Buttercups and Bobolinks
Fields painted yellow, birds singing and the sun shining, what else could we ask for? Throughout Chautauqua County the fields are becoming seas of gold as the buttercups bloom. These common flowers don’t just make a large grassy field pretty, but also provide habitat and cover for a number of breeding grassland birds. For Bobolinks in particular, these fields provide a great deal of food, abundant nesting materials and a safe haven to raise their young. As we have been conducting vegetation surveys at the Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport, we have been surrounded by these incredible...
Read MoreSuccessful WAVE Training
We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day to get out into a local stream and evaluate its water quality! Here are some photos from last week’s WAVE (Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators) training led by NYS DEC. Using the knowledge and hands-on experiences that was gained through our training, each of us will be able to go out and assess nearby streams to determine if they are impacted by pollutants, sedimentation and so on based on the little critters (macro-invertebrates) we find living beneath the rocks and logs within each. As we work on the Chadakoin River, in...
Read MoreWe Didn’t Find Anything…And That’s a Good Thing!
After two months of intensive winter survey work, we found nothing. However, that’s precisely the result we wanted. As you’ve probably seen or heard, this past winter we surveyed several sites throughout the area looking exclusively for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), an invasive insect that puts all Eastern Hemlock trees (Tsuga canadensis), the habitats they make up and the wildlife they support at risk. This particular pest is minute, but can bring a tree to its death within a matter of 3-5 years if left unchecked and untreated. In response to this, several organizations, state...
Read MoreAnother HWA Survey
Staff from the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, Jamestown Community College and Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy will be surveying high priority CWC properties for Hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), or HWA. This survey will be open for the public to join. We will be meeting on on Saturday, March 21st at the Dobbins Woods Preserve in Ashville at 9:00 AM. Visit http://www.chautauquawatershed.org/ for directions.
Read MoreTwo Surveys Down and One to Go!
Who said survey work in the snow can’t be fun? The photos below are from our past two surveys of Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy sites. We are happy to report that both the Cassadaga Creek Preserve and the Elm Flats 1st Preserve came up clean, with no signs of the menacing Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), the target of our search efforts. With two sites done, we now have one site left to survey: the Dobbins Woods Preserve. We will be meeting on site at 9am this coming Saturday and welcome anyone that is willing to volunteer their time and wants one more chance to enjoy the snow. I hope...
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