Bird Alley in an Urban Forest EarthCache
Bird Alley in an Urban Forest
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Waypoint 7 of 10 on Going Coastal’s NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Eco-Cache Discovery Trail in Inwood Hill Park, caches developed by Going Coastal, Inc. (www.goingcoastal.org) as a special project in affiliation with Groundspeak and support from the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.
The NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Earthcache Discovery Trail is meant to help visitors develop a better understanding of the Estuary, make connections between earth and environmental science, and foster stewardship.
Follow the path veering right through the forest.
The hills of Inwood Hill support a coastal forest of the oldest trees in New York City located between two rock ridges called The Clove. The wooded valley has many trees over 200 years old, rooted in a loose soil called glacial till, which is made from the rock and soil ground up beneath the glacier as it moved across the region in the last ice age.
Soil is one of the Earth's essential resources. One handful of soil supports more organisms than there are people on the earth. Geologic processes determine if the soil is acidic or alkaline, and what kinds of trees will prosper here. Trees prevent soil erosion. Without trees, the minerals lost from the soil may also flow into bodies of water, causing eutrophication, algal blooms, and otherwise drastically depleting the biodiversity of the ecosystems. Cutting down trees contributes to global warming. The minerals lost from the soil may also flow into bodies of water, causing lake eutrophication, algal blooms, and otherwise drastically depleting the biodiversity of such ecosystems.
All soil is made up of four components:
(1) Abiotic or inorganic (nonliving) elements called dirt - silt, sand, clay, and bits of rocks make up about 45%;
(2) Dead leaves, broken tree branches, dead bugs and other decomposing biotic or organic (living) matter take up about 5%;
(3) 25% is water, and
(4) 25% is air.
There are thousands of types of soil, each with different colors, textures, and dirt composition. The darker the soil is, the richer it is in nutrients. Gray soil is poor in drainage and red soil is not good for growing. If you start digging into soil anywhere, you will eventually hit bedrock. (visit link)
There would be no trees and plants in Inwood Hill Park without soil. The roots of the trees and plants keep the soil from blowing or washing away. Ants, worms, snakes and burrowing animals till the soil. Soil is porous having small loose bits of dirt with empty spaces. The pores of soil hold water and air. Soil doesn't have a mother or father, it is made up of "parent material".
The amount of water the soil can hold is called field capacity. The size and amount of pores will determine whether the soil gets muddy when it rains. Trees and plants absorb water keeping the soil from getting too wet. The elevation of the land, sloping hills, ravines, vegetation and soil affect the drainage, how water passes over the land. Excess water drains to the nearby the lagoon and rivers.
Inwood Hill's soil is rich and moist. The forest is filled with tulip trees (visit link) and red oaks (visit link) Both trees can grow over a 100 feet high forming a dense canopy. Both tree are native New Yorkers, they have been growing locally since before the Europeans arrived. The forest is deciduous meaning the trees shed their foliage in the autumn. The easiest way to identify trees is by looking at their leaves. Look around you and try to find a tulip tree and red oak tree!
The Clove is also known as Bird Alley. On Bird Alley you can hear the birdcalls. The birds you see here are songbirds; they differ from birds on the water. You will not find any ducks hanging out in any of these trees! Some 150 species of birds have been spotted in the forest. The more common birds here are cardinals, robins, sparrows, gray catbirds, woodpeckers, and blue jays. There are even eagles nesting in the dense canopy. These birds like the forest because they find food and shelter.
Do you know what a tree uses its leaves for? Each leaf is a small factory that converts the sun’s light into food for the tree. The chemical process is called photosynthesis (visit link) The leaves make food so every part of the tree can eat – including the roots. This means that the food sometimes has to travel over 100 feet down. Trees “pipe” their food down in what’s called the phloem - you may know it better as sap. The phloem or sap is found in the inner bark. The roots of the tree are responsible for absorbing water. How does water get from the roots to the leaves? The tree “pipes” the water up through its sapwood. (visit link)
Native Americans set fires to manage the forest growth. This forest was entirely cleared during the Revolutionary War. Workers of the Worker’s Progress Administration (WPA) built many of the trails and roads present today. Streets were laid out, fire hydrants installed and lampposts placed. Numerous natural freshwater springs once sprouted from the slopes, perished from landfill and other human activities.
The upland forest protects clean water, supports life, creates habitat, absorbs gases (carbon), and. Its like a giant sponge soaking storm runoff and filtering out pollutants. Trees also produce the oxygen that we breathe. (visit link) you noticed how different the coastal forest looks from a salt marsh? Unlike the plants in the salt marsh these trees would die if they were flooded by the tides’ salty water. Scientists believe global warming will lead to higher tidal water levels. If this happens, some coastal forests could transform into salt marshes.
Logging Tasks:
1. Soils vary in color based on age, sediment composition, climate, and condition. What color is the soil here? Is there a lot of organic or composting matter? What does the previous answers indicate about the condition of the soil?
2. What is the consistency of the soil? (silty powder, sticky clay, gritty sand, loose, friable) How does the different soil affect what grows here?
3. (Optional) Draw a sound map of Bird Alley. Stand very still and close your eyes for a moment while you listen to the forest. Map the direction of the sounds you hear - birds, crickets, rustling leaves, etc. Be sure to include a North compass arrow. (POST IN YOUR LOG)
To log a find on this earthcache, email the cache owner unless instructed otherwise. Use your GPS device to locate the next cache - GC2RWPQ. (visit link)
Remember, to upload a photo and let us know in your log ways we can improve the trail.
Data Sources:
• Arbor Day Foundation - (visit link)
• NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (visit link)
• USDA - (visit link)
• Wikipedia: “Trees” “Inwood Hill Park”
Data Collected: September 26 – April 11, 2011
Name and Type of Land
Inwood Hill Park
W 218 Street & Seaman Avenue, Manhattan
Phone: (212) 304-2365
www.nycgovparks.org
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