Wednesday, July 11, 2007
First Day in Barrington Woods
Well Robert Frost's winter woods in New England may have been "lovely, dark and deep" but on this July day, while certainly lovely, the woods were bright and buggy instead of dark and deep. We had a great first day exploring different sites in the woods, getting to know one and other as well as our study site, with all of its variation. We discovered a mysterious old injury to a tree near the beaver dam, that no one has thus far been able to explain, we explored old homesites and logging areas, as well as the beautiful meadow that resulted from the intense disruption of a powerline corridor. I discovered that "reading the landscape" as discussed by Wessel is a rather daunting task in some regards, especially the notion of age disruption in tree communities. These were just a few observations of our hours in the woods getting acquainted with each other and the land.
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Hi Tessa,
I read all your posts but your comments on how difficult reading the landscape really is versus how easy Wessels makes it look spoke to me. I asked Wessels a similar question because I felt the same way after I read his book. He taught me that you need to spend a lot of time in the place constantly searching for answers to your questions. He notices patterns within the landscape and then asks people until he finds the answers. I think we need to take the time on the land to find patterns then take the time to find the answers. It is a long and hopefully fulfilling practice.
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