Category: Arb Talk

If you’ve spent any time in the Arb this winter, you’ve likely seen a dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). If not, you’ve undoubtedly heard one.

Winter colors of the ArI have been hearing some gripes and grumblings lately, alleging that this midwinter is “bleak.” Really? Cold it might be, but especially in the Arb, there is nothing charmless or dreary about the midwinter landscape.

North by Night

Ever gotten completely lost in the Arb?  Well, don’t worry, because
with a few simple techniques, you need never find yourself adrift in
the wilderness again.  In honor of Black History Month and those
slaves who used natural directional cues to help them find their way
north to freedom, here are a few ways to use nature to get your
bearings.

It is Sunday night, around eleven or eleven thirty, and the short walk from Davis Hall to the library seems to take forever, weighted down as I am with a bag full of books. Preoccupied with dread of those books I do not at first realize what I am hearing. Crows. Wait…crows?

Beavers are afoot. Last week, Arboretum Director Nancy Braker took the student naturalists on a walk along Spring Creek between Bell Field and the Upper Arb. The highlight of the trip was the discovery of a pile of sticks beneath the surface of Spring Creek. The pile of sticks that we discovered is the remnant of a beavers’ winter food stash.

It is snowy and quite cold these days in the Arb, and not all of the animals are present or active. However, white-tailed deer are as common in the winter as they are in the summer.

It’s getting chilly outside, but the Arb is heating up! Though the ground will be frozen and the trees will be naked, the Arb will be far from dormant this winter. Ever-Green Energy will be collecting the brush piles from the Arb to generate energy through their combined heat and power facility in St. Paul– electricity is going to be generated through the Arb’s waste.

A Walk and Talk with Mister Gary Wagenbach. Last week the Arb Naturalists explored Big Woods State Park. Big Woods nests near Nerstrand, Minnesota, about ten miles south of Northfield. The 2,882 acres of parkland primarily consist of mature upland forest with sugar maple, basswood, ironwood, red oak, and bur oak

In the Oct. 20th edition of the Arb Notes, Mira Alecci discusses the Best Woods region in the northern section of the Carleton Arboretum.  What is “Best” about it?  How close is Best Woods to the historical land cover of the Carleton Arboretum?  And where do all the garter snakes go in the winter?  Do they have garter snake parties?