Photos in this report were taken by Valentina and Jay.
YouthCaNers that attended:
Wileyda
Jay
Omar
Ariela
Nuria
David
Dec 14,2002
This weekend we visited Black Rock Forest. It was a thrilling and amazing experience. I really enjoyed this trip. The best part was when we were working together. During our time hiking we found some really cool things. We also learned really cool facts. We saw orange fungus on decomposing trees. We saw streams, waterfalls and peeling trees. We also tested two streams a large stream and a small stream. The pH of the small stream was about 5.5; the pH of the large stream was 6.0. We also saw deer, dog, and raccoon tracks. We saw a water treatment center, for the waters of Cornwell NY. We saw Witch Hazel flowers, American Beech leaves, and Pine trees. We also saw a dam; it was really cool because we could see small waterfalls coming out of the dam. We also saw Ben’s bridge, we walked through that bridge, and it was really scary because we thought it was going to fall. In conclusion I really loved this experience. If anyone ever travels to New York I recommend you to go to Black Rock Forest. In the night we went to see some trout eggs that the Black Rock Forest employees are raising, so they could then release them by spring next year. In the Black Rock Forest headquarters a whole bunch of trout
Day 2: 12/15/02
Today we tested the water of Black Rock Hallow stream. The pH was 6.5. Today we also took another hiking trip up Black Rock Forest. There we saw erosion protectors, to protect water quality. We also saw a huge piece of limestone rock, which is really rare in Black Rock Forest; it was brought down by a glacial. When the limestone dissolves it creates a neutralizing soil. We also did landscape painting in Alec Meadow. We also tested water there the pH was 5.5. We also saw these really cool trees the Lauer trees.
We left the museum at around 8-30 in the morning and we arrived at Black Rock Forest at around 10-30. The house that we had to resided in was pretty big. 4 bedrooms and 1 living room/kitchen. We left to our hike a few minutes later. Snow was abundant in the area.
We passed by many footprints of deer and dogs and we saw a dam and many streams.
i fell a lot because most of the ground was slippery. As we passed some of the streams we checked its PH levels. The Small stream measured 5.5 and the biggest measured 6.0. Both bring very close to neutral. Other things we saw were many variations of trees including Evergreen Hemlocks and Witch Hazel. We also passed by a water
During the evening, we went to a science center. . While we were here, we participated in experiment having to do with trout eggs. The most important factor, we had to deal with was the fact that light killed the trout eggs. This is so because the eggs turned white and began to decay, while the living were orange. We tested the water PH of 2 fish tanks with different types of water, groundwater and stream water. We also tested air,h2o, chiller temperature,Dissolved H2o, average growth,morality,hardness amount of water that changed. These factors had much importance in the experiment.
The next day we took the van to a nearby lake to make our landscape paintings. Jay commented on how some trees were a different compared to the trees on the opposite side of the lake. One side was orange while the other side was white. Once we completed the painting we hiked a little bit more. As we hiked , we passed the dam once again, but unlike yesterday we actually got to view more of the dam it was pretty huge! After we came back from our second min hike, we packed our bags and headed home>
We arrived at the Black Rock Headquarters at around 10:30 AM. It was a cold, rainy day, but we put on ponchos and set off on a hike anyway. The snow allowed us to see many animal tracks, mostly deer, dog and squirrel. We saw tufted titmice in the trees and mallard ducks in a pond that fed into a dam, sticking behind until the last ice of the pond froze, at which point they’d fly South.
Black Rock Forest is a research forest, and along the way we passed many signs that the forest was being studied. At one point, there was a tree nursery enclosed by high fences so the deer couldn’t get to it. Nearby we found a young witchhazel tree that was nibbled on by deer.
We passed a water filtration plant, in which water is run through sand and then chlorine and fluoride is added. The people of Cornwall, NY drink this water.
At the Black Rock Center, we conducted tests on dissolved oxygen, hardness, pH, nitrates, and water temperature for two tanks of trout eggs. One tank was of ground water, the other stream water. An experiment is being conducted to learn how the water effects the trout. As part of the experiment, every variable except the water source should be the same for both. It will be exciting to see how the trout grow once they’ve hatched.
We tested the pH of three streams. Two were in the forest, and had pH values of 5.5 and 6.0, which is pretty normal for this area when it rains, because rain is acidic. The third was taken near the Headquarters, out of the forest. It had a value of 6.5, more neutral than the others probably because the water lost its acidity as it came out of the woods.
On the way back we spotted a belted kingfisher, some blue jays and a woodpecker that was too far away to identify. Jay also saw an owl nesting box that he and the Ecology Club had attached to a tree nine years ago! I think we all had a great time on this trip, despite the snow, rain and cold. We lit a fire in our fireplace and for a while it was nice and toasty inside (until the electricity went out and the heater stopped working).
Jay and I planned the hike to the Black Rock Forest Head Quarters so that we could celebrate Hans (A YouthCaNer) 17th Birthday, but he was not able to come because he had to work. That sucked but we were able to survive haha. Well we arrived at the house around 10:00am, changed to our hiking clothes. We hiked for about 2 miles. Pretty short but wet. It was raining and there was lots of snow on the ground. We did some water testing on two streams; both of them were close to each other. The measure PH level was 5.5 on one stream and 6.0 on the other. We also learned about Witch Hazel, which grows in the shape of an umbrella and about the American Beech Tree. We saw some kind of jelly looking fungi that was the color orange. One thing that we
Ground Water Tank
Air Temperature: 19.44-Celsius 67Fahrenheit
H2O Temperature: 9-Celsius 52Fahrenheit
Chiller Temperature: 11.67Celsius 53Fahrenheit
Do: 11ppm
PH: 7.6
Hardness: 14ppm
Nitrate: 8.1
Mortality: 3,721 (the whole time)
Average Growth: 725 per Fluid Oz
Food: Not old enough to feed
Visual Appearance of Trout: Movement, big eyes, the brain, and blood.
Amount of water changed: 10 gallons 37.8 Liters
Stream Water Tank
Air Temperature: 19.44 Celsius 67 Fahrenheit
H2O Temperature: 10 Celsius 54 Fahrenheit
Chiller Temperature: 11.11Celsius 52Fahrenheit
Do: 11ppm
pH: 6.3
Hardness: 5ppm
Nitrate: 8.1
Mortality: 462 (The whole time)
Average Growth: 725 per Fluid Oz
Food: Not old enough to feed
Visual Appearance of Trout: Movement, big eyes, the brain, and blood.
Amount of water changed: 10 gallons 37.8 Liters
Nuria and I also did water testing on the stream in front of the house I believe the name is Black Rock Hallow. The result that we got was 6.5pH. After every one was ready for a second hike we drove the van up to the main house. We hiked to the upper reservoir and did some water testing and the result was 5.5. We did some landscape painting. They all turned out pretty nice. Once we got to cold we decided to continue on to Alec Meadow to see the view. It was pretty cool in a way seeing how icy the water was in December and how it was when we came in September when we came over to do the turtle trapping. There was a big difference in the view. Once we returned we started to brain storm some of our up coming hikes. This hike went well and I hope to have much more to come.