Exam Blog.

My park is a substantial amount of land that borders part of the lake. From being at my park when it was snowing to now being there in the morning sunshine with the dew still on the leaves is an amazing change. When I first started going to my park I disliked it because there wasn't much going on just dead silence and ringing in my ears. Occasionally there would be a squirrel running around scavenging when the weather got above the freezing point like it often did. At this point I would be walking through slush with my partner trying to identify things like erosion, global climate change, and hibernation. Walking out of my park every week with wet muddy shoes wasn't the best or most exciting thing, but it started to grow on me. I enjoyed my wednesday mornings being able to go to my peaceful park seeing it grow and change because God was working his
magic in there. I wish now I would have been able to take time lapse pictures of one area to see the snow melt the trees start to look "happier", then bud up and pop out leaves. The last park visits were the best find animals like a snake and even seeing some deer in the park for the first time not just the footprints. My view point on parks now have some depth and I have a reason to be grateful for them not just see them as a waste of space that we should just build over anyway.

Flooding in my park would definitely affect it in a negative way, but it could possibly help in one positive way. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flood every year and throw a lot of top soil onto their banks. This top soil is extremely fertile and this place between the rivers is often called the cradle of civilization. Just like these rivers, a flood in my park could bring top soil up and move it to other places where it is needed. Trees and other plants would flourish in these areas. One of the negative aspects of a flood would be that it would ruin a lot of the trails and erode them even more heavily.

Flooding in the long run might be good for the park. It could prevent the wildfire that my park experienced during the early spring. It would kill off a lot of the little seedlings and it would move the dead leaves or at least wet them down and increase decomposition. Flooding always seems like a bad thing whenever it happens just because of the destruction, but in the long run it can be a good thing.

My park which was last appraised in 2009 was worth 32-39 million dollars. Saugatuck dunes, my park,  has a huge amount of value and with the felt mansion sitting on it, it gains sentimental value. This mansion was completed in 1928 by an inventor named Dorr E. Felt. This building has been through a lot. It has been a summer home then a school and eventually a minimum security correctional facility. This land has a lot of face value and a lot of value to people who know and embrace its history. For me if I had the billions of dollars that the owner Aubrey McClendon has then I would pay the whopping $350,000 in taxes it costs just to pay for the park. This is just the taxes it doesn't include the cost of the upkeep or employees. This park is definitely worth the price because it is a great piece of land and it could almost be considered a protected park. It is a safe haven for animals and for people with less resources to go and get away for a bit while walking the multiple paths. 

Throughout the months I have been to the park with my partner Austin Vanderlaan we have both seen God changing our park and giving us chances to really dive into what our park had to offer us. One of the greatest things I will remember is being able to pick up a snake and examine it. 

God has been changing our park from the time we set foot in it to our last visit to the park. In the early stages God gave the park snow and gave the trees the ability to pull all their sap back down to their roots so they do not explode when it freezes outside. Also God gave the park a diverse amount of plants and trees 

These are only a small amount of the diversity in trees my park has to offer. With all these different trees the wooded areas can supply many different types of animals as well. With these animals come their predators and this allows the food pyramid to build and grow. 

God is absolutely magnificent with the changes in the park. He has the trees bud and them some bloom while the others are popping their leaves out like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon. My park must be a magnificent sight to see in the fall with all the different colors and the amount of leaves on the trails must be insane. This spring there was a forest fire in my park and from all the science classes I have taken I have learned that from forest fires comes new life. Out of forest fires there is one tree that grows this tree is the Jack Pine. The DNR intentionally lights fires around these trees to allow the pine cones to crack and release their seeds from the heat. Also from this unique tree there is a bird that will only nest under a newly grown jack pine. This bird is the Kirtland Warbler. This is one of the example where we see God bring good out of the bad. 

Renewing and bring life out of destruction are great reflections of Gods character in my park. They show how he can be powerful, but grow beautiful things out of that destruction that wouldn't normally be there. Also bringing life out of the ground refers back to the creation story where God made man out of dust. It is a unique thing even with trees. Dust to life back to dust and this is the way of humans as well.








Weathering and Erosion have been a big part of my park during the summer months so far. You can see this in the trails and you can see the moss being more prominent on the trees. Also even through the potential pollution you can see that summer is here. The boogie board is a pretty good representation. Summer games are even being played around my park like frisbee golf there are marks in the sand representing that people have been there recently to play a round. Also me and Austin have seen these people walking around having fun in the sun.

Also there is a lot of fungus in our park we found some growing on the trees.

Even the trash can is ready for the next summer of 2012 so that it can get wrote on again!

Also there is a lot of fungus in our park we found some growing on the trees. I cant wait to sit out at night and watch the bat, the one bat my park has eat bugs at night. Also I cant wait to go out and use my baseball bat to hit baseballs around with Austin!

Plant species

This week I had to look at the plant species in my park and find a native species. I chose the garlic mustard because this plant is everywhere in the woods. This plant is a small white flower with many big green leaves compared to the flower. You may see this in the woods or in fields quite a bit when you take a walk outside. In some areas this plant is a big problem. It grows at a stupendous rate producing thousands of seeds in the early spring. This is a problem plant because insects and animals do not eat it do there is nothing to keep it in check. The problem with this is that it shades out the forest floor leaving the area with a degraded ecosystem. This is a problem because it doesn't let anything grow underneath it so not many new things growing can compete with it. 

vvvvGarlic Mustard                                                                               vvvvGarlic Mustard

      Eastern Cottonwood                                      Chalk Maple

My park does not have a system to take care of these pesky garlic mustard plants. A good way is to pull them by hand if they get out of control. They come out easy. The best way is to bag them and not let anymore seeds spread.

As you can see from the different pictures of trees there is diverse plant life in my park. This is a good thing because sometimes only one type of plant will feed one animal and if you only have that plant nothing else can live there, but that consumer and its predator. With diversity in plants you can also have diversity in animals in your park. Without a big amount of plants your ecosystem will suffer and eventually cese to exist. With all one plant it would be good for pollination, but it would just be bad for what has to live around this plant. Plant diversity would impact the food pyramid of the ecosystem eventually if you let it get out of hand. If you have too much of one plant it might mess up the pyramid. This might cut off the growth of one species or increase it too much to a epic amount not letting other things grow with it.

American Hornbeam                                                                                 Red Pine

                                    White Oak

            Southern Catalpa

Soils

In my park there was a lot of sandy soil and top soil. The park had a majority of sandy soil even in the woods because it is so close to a beach. There was leaves everywhere in the park still, covering up some pretty good top soil. The trees grew in this sandy soil, but their roots were much farther down so they could absorb water constantly from better soil. This is because sand does not retain water very well and is not very good for growing plants.

Also in my park there was some highly organic top soil. This soil was in the field where the grass grew as well as the soil some flowers were growing in. This top soil is nutrient and very good for growing the grass in. It supplies sturdiness so the rain does not wash the grass away in a storm and the top soil since it is only a couple of inches supplies the small grass roots with nutrients. 

Soil is made up of a lot of organic compounds, but these compounds don't break down themselves. This compounds are usually dead plants or dead organisms and are broken down by other organisms eating and digesting the food. One example is a grub. This grub will eat a dead tree and its feces go into the dirt and make it more rich. This method applies to any living thing that eats and digests organic matter. In my park is was grubs, worms, slugs, and even a snake.

Over all my park had a lot of sandy and some high organic top soil. It takes a long time for top soil to form and it is from the break down of organic material. This material is broken down by things ingesting and then digesting the material. Soil type is important because some plants require a unique blend of soils. 

Food web

In my park there are animals running around and what they do most is scavenge and eat for most of the day. Many of these animals are the bottom of the food chain, but they are major consumers like the squirrels and robins. Every once in a while I will see a red tailed hawk flying around and this Hawk will eat the squirrels and might possibly kill a robin as well.

One big thing that mean and Austin found was woodpecker holes. Earlier this season I heard a woodpecker at a tree for about a half hour as I walked around the woods. This woodpecker was going after grubs and ants inside the tree. It is also very possible this woodpecker was using this "drumming" to show boundaries and to attract a mate. A hawk would eat this woodpecker and the woodpecker eats the grubs and ants which eat parts of the tree and the sap. The ants also eat dead animals and are part of the decomposition of the forest. The hawk would also eat the field mouse I found some footprints in the sand from. The mouse would then eat the plants that would take in energy from the sun and water to grow. 

Deer                                                             Deer                                                          Coyote

Also I found some deer prints and some coyote prints in the sand. A deer is a consumer while a coyote is a predator. The deer will eat plants and berries. The coyote will eat the consumers lower than it on its food chain. For example rabbits, mice, and squirrels. Also in a large group a coyote will hunt deer and kill them.

Each time you go down the food chain the organism that killed the other to gain energy only gets 10% of the energy from that organism.
For example if a coyote kills a rabbit it absorbs the energy from the rabbit, but not from the abundance of vegetation it had to eat before hand to get to the size it is. So if the rabbit ate 1000 calories to get where it was when it died the coyote would only get 100.




http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/006/cache/red-tailed-hawk_681_600x450.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2317420176_8635d628be.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1435/601852746_33b57d301f.jpg
http://pelotes.jea.com/pilpeck1.jpg

Pollution

Pollution is a very serious thing is parks. Trash can ruin the landscape and endanger the animals that live there. In our park there was trash cans to regulate litter, but most of them were over flowing leaving trash strewn all over the place.









Our park has 3 large trash cans, and one smaller trash can right at the beginning of a trail. These three trash cans we have observed get emptied regularly every week. This does not stop them from being overflowing in some cases. Each large trash can when full (which it gets every week) holds 11091.94 in^2 of trash and the small trash can holds 6650.28 in^2. Altogether these cans hold 39,926.1 in^2 of trash. Our park is 1000 acres and the area we observed was 9.42 acres so the amount of trash per 9.42 acres is 93.51 in^2.

Pollution is a very big issue in the environment and my park is doing a very good job trying to regulate it. Also the people that use the park are very respectful and want to keep the park clean as well.

Spring Times a Comin

 In my park I looked for the sign of new life and the differences from winter time to spring time. Mostly the change from brown and all dark colors to light lively colors like greens, reds, and yellows of new coming leaves and buds.

I also saw a large increase in animal activity in the woods as I walked there were countless squirrels and a woodpecker in the distance. Most of the trees were already budding and popping so it was hard to see through the already dense foliage. 

One big part of spring is pollination. This is done by insects and some animals, but is largely done by wind. Pollination can be seen through trees and flowers. There is self pollination and cross pollination. Self pollination is when one plant pollinates itself from one flower pollen to another. The same pollen from one flower cannot pollinate itself. The flower needs pollen from a different flower from the same plant, or a different flower of the same species. Cross pollination is when the pollen from the same species of plant pollinates another plant in its species.