Chapel Branch Trail
Work Study Week One
July 26th - August 1, 2023
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Holly and Gary Focht
On our first week, June 29th half of us went to Del Tech to work on some of our projects, (over 26!) but the rest of the work study students came to the Vince Morris Trail at Chapel Branch Nature met Holly Focht and Gary Focht. They both toured us through the trails and we learned a lot about the trail, such as invasive species, seeing various animals, visiting the famous Beech tree, and learning proper procedures for cutting / trimming trees. Learning about job environmental opportunities at the state level was a pathway into discovery!
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At Del Tech, students divided into 25+ projects…
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Cutting away branches from trees help clear the path, but it also increases air exposure and makes room for more direct sunlight.
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Beech Tree
The Beech tree is really big, and Holly Focht told us that the Beech tree releases toxins from under the ground so that no plants grow around it. This explains the barrier of no trees growing around this tree. Upon closer inspection we came across a family of…
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Fowler’s Toad
…three toads all in the nooks of the “Narnia Tree!”
Here’s some great friends we found on the trail:
Eastern White
Lip Snail
5 striped skink
American Bullfrog
Common
Boxturtle
North American Toad
Great Horned Owl
Insects we’ve seen; we’ve seen a lot, but these are the pictures we managed to take.
Ebony Jewelwing
Variable Dancer
Ferruginous Carpenter Ant
Red Spotted Admiral
We’ve learned that these posts display certain types of plants & trees, and they look amazing and you can learn a lot about the nature exhibited on the posts.
We’ve begin to catalog and identify - as well as plan to restore and digitize elements of the posts along the trail to various links, native species and more to create a more interactive experience.
Types of plants we’ve discovered:
Swamp dewberry
Queens Anne Lace or Wild Carrot
Asiatic Day Flower
American Holly
Slender Spikegrass
Mushrooms: Using field guides and INaturalist, we are beginning to classify and identify various types of fungus found at Chapel Branch Trail.
Catharellus appalachiensis
Spotted bolete
Russula Emetica
Gilled bolete
Strobilomyces
Russula Persan
Amanita Vaginata
Phragmites
We’ve learned that phragmites are an invasive species that grow on wetlands, and along shorelines. They have feathery seed plumes at the top of their stems. We are seeing a massive change to the Three Ponds Trail as this invasive is changing the landscape.
Learning the Trello app
The Trello app helps us stay organized with what we need to do and helps us work together on telling eachother what were working on.
The Inaturalist App helped us identify different plants. It helps a lot because all it takes is about 2 steps and helps differentiate between native plants and invasives. Coordinating with the app Photo Circle, we are able to work between platforms to identify and classify.
American Holly
Oriental Bittersweet
White Oak
American Pokeweed
Overall, at the Chapel Branch Nature Trail we’ve learned a lot and it’s a great experience! It’s also a great place if you’re looking to learn about our environment.
Stairs built to memorialize Mr. Bill Beiser (podcast coming!)
Credit to the following Contributing members:
Brianna Bradley
Erika Noel
Leah Israel
Astrieall
The Upward Bound work-study group as a whole for their images, time using iNaturalist, and selection of classifying various species.
Gary and Holly Focht as guest speakers this first week.