & Rosemary

 Ferns and Flowers 11-3 Joe Metzger  

Joe Metzger reports that the White Oak qualifies as one of the top 20 Champion White Oak Trees in Maryland.

Original Message:-----------------

From: Joe Metzger jmetzger50@hotmail.com

Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2009 22:35:42 -0400

To: mdbigtreeprogram@aol.com, ialm@erols.com, frederickcountyforestryboard@gmail.com, forestgreenway@comcast.net

Subject: White Oak Candidates 

John, 

          I understand that the current MD Champion White Oak which was in Arnold in Anne Arundel County has recently blown down. 

           When I was in Crownsville today, I saw a White Oak on the grounds of Elks Camp Barrett. We measured the circumference from the high and low sides and it averaged 14' 1" or 169". This is just within the 70% of the previous champion. I estimated the height between 60 and 80 feet and the spread between 50 and 70 feet. For convenience, I used the measured circumference and added an estimated 71' for the height and used 60' for the spread and came up with 255 points. If I'm reading things right the previous champion was 402 points although the list for Anne Arundel says it's 392. That's not quite up to 70% of the points but the height and spread are estimated. I was attending the Sierra Club Jamboree, so I haven't contacted the Elks who own the property. I understand the previous champion was in poor health. This tree is in excellent health and has decades, maybe more than a century, left to live. I didn't see any dead branches and the canopy was thick with leaves with lots of acorns on the ground below.

1:15-2:15pm Bioblitz Hike:

Butterflies, Sue Muller

13 attendees

 complete list of butterflies for all the hikes:

 Sulfur Butterfly, Least Skipper. Cabbage White Butterfly

 Plants Joe Metzger

complete list of plants for all the hikes:

 Pile Wort, Violet, Lycopodium, (likely L. obscurum), Arrow Arum, Skunk Cabbage, Meadow Rue, Two White Turtle Heads, Cardinal Flower, Beech Drops. Purple Stem Aster, Jewell Weed, Hay Scented Fern, Calico Aster,Blunt Cup Leaf Grape Fern, Sensitive Fern, Winter berry, Euonymus americana, New York Fern, Elephant’s Foot, Indian Beard Grass  

2:30-4 pm Hike: Land Preservation in the South River Greenway,

Alyssa Domzal and Barry Boyd.

19 attendees.

Great hike with a large section of Forest floor rich in native plants and almost no invasive plants. Then we reached a 5 acre section almost entirely covered with Wavyleaf Basketgrass and Japanese Stiltgrass. It is urgent that this area be sprayed in late Spring 2010.  

Sunday, October 4 

The Danger of Invasive Species and a Hands on Invasive Removal

Marc Imlay

4 attendees 

About ten Wineberry shrubs were pulled at the top of the hill along the walk towards the stream along with small patches of Japanese Stilt Grass which could be sprayed because there were no native plants but the density was low on the forest floor and one Japanese barberry. Then, down hill along the stream we did not pull Japanese Stilt grass where it is necessary to spray or bring in the new biocontrol if current studies show it is host specific. There were virtually no native plants in this area. We then pulled and bagged all the Japanese Stiltgrass in a patch 20’x10’ wide to rescue an area full of native asters , deer tongue, and golden rod where spraying would not be good to do. One Creeping Charlie (Gill-over-the-ground) was also removed. All the invasive plants were removed in this preserve so that natives can return to the 0.25 mile stretch 30 feet wide taken over by invasive plants. One small patch of Wavyleaf Basketgrass, 2’x2’,  was found by creek and pulled but not bagged.  Thus Wavyleaf Basketgrass is in the very early stage at Camp Barrett. We have not found it over a half mile stretch with all the bioblitz activities covering about 20 acres but acomplete search is critica since it is more invasive than Japanese Stiltgrass.