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m the scale like patches on its cap to be an amanita perhaps amanita pantherina commonly called the panther amanita or amanita virosa with the ominous sounding common name of death angel even to our amateur eyes it was easy to pick out the many clusters of red chanterelles cantharellus cinnabarinus above we found growing on the forest floor around the trunks of trees further down the trail bright orange they stood out among the green ferns and grasses from at least ten feet away perhaps most abundant in the forest were white and tan forms of milk caps lactarius piperatus above that show funnel shaped caps that are depressed in the middle and have long gills underneath below the more of them we found the more it began to rain at time causing the lens of our trust canon elph camera to fog over we found mushrooms similar in form to the milk caps but showing different colorations in areas around the forest floor there were many red russula russula emetica below scattered widely about along with groups of green russula russula virescens off to one side of the trail where it approached weir pond second photo below along with the gilled mushrooms we found two varieties of pored fleshy mushrooms these are distinguished by the pored surface they have beneath their caps rather than gills the first of these we found was a sort of two colored bolete with a red cap and stem above but a distinctly yellow pore surface below another tan colored pored mushroom found nearby looked to us to be bitter bolete tylopilus felleus below also in the area where the trail approached the pond where grasses patches exploited areas not yet fully filled by trees we found coral mushrooms named for the way they resemble marine corals of the genus clavaria below many downed tree trunks decomposing on the forest floor provided ideal conditions for bracket fungi we found varieties of polypores that looked to us like false turkey tail stereum ostrea above and chicken of the woods polyporus sulphureus above of course there were two mushrooms that we couldn t even guess at one is common and probably familiar to most but had us perplexed below yellow mycena perhaps the other was a remarkable violet color small and relatively squat and apparenly just emerging below toward the end of the hunt after a heavy summer rain had come and gone and cooled things down a bit we were rewarded with two unexpected finds the first was to the right of the trail on our way back from the pond we found several specimens of a plant known as indian pipe monotropa uniflora just emerging below a ghostly white plant known for its lack of clorophyl it could easily be mistaken for some kind of fungi in searching for more we also encountered several apparently newly metamorphosed spring peeper frogs below barely one quarter of inch long they were so small they almost seemed like some sort of jumping flea but were already such accomplished hoppers they could launch their tiny bodies twelve inches or more in a single bound a truly remarkable trip we might have missed out on had we been spending our summer in the alternate reality that comes with cool dry conditioned air being blown into tightly insulated spaces posted by brendan hanrahan 7 23 2006 11 57 00 am 7 comments monday july 17 2006 a forest buried alive newport oregon beach sands come and go along the central oregon coast recently unusually low tides scoured beaches down to their lowest sand levels in years perhaps centuries so much was removed that remains of ancient forests buried alive by building sands thousands of years ago once again saw the light of day fossil tree root masses such as those exposed at moolack beach oregon above tell tales of ancient seaside ghost forests that thrived here thousands of years ago in connecticut we re accustomed to tides and wave action reshaping beaches and sand spits at places such as bluff point state park s bushy point but the erosion and pace of change along oregon s central coast has been several orders of magnitude greater during our summer vacation we found the marine gardens beach at otter rock oregon practically scraped bare down to the marine sediments underlying it rocks normally buried beneath several feet of medium grain sand finding it in such a state with its headlands significantly eroded in the past six months and ordinarily abundant tide pool fauna such as anemones forced further seaward was distressing it looks like some unusual erosion is going on erosion that has not happened much in 4 000 years geologist roger hart of the oregon dept of geology and mineral industries and an expert on central coast tree remains told the newport news times at many beaches here from moolack beach above to neighboring beverly beach to others further north such as neskowin beach recent erosion has exposed very large root masses and great tree trunks particularly where creeks excavated even deeper low minus tides of 1 4 feet resulted in extraordinary views of these prehistoric fossil tree parts and tree bases some as much as thirty or forty feet across the roots stumps trunks and cones are between 4 100 years old based on radiometric dating and 2 500 years old based on archaeological studies of native american sites around newport s yaquina head they are the remains of what were great seaside forests of sitka spruce trees titans of the primordial northwest rainforests and ancestors of sitka spruce that dominate coastal forests today following the retreat of glacial ice forest trees had spread over oregon s coast range mountains and down to the pacific coast roger hart says that about 4 000 years ago vast amounts of sand which yaquina head reveals to have been piled hundreds of feet high came to quickly penetrate the forests and bury them alive dunes grew to entomb trees so completely they were protected from decay by oxygen and bacteria and preserved for the millennia hart and fellow researcher curt peterson have reported 14 fossil sites and 520 fossil stumps or root masses they describe a three part process of forest advance sand burial and erosion exposure the cycle began long ago with the seaward advance of the forest was followed by its burial and preservation by deep deposits of beach and or dune sands and brought full cycle with the removal of the sand and re exposure of the forest by wave action and the landward erosion of coastal headlands today it s hard to imagine that geologic change can sometimes be so quick as to bury giant trees alive but the pace at which surficial features along the oregon coast have been eroded in the past six months reveals how such events can sometimes be as swift as they are catastrophic posted by brendan hanrahan 7 17 2006 04 30 00 pm 1 comments sunday june 04 2006 ct wildlife conservation strategy looking for the post about connecticut s new wildlife conservation strategy that peter applebome wrote about in his column in sunday s ny times you can scroll down to it second post below or click on the link above read the other posts in our search for the magic bullet series for more about environmental advocacy and community based environmental protection posted by brendan hanrahan 6 04 2006 07 34 00 am 1 comments friday may 05 2006 back to the devonian seas the boys and i had a chance to hunt for fossils in what 400 million years ago were mud flats beneath a shallow devonian sea that have since become known as the catskill delta courtesy of fairfield woods school teacher vinny carbone and university of bridgeport geologist dr john nicholas vinny is well known to fairfield students and parents for his love of the natural world from the stars in the night sky to local minerals to the marine fossils of new york state his passion translates into a magical ability to engage his students and to fill school buses with kids and parents for one of his now legendary field trips vinny and dr nicholas better known as doc rock have been leading trips to this site in the catskills area for years now carrying on a tradition doc rock says began in the 1950s when he was a student at nyu and before modern geological concepts about continental drift seafloor spreading and plate tectonics were fully accepted doc rock above pointed out a relatively narrow band of shale in a hillside with many different stripes of sedimentary layers and we quickly went to it clad in work gloves and safety goggles the group of roughly 50 kids and parents were rewarded with many fine fossils of marine animals that existed not long after life began its great expansion in the oceans of the deep past photo by vinny carbone there were all sorts of clam like shelled brachiopods below horned corals and crinoids once we found a good spot the boys and i pulled out fossil after fossil in a sort of gold rush frenzy photo by vinny carbone a separate horn coral fossil shown to the right of one of the blocks of fossils we found below the boys decided to donate another particularly fine specimen of horn coral to a seventh grader named aaron who had yet to find one and had earlier contributed several of his best brachipods to our buckets a great day made memorable by the experience of unearthing the remains of animals from a sea that disappeared hundreds of millions of years ago yet still appear to be fresh from the mud thanks vinny and doc rock posted by brendan hanrahan 5 05 2006 05 20 00 pm 0 comments wednesday may 03 2006 search for the magic bullet 7th in a series where the wild things are it was amazing to witness connecticut s leading experts on all things wild taking turns to report on the status of the state s wildlife and what could be our last chance to preserve nature pushed to the brink some 250 people including wildlife biologists government agencies environmental groups teachers students and the public came to uconn storrs yesterday for the first annual ct wildlife conservation conference the day capped a multi year team effort to answer a challenge from the us congress to assemble our knowledge of the state s wild species population trends and threats research needs and tools and implement a new conservation plan that addresses urgent conservation needs for anyone with even a passing interest in wild things the knowledge team members shared was both inspiring and stunning together they told a story of the state s remarkable natural diversity with a passion that was often starkly revealing many habitats that have for centuries enriched our lives and species that have long symbolized the best of wild connecticut now teeter on the brink of extirpation from the state if not extinction from the earth on the dais were a team of biologists and conservationists who worked to prepare connecticut s wildlife conservation strategy from left tom savoy ct dep spoke about marine fisheries chris elphick uconn landbirds milan bull ct audubon waterbirds david wagner uconn invertebrates ct state environmental conservation police officer bill hyatt ct dep inland fisheries jenny dickson ct dep bats and small mammals julie victoria ct dep freshwater mussels steve broderick uconn community outreach hank gruner science center of ct reptiles amphibians chet arnold uconn clear land use education and research not pictured paul rego ct dep large mammals nancy murray ct dep natural diversity database karen terwilliger challenges opportunities current trends chris elphick noted that one in three of connecticut s landbird species for which data is available have declined over the past 35 years once familiar birds such as the wood thrush baltimore oriole scarlet tanager and woodcock are a few that should now be given top priority in conservation efforts milan bull spoke about how waterbirds such as loons grebes ducks rails herons bitterns key indicators of wetland health are also of greatest conservation need jenny dickson described how bats are showing dramatic population drops with seven of the eight local species in need of conservation hank gruner spoke powerfully about the diversity of connecticut reptile and amphibian species the genetic diversity represented by several salamander species and hybrid salamanders and the unique challenges presented by the conservation needs of reptiles such as bog turtles wood turtles and timber rattlesnakes nearly half of the state s amphibian species show evidence of population declines while more than half of native reptiles are of conservation concern david wagner made an impassioned plea that invertebrates be given greater recognition by talking about the plight of tiger beetles at the ends of successional habitat continuums in connecticut he spoke about how tiger beetles have occupied the state s sand plains since the holocene a time at the end of the last ice age when glacial lake hitchcock drained and left areas such as windsor with wind driven sand dunes 40 50 feet tall today some species of tiger beetle cling tenously to existence in a few populations as small as a few hundred individuals wagner noted that glacial sand plain ecosystems have evolved into highly unique systems devoid of plants where invertebrates wage fierce struggles to survive but are now among the state s most endangered habitats wagner gave efforts to conserve butterflies a d noting that 25 of local species are now imperiled or gone altogether as for the decline of honeybees a keystone taxa for pollination services the situation is critical given that many natural communities as well as farmers are dependent on bees for pollination of wild plants and domestic crops wild bee populations disappeared decades ago and pollination is now dependent on domestic hives and beekeepers mobilizing change following the presentations karen terwilliger who consulted with the team and the state on the development of the plan led a discussion of key issues the greatest threats include habitat loss habitat fragmentation and habitat degradation said terwilliger with the aggressive pace of development in the state over the past several decades a culprit in each i also heard from practically everyone that there is currently not enough information available about conservation needs and that we need to look for commonalities as we seek to gather more new approaches must be based around landscape scale planning such as the biodiversity mapping project that the farmington river watershed association has undertaken on behalf of its communities based on research by biologists such as michael klemens and hank gruner the project is featured in the book nature friendly communities island press 2005 steve broderick suggested that putting such information about key conservation areas in the hands of local conservation commissions is essential to any plan to protect larger scale wildlife corridors they are among the least appreciated and under supported groups in the state said broderick we need to do more for them than print brochures they need our ongoing support we need to be there with them in the meetings when important decisions are ...