Learning about Ledges

If you're looking to escape the heat this weekend by hiking in the White Mountains, I would recommend the Welch-Dickey Trail in Thornton, NH, where you'll probably meet one of the Rey Center's Welch Ledge Stewards.  Halfway up Welch Mountain is a unique example of high alpine vegetation found 2-3,000 ft lower in elevation than usual because of the exposed rock and harsh local climate, and our Stewards are there to educate visitors about the habitat and how to appreciate it without damaging these very fragile ecosystems.

In addition to the Stewardship program, the Rey Center is also organizing a census of each habitat island and measuring species composition and dominance, and our second field day was this Wednesday.  Look, that's me doing science!

Also on hand was Kim from the Rey Center and our high school assistant Haley, who learned more than she ever thought there was to know about lichen (for example, that they're a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae).  Each plot was measured and divided into approximately equal parts, and in each part we conducted a species inventory and estimated each species' relative dominance.  If we do this for an extended period of time, we will hopefully be able to get a better understanding of how these communities are changing over time and what effect human intervention is having.

If you have more specific questions about what our research is showing, come track me down tomorrow between 9:30 and 2:30, I'll be hanging out about 1.3 miles from the trailhead looking for people to talk to.  If you want more information about the Stewardship program or when our next Citizen Science hike is going to be, check out the Rey Center's schedule of events.  Hope to see you up there!