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Research
Oriented Trips
E. Research
Oriented Trips Trip Price $45.00
Though
travel will be primarily in a bus and some of the field trips leave
the Adirondack Park, conference participants should be prepared. Mid-spring
weather is quite unpredictable and at time one will be out of the bus
on a site so gear for different weather conditions is a must. The presence
of black flies must also be considered.
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| Whiteface
Moutain |
Whiteface
Mountain |
1.
Adirondack Atmospheric Research Station. CANCELLEDThis
is a two-part trip. The first part involves a visit to the SUNY research
station headquarters at the base of Whiteface Mountain where the mission
of the facility will be explained. The trip then follows with a trip
up the five-mile long road to the top of the 4,867-foot high mountain
where the equipment and operations at the top of the mountain will be
displayed. The second part of the trip provides several opportunities
during the visit to the top of Whiteface Mountain. One may walk across
or just sit on the bare rock faces and view the Adirondack wilderness
as well as the Village of Lake Placid. The adventurous may climb from
the parking lot cut into the face of the mountain to the top of Whiteface
along a steep rocky trail. The less adventurous may walk from the parking
lot through a tunnel cut into the rock to an elevator that will take
them to the top of Whiteface. The mountain top portion of the trip will
include an explanation of the unique ecosystems at the mountaintop and
along its upper elevation areas. Stops will also be made at points along
the steep road that leads to the mountain top so that trip participants
can walk into the and experience the various wetland, watercourse, and
upland habitat features that are present on the mountain slopes. At
these stops one will be able to see the spring wildflowers as well as
anorthosite bedrock boulders that are over a billion years old.
Travel
time from hotel: 3/4 hour
Limit:
45-50 people
2.
Biogeochemistry of Alder-Dominated Wetlands. Adirondack Ecological
Center (AEC), Newcomb, New York. This is a trip to the State University
of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Huntington
Forest research station and includes a side trip to the adjacent visitor
center and its several woodland, wetland, and lake edge trails. Participants
will visit various sites at the AEC where watershed studies are documenting
the biogeochemistry of alder (Alnus incana ssp. rugosa)-dominated wetlands.
The AEC is a 6000 ha experimental forest with over 50 years of ecological
research. Alder is often the most abundant plant species in scrub-shrub
wetlands of the Northeast. Long-term biogeochemical research at the
AEC has documented the substantial nitrogen-fixing ability of this shrub.
Recent estimates of N-fixation here are 13-28 kg N ha-1yr-1. Participants
will also have an opportunity to visit the Visitor Interpretive Center
at Newcomb and have time to walk the trails. One trail goes through
a beautiful northern white-cedar swamp, another traverses through a
number of habitat types around Rich Lake, and another trails follows
a section of Sucker Brook with its beaver ponds. Finally, if time permits,
the more adventurous participants may have an opportunity to hike an
excellent trail to the firetower on Goodnow Mountain and have an outstanding
view towards the High Peaks area of the Adirondacks (+3 hour round trip).
Travel
time from hotel: 11/4 hours
Limit:
45-50 people
3.
Multidisciplinary research on wetlands of the St. Lawrence River (Thousand
Islands area) and the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. This is a trip
that will involve a long day of travel, first across the rural roads
of the Adirondack Preserve and then through sections of rural upstate
New York. Participants will visit freshwater coastal march restoration
projects near the St. Lawrence River in the vicinity of Clayton, New
York. These projects are attempting to convert monocultures of cattail
created by the reduced water level fluctuations, caused by water level
control structures on the River, to a diverse, deep emergent marsh.
The primary objective of this research is to enhance spawning habitat
for muskellunge and northern pike. Research on the invasive plan, frog's
bit, will also be discussed. Participants would also visit the Lakeview
Marsh area along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, where the Cornell-ESF-SU
NSF biocomplexity research project is centered. Here participants would
see an extensive freshwater marsh (including fen) and dune complex,
and hear about this large, integrated research project that attempts
to understand the relationships among the aquatic-wetland-upland ecosystems
within watersheds of various size and land use.
Associated
side trips, if time allows, might include a stop at a very large peatland
south of Lake Bonaparte (west of Harrisville, New York) or a side trip
to the SUNY-ESF Thousand Islands Biological Station on Governor's Island
- very picturesque.
Travel
time from hotel: all day bus tour (10-12 hours)
Limit:
45-50 people
4.
St. Lawrence Wetlands. This is a wetland field trip to a location
that is north of the Adirondacks and will start in the St. Regis Mohawk
Reservation in Hogansburg, New York. Participants will proceed to a
completed wetland restoration project at the Akwesasne Freedom School
which was a cooperative venture the with the Natural Resource Conservation
Service, Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment, and the School. It
is estimated that it has positively impacted 50 acres of land and the
Akwesasne would appreciate input from trip participants and a discussion
of future management options. The participants will that visit the Syne
Marshes and talk with Akwesasne Game Wardens about some of the management
issues of the marshes. These are heavily contaminated ecosystems, but
produce lots of fish and game. Finally, the participants will take a
boat trip new Hogansburg on the St. Lawrence River to experience the
coastal marshes, some of the St. Lawrence River islands, and what is
now a large inland lake within an international river corridor with
PCB contaminated sediments. Questions will be asked as to what can be
done with such a magnificent but contaminated resource. Those interested
in these important issues that face wetland scientists are asked to
join this trip for though provoking discussions, amazing scenery and
challenging wetland management problems.
Travel
time from hotel: all day bus and boat tour Limit: 45-50 people
5.
Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretative Center (VIC). CANCELLEDThis
is a trip to the visitor center that includes walks along several trails
through the VIC and adjacent lands of Paul Smith's college. The Visitors
Center features indoor and outdoor exhibits and interpretative programs.
The trails are improved with bark chip surfaces or have wood boardwalks
across wetlands, wet spots, and open water. They have been designed
and configured to represent a microcosm of the Adirondack Park's natural
communities. A variety of wetland types, including bogs, marshes, boreal
forest, and northern white cedar wetlands will be seen and some of the
work done by Paul Smiths students as part of their Wetland ecosystems
and Management course will be presented and discussed. The tour will
also include a stop at the VIC headquarters to see brief presentations
on the history of the Adirondack park and on the Adirondack watersheds.
Travel
time from hotel: 3/4 hour
Limit:
45-50 people
6.
Champlain Valley Ecosystems and Wetlands. This is a trip down the
Saranac River corridor into the Champlain Valley and along Lake Champlain.
Stops along the route will allow participants to investigate riverine
and lacustrine wetlands and associated ecosystems and discuss the larger
watershed issues that impact the Lake Champlain ecosystem. The field
trip will visit the docking facilities for the R/V Monitor research
vessel operated by the Plattsburgh State University Lake Champlain Research
Institute. Depending upon how many participants are on the trip the
group may be able to use the research vessel to tour some of the Lake
Champlain sites or may have to use the boat as shuttle or temporary
tour for smaller units of groups.
Travel
time from hotel: all day bus tour
Limit:
45-50 people
7.
Created Mitigation and Wastewater Treatment Wetlands. This is a
trip to several created mitigation and special purpose wetlands along
the upper Hudson River watershed north of Albany, New York or at the
southern end of the Lake Champlain watershed. Professionals responsible
for or knowledgeable of the created wetlands shall be on site to discuss
the planning goals and habitat features that have been achieved. Sites
visited may include created wetlands of various sizes at a large paper
company industrial complex, new golf course, old landfill, department
of transportation locations, or shopping center. Some of the created
wetland sites proposed to be visited are used for stormwater or wastewater
management and water quality renovation. Wetlands visited may range
from those recently installed to those that have been in place for 10
plus years. The selection of the created wetlands to be visited includes
systems with various habitat types and function so trip participants
might have a discussion on the diversity and success of the ecosystems
visited.
UPDATE
(22 May 02)
: The created mitigation and wastewater treatment wetlands trip will
visit only one site - the international paper site - this one site visit
will take most of the day as the paper company has a lot to show - other
stops are just too far away to be incorporated into the field trip and
travel would eat up the available time.
Travel
time from hotel: all day bus tour
Limit:
45-50 people
8.
Spring Pond Bog. This is a trip to a Nature Conservancy Preserve
in an isolated section of the Adirondacks. The preserve is set aside
as a natural area for educational and scientific pursuits. Spring Pond
Bog is the section largest open expanse of peatland in New York. It
contains a patterned peatland - with ridges (strings) and wet depressions
(flarks). The open bog mat is approximately 500 acres in size and the
complete preserve area is 4,200 acres. The entire preserve is part of
the low elevation boreal (northern) ecosystem. The bog contains a variety
of typical northern plant species such as pitcher plant, leather leaf,
bog laurel, and Labrador tea as well as several rare species and it
and the surrounding wetlands and forest are habitat for 130 species
of birds. The preserve has a half-mile trail that leads through a hardwood
forest along an esker with views of the spruce swamp and "teaching bog"
to a point with magnificent views of Spring Pond Bog itself. The platform
over the "teaching bog" enables one to get a look at a bog up close.
A side
trip to another great bog ecosystem located on nearby Boy Scout lands
is also proposed in addition to visiting Spring Pond Bog. This is another
unique Adirondack area that must be seen.
Travel
time from hotel: 1-11/2 hours over rural roads
Limit
45-50 people
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SWS 2002 ANNUAL MEETING - PROPOSED FIELD TRIPS
(update
25 May 2002)
