Category: Arb Talk

Upon returning to campus this fall, I know I was not alone in stopping short at the sight of the greatly dehydrated Lyman Lakes.    Our groundskeepers’ helpful notices about the temporary nature of   this measure, for a shoreline restoration project, pacified me, and now I only wish that I had been here to see all the bicycles and beer cans initially exposed by the fallen water level.

In this last week of Arb Notes, I’d like to address a topic relevant to the Arb and the now ever-present conversation about carbon emissions and credits.  Do restored prairies sequester significant amounts of carbon?

Bird Count!

When I begin to describe my involvement in the Sixth Annual Arboretum Bird Count Saturday morning, uninitiated friends almost invariably focus on one detail:

“Six in the morning?!!”

The Arb is alive with the sound of warblers!  Take a walk through the Arb this week and enjoy one of the most exciting times of the year for Minnesota birding enthusiasts.  Warblers are songbirds of the genus Dendroica, which means “of the tree.”  Indeed, high in the tree-tops . . .

Unfortunately there is no Arb Studies 395 for the true Arb enthusiasts among us, but spring term means an approximation of that for some classes. If you’ve been wondering what those students are doing out in the prairie or back in the woods, the answer is: lots of things.

You might have noticed smoke coming from the Lower Arb, or the huge black expanse of hillside where just a week ago there was grass. A few days ago, a friend came back from a run and asked me, “Why did you guys kill the prairie?”

Spring is here! On campus the soft “woosh” of Frisbees through the air attests to its arrival. A little bit further a field in the Carleton arboretum a much louder sound announces the arrival of spring. This sound is the chorus of frogs, which can be heard near any still body of water, particularly Kettlehole Marsh.

The Arb still looks pretty brown, but given time to romp around there are fascinating tid-bits cached all over.  On one of our recent expeditions, led by former Arb Manager Myles Bakke, the naturalists took to the woods and prairie to look for animal sign of all sorts.

If you step on something purple this spring, you will destroy a remarkable plant and your shoes will get stinky.  Symplocarpus foetidus, also known as Polecat Weed, Clumpfoot Cabbage, or the Eastern Skunk Cabbage signals spring has arrived in forested wetlands.

If you were sitting near a window around 12:45 during Thursday’s snowstorm, you may have borne witness to a flash of lightning and prolonged rumble of thunder muffled by the blinding snowfall. Thundersnow is an extremely rare event …