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Rattlesnake Point is the ultimate vantage for Lake Dunmore and most of Salisbury, Vermont. I took a panorama from here on August 1, but it was so hazy it would not stitch properly. After a month of hazy or cloudy weather, I returned to this point on September 2, but it was the day public schools opened in Vermont, so there were no swimmers and few boaters. There was also no one else on the trail, which climbs 283 m (930 feet) above the lake, and it was a wonderful morning hike.
This GigaPan can be viewed in its geographic context here: http://conservation.townofsalisbury.org/panoramas/lakedunmore/index.htm Technical notes are in a comment. |
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Mesic Maple-Ash-Hickory-Oak Forest -- Thin glacial till soils over calcium-rich limestone and marble on this west-facing slope support a productive forest dominated by sugar maple, red oak, and white ash. Shagbark hickory and hophornbeam are also common. If allowed to mature for a few decades, this could become important habitat for the federally endangered Indiana bat, whose second largest breeding colony in the country is 3 km from here. Indiana bats spend daytime in summer under tree bark, favoring large live shagbark hickory trees or large dead standing trees of other species with detaching bark.
Some technical information is in a comment. |
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White pine, red oak, and paper birch are common in this view today because two centuries of timber removal has reduced the success of the original late successional dominants. According to the "witness trees" noted in the original lot surveys in Salisbury, the most common trees in the late 18th century were American beech, sugar maple, and eastern hemlock . In this scene, most of the green tree foliage is of white pine, and the rich brown foliage includes red oak and white oak. The brightest yellow leaves are aspen, but leaves of some red maple, sugar maple, and paper birch are also yellow.
This panorama is a repeat of http://gigapan.org/gigapans/28882/ which was taken in summer with a poorer lens. This GigaPan can be viewed in its geographic context here: http://conservation.townofsalisbury.org/panoramas/lakedunmore/index.htm Some technical notes are in a comment. |
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Ring counts of increment cores from the two large hemlocks in this scene confirm that both are more than 300 years old. These are certainly the oldest trees in the town forest, and likely the oldest in Salisbury. A few large chestnut oaks and white oaks in the stand may be nearly as old. It is unusual to find living trees that were part of the forest canopy before Europeans colonized the area (few settlers were in this part of Vermont until the French and Indian War ended in 1763). Hemlocks can live 1000 years, so these impressive trees are a pale reminder of the majestic original forest.
Another view in this stand is here: http://gigapan.org/gigapans/35750/ This GigaPan can be viewed in its geographic context here: http://conservation.townofsalisbury.org/panoramas/townforest/index.htm Some technical information is in a comment. |
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Since the first image of this garden was made on July 10 (http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=28793), my efforts here have been applied mostly to weeding, mulching, and eating. Normally we would be entering the most delightful three month season of fresh produce, but this year the late blight (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/dining/29toma.html) has killed all of the tomatoes (32 plants of 4 varieties), so it will be an impoverished season. The blight is the same one that caused the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1852), although I am not yet contemplating starvation or emigration. My potatoes appear to be mostly unaffected, but the fungus-like pathogen might rot the tubers in storage.
Notes: Autofocus was called for, so I monitored the imager and intervened when autofocus failed and a photo was not taken in time (My attention waned and I had to recreate one missed photo.). Also, the kid does not have a twin, or two basketballs. |
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About 80% of the area of this image is in the town of Salisbury, Vermont. This view to the west from Burnt Mountain includes the entire 17 mile width of the Champlain Valley, with the Adirondacks in distant New York. As is true throughout the valley, the forests are young and the agricultural fields are old – trees older than 150 years are uncommon, but the fields have been cultivated a few decades longer than that. In the foreground fields, corn has been planted. In the middle ground, the first cutting of hay is in and manure slurry has been sprayed on some hayfields.
Notes: Photos were taken with an old Reflex-Nikkor 500mm lens (f8 only) which vignettes badly. All 460 photos were run through Photoshop (via Bridge) to reduce vignetting (the top rows need more work). I failed to attach the critical rear mounted filter on the lens for these shots. The Nikon D40 was on a GigaPan Epic 100. Compare (http://share.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?auth=4814037915741df5442a4c5483f817a6 and http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?auth=1f14d8e014cd3a815daeb40d4101db72). Author: C. Fastie |
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This white oak (Quercus alba) is probably less than a century old, and appears to have spent much of its life cantilevered along the ground. It is near a cliff at the edge of a ridge where thin soils support Dry Oak Forest, a community of white, chestnut, and red oak, with red maple and hop hornbeam.
Notes: The D40 refused to autofocus the first photo, so I manually focused each of the 170 shots. This was even less fun than you might think, and the results are unimpressive. Author: C. Fastie |
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Twenty percent of the town of Salisbury, Vermont is federal property within the Green Mountain National Forest, and that includes most of the land in this view. The Forest Service ensures that trees on this land never get large enough to frighten people or damage wildlife. Mount Moosalamoo, to the left of center, is the highest point in Salisbury at 2625 feet asl (800 m), more than 2000 feet higher than Lake Dunmore.
This GigaPan can be viewed in its geographic context here: http://conservation.townofsalisbury.org/panoramas/lakedunmore/index.htm |
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This north end of the lake has the nicest beaches where glacial rivers built deltas 13,600 years ago. The northernmost part of the lake, to the right, is surrounded by a low sandy plain which is the largest delta complex. This plain is the location of Camp Keewaydin, Camp Songadeewin, and some of the older summer cottages.
I was waiting for a clearer day to retake this panorama from August 1, but it never happened. The distant landscape is so hazy that the stitcher added an extra ridge of hills. Now I realize that I am the only one who would ever notice that. This GigaPan can be viewed in its geographic context here: http://conservation.townofsalisbury.org/panoramas/lakedunmore/index.htm |
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This vegetable garden is in the well-drained sandy loam of a 13,000 year old ice-contact alluvial fan. Soil fertility is enhanced by tilling under 30 cm of tree leaves each autumn, and several cm of composted cow manure each spring. During the growing season, beds are mulched with compost and old hay. Most of the produce is eaten fresh, but potatoes, onions, and garlic are stored, and 2 dozen quarts of tomatoes are preserved.
Notes: This panorama required variable focus, but some areas confounded the autofocus, so the imager was monitored and paused if the camera failed to take a shot in time. The shot was then completed manually before the imager was resumed. |