Part I: HISTORY OF BLACK ROCK FOREST
After the Native Americans were kicked off their land, settler came to farm and the land was cleared for farming. One of the farming families was the Stillwells. The father wanted to sell the land to retailers who would develop it into private property on which houses would be built. However, luckily he never got around to it and his son, a student studying forestry at Harvard, decided to use the land for forest. So, from about the 1920s to the 1980s, research on tree cutting ( i.e.: clear-cutting vs thinning or cutting only a few, cutting only a certain percent of the trees, etc.) and in general, research on the timber industry, was carried out.. Today the spruce groves and pine groves are the remnants of the research that was carried out. The research forest was given to Harvard. However, Harvard found that it was too far away and they already had research forests in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. And so, Black Rock Forest was again put on sale. But this time, William Golden, the chairperson of the American Museum of Natural History, purchased the forest. And today, it is used for educational and research purposes.
Part II: THE SCIENCE AND EDUCATION CENTER
Here, groups of school kids, who come to visit Black Rock Forest, congregate to learn about their surrounding wildlife and the factors that affect it.
COMPOST TOILET
The Science and Education Center is an environmentally friendly building. First of all, it has compost toilets instead of flush toilet. Every flush uses 3 gallons of water. Thus, a compost toilet saves an enormous amount of water annually. In addition, the toilets save a lot of money and thus are economically efficient. A compost toilet works because bacteria and red worms decompose the human waste. To facilitate the process, fans circulate air throughout the compost unit. Air not only supplies oxygen to the bacteria, but also helps to diffuse the smell. Sawdust is added for the same reason-to help the smell--and to serve as a habitat for the bacteria. The bacteria turn the waste into soil. Furthermore, during the three years since the toilets have been installed, the toilets are only a third full. This further helps to decrease the cost of the compost toilets because the cost of maintenance is very low.
In order to save money and natural resource, the building is heated using geothermal heating. Pumps circulate water through wells and the water, whose temperature is now 58F, is pumped back into the building. In order to heat up the water it is sent to a condenser. A condenser condenses the amount of a calories in a gram of water which causes its temperature to rise and thus making it hotter. In fact the Science and Education building is so efficient in conserving heat, that electricity is only used to run the fans.
Here are some statistics to show you how economically efficient the Science and Education is: the predicted cost of running the building was 50 cents per square foot every year and the actual cost is only 30 cents per square foot annually, 30
cent annually!
FAUNA (ANIMALS)
-BROOK TROUT
Inside the Science and Education Center there was an aquarium filled with Brook trout. The other species of trout found in Black Rock are the non-native species commonly called the Brown Trout and the Rainbow trout. The Brook Trout is a native species of trout that the forest rangers in Black Rock Forest are trying to reintroduce into the streams. From 1962-1968 a terrible drought caused the streams to dry up, thereby killing the trout. Although Brook Trout are adapted to survive drought (they bury themselves into the sand when water levels drop), the drought was too long. In the 1980s efforts were first began to reintroduce the Brook Trout, captured from the Adirondacks, to the streams of the Black Rock Forest.
Brook Trout are the top dog in a stream ecosystem, so they do not have any predators. However, their population does not grow out of hand because they have an in built self regulatory system. The brook trout will eat the eggs of its young and, by doing so, keeps its population in check. In addition competition among the different species of trout will keep its population from exploding.
-SYRPHID FLY
The Syrphid fly imitates a yellow jacket wasp. Its colors are very similar to that of a wasp and to disguise its large eyes, black and yellow stripes run down the eyes. Also, as it has no antennae like a wasp, it constantly moves its front legs, this fools creatures into thinking that the legs are antennae. Looking like a wasp, fools other animals into thinking its a wasp and thus they leave it alone. Thus, its predators avoid it.
-PICKEREL FROG
-GREEN FROGS
-PICKEREL (FISH)
-WOLF SPIDER
-BUMBLE BEE
RED EFT
Life Cycle:
-Stage One: eggs in water.
-Stage Two: larval stage--aquatic, breathes through its skin and lungs develop.
-Stage Three; leaves the water and turns red-orange. During this stage it is called a Red Eft. Lives on land in the leaf litter and under logs.
Stage Four: Returns to the water because it is an amphibian and thus lays its eggs in the water. Here, it turns green with reddish-orange spots. And now called a Red Spotted Newt. When it returns to the water its body changes. Its tail broadens in order to facilitate swimming. In the water is breathes through its skin, but it can breathe through its lungs out of water.
FLORA (plants)
-SMALL WHITE ASTER
-SLENDER GOLDENROD
-ALPINE GOLDENROD
-WOOD ASTER
-BLUEBERRY
-WITCH HAZEL
-DEADLY NIGHTSHADE
-SPRUCE TREES
-CHESTNUT OAK
