SWC 05-06
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Copyright © 1999, 2001.  
Michigan Botanical Club. 
All rights reserved.

Revised 02/27/08

 2005 Field Trips

Saturday AM, April 23,  Kesling Nature Preserve – Botanical Features Inventory,  Berrien County

What better way to welcome spring than to search for wildflowers and support local conservation efforts!  Join us to do the initial botanical survey at one of the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy’s (SWMLC) newest preserves.  Nate Fuller, SWMLC’s Director of Conservation and Stewardship, and Lynn Steil will be our leaders.  At this 52-acre preserve, situated along the Galien River less than 5 miles from Warren Woods, we’ll explore a variety of habitats, including: mature and young forest, wet meadow, swamp forest, river edge and old field.  A dramatic 40-foot ravine created by a small tributary meanders through the middle of the preserve. Woodlands along the Galien are known for abundant spring ephemerals.  Bring your field guide, hand lens and rubber boots.  Migratory birds will be arriving, so you may want binoculars too.  Prepare for insects – mosquito repellent, long pants and long-sleeved shirts.  If you wish, bring a sack lunch for a picnic on the grounds. We will inventory the preserve until noon.  And then celebrate our findings and compare notes as we munch our lunch.  This is a joint trip with the SWMLC Stewardship Team.

Directions:  In the Kalamazoo area, we will meet to carpool at 8 AM at the I-94 & Oakland Drive Park & Ride.  The Kesling Nature Preserve is located west of Three Oaks on the north side of Forest Lawn Road at the bridge over the Galien.  Parking will be along the road.  If you wish to drive directly to the site, plan to meet there at 9:30 AM.  Carpooling is encouraged because parking is limited.  Drive time from Kalamazoo is about an hour and 15 minutes.

Sunday, May 8 – Day Trip,  Frederick W. Case’s Gardens, Saginaw

At our Chapter meeting in November 2003, Fred Case delighted us with his exceptional program on North American orchids.  Now we will visit the extensive gardens at his Saginaw home.For decades, Fred and his late wife, Roberta, pursued and studied orchids, trilliums and other wildflowers in their native habitats throughout North America.  Concerned about habitat loss, Fred and Roberta also began to study how to propagate and cultivate wildflowers.  The gardens they developed over the years cover about three partially wooded acres and include spring ephemerals, especially trilliums, as well as rock and bog areas.  The greenhouse features an extensive collection of orchids and carnivorous plants.Because this is Fred’s annual open house, we can expect other groups will also be visiting the gardens.  Fred will be serving light refreshments.  Fred’s books include the definitive Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region and Trilliums, which he co-authored with Roberta.  In addition to describing over 40 trillium species, Trilliums explains what is needed to cultivate them.  A founding member of the Michigan Botanical Club, Fred has taught and studied botany and ecology since the 1950’s.  He has served as lifetime fellow at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, as adjunct research investigator at U-M’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens, as advisor to the DNR’s Endangered and Threatened Species Program and as trustee for the Michigan Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

 

Trip Arrangements:  We will meet to carpool at 8:30 AM in Kalamazoo at the I-94 & Oakland Drive Park & Ride.  Drive time to Saginaw is about 3 hours.  Please bring a sack lunch for picnicking along the way. We will spend a few hours at the gardens.  We plan to be back in Kalamazoo by late afternoon.  If you wish to drive separately, please contact Becky Csia at 269-353-3522 for directions before April 30.

Saturday AM, June 4 – Barry State Game Area led by Ken Hiser in search of late spring wildflowers to an area known for abundant pink lady’s slippers. 

 

Saturday, 8:30 a.m.  July 9, 2005.  Warren Dunes State Park (WDSP)

Leaders:  Pam Smith, Graduate Student doing thesis research at the park, Dennis Woodland, Professor of Botany, Andrews University and Lynda Pelkey, the field assistant for the Warren Dunes Study.  Bring a sack lunch and plenty of water.  The picnic shelter has tables and an outhouse.  Don’t forget the insect repellant and sunscreen.  Ticks and poison ivy are both abundant!  The tour of Warren Dunes State Park will begin with a brief hike on the dunes where we can visit a vigorous population of Pitcher’s Thistle (a state and federally listed threatened species) that is growing nearby.  Dune successional features and a variety of interesting dune plants can also be observed here as well as the impacts of millions of visitors on the dunes.  From the beach we will carpool to the north area of the park to see some of the rare plant species found in the wetlands and rich woods of WDSP, including the climbing fumitory (Adlumia fungosa).  For those who can brave a more strenuous hike, we will offer an option to venture to a couple of spectacular interdunal wetlands.  An alternative hike will be available for those who do not want to take the fairly arduous hike out to the wetlands. More Questions?  Pam Smith – pamelas@andrews.edu   or 231-342-2635

 

 

Saturday 9 am, August 6, 2005  LeFevre Bog, Climax Twp., Kalamazoo County

With Dennis Woodland as our field trip leader and Becky Csia as our scout, we will explore this Hanes’ collecting site in search of orange-fringed orchids (Platanthera ciliaris) and other summer bog plants.  In the recently published “Flora and Vegetation of Kalamazoo County, Michigan” (The Michigan Botanist, May 2004, Vol. 43, No. 3), Duane McKenna states this “lacustrine fringe bog is unique in Kalamazoo County in having a floating ‘mat’ of vegetation that entirely encircles the ‘eye’ of the bog (a classic ‘kettle bog’).” (See McKenna at 327 for aerial photo of this bog.)   When Ken Kirton, Lynn Steil and Becky Csia briefly visited this site last August (with the enthusiastic consent of the property owner), they found dozens of orange-fringed orchids and a rich array of bog plants, including yellow-eyed grass (Xyris difformis), marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris), a sedge-sphagnum mat and a good assortment of ferns.

 

Trip Arrangements:  Because we will be visiting private land with limited parking, we will carpool at 9 AM from the I-94 & Oakland Drive “park & ride.”  If those of you that live to the east would rather not backtrack to Oakland Drive, we can meet you at the McDonalds at the Galesburg interchange at 9:15 am.  If you wish to do that, please call Becky Csia at 269-353-3522 – otherwise we will not plan to stop.  We expect to spend about an hour and a half in the bog – returning to Oakland Drive by noon.

 

Special Considerations:  We strongly recommend rubber boots, long pants and sleeves and insect repellent.  Because the surface is unstable, a hiking stick could be helpful. Poison sumac is common in this bog.  Some of us will be using “Ivy Block.”

 

 

Saturday 10 am, August 27, 2005  Spring Valley Park, Kalamazoo.  Bill Martinus will show us the surprising botanical diversity of Kalamazoo’s largest park.  Woodlands, edge habitat, swamp and a manmade lake fed by Spring Valley Creek share the park’s 180 acres.  While conducting a botanical survey for the City parks department, Bill has discovered an exceptional variety of plants, both native and nonnative, that creates an important natural area in an urban setting.  Unusual trees like Bald Cypress and Ohio Buckeye also make their home in the park.  The park raises interesting management and restoration issues.  We will carpool within the park to several areas where we will walk. Rubber boots will not be needed.  This is a joint field trip with the Kalamazoo Chapter of Wild Ones and the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC) stewardship team.  Bring a lunch for a picnic on the grounds. 

Trip Arrangements:  Spring Valley Park lies north and east of the Borgess Medical Center northeast of downtown Kalamazoo. We will meet at the park’s “water tower” entrance and parking area at 10 AM. This entrance is on the top of a hill and on the south side of Mt. Olivet Road, which can be reached from Riverview Drive, about a half mile north of Riverview’s intersection with M-43.

 

Directions from outside Kalamazoo County: From south and west or east of Kalamazoo, take I-94 to the Sprinkle Road exit, which is on the east side of Kalamazoo County.  Go north on Sprinkle to Bus. 94, turn left (west).  Stay on Bus. 94 for several miles to M-43.  Take M-43 east (right) and go about a mile to the light at Riverview Drive.  M-43 angles to the right at this intersection.  Go straight (north) on Riverview Drive for about a half mile to Mt. Olivet Road. Turn right.  The park entrance is about a mile.  Please contact Becky Csia at 269.353.3522 if you need directions from other places. This park is shown on county and regional maps.

 

 

Saturday 9 am, September 24, 2005

Mushrooms – Russ Forest, Volinia Twp., Cass County

 

Russ Forest is well known for its magnificent trees, delicate spring ephemerals and lovely streams.  On this trip, led by Paul Olexia, we’ll focus on its fall fungi families.  Paul, a mycologist and professor emeritus of biological sciences at Kalamazoo College, has previously led us on successful autumn mushroom hunts to MSU’s Kellogg Forest and the  SWMLC Hultmark Preserve.  It’s a bit difficult in June (when this is being written) to describe what we could see in late September, but, with the help of a little late summer rain, the high quality woodlands and wetlands of Russ Forest offer excellent mushroom potential.  If you wish to gather specimens to examine more closely at the end of the trip, please bring: a knife or small trowel for digging up mushrooms or cutting them off logs; a handled basket or shopping bag; and wax paper or small plastic bags to wrap specimens individually and keep them fresh.  A hand lens is essential for identifying many species.  Although no single mushroom field guide ever seems comprehensive enough, the Peterson guide is pretty good for a book that can be carried easily in the field.  Bring a picnic lunch.  At the end of the trip, we’ll gather at tables in the picnic area to review what we’ve seen.  Trip Arrangements:  We’ll meet to carpool in Kalamazoo at 9 am at the I-94 & Oakland Drive “park & ride.”  Drive time to Russ Forest is about 45 minutes.  Russ Forest is located on Marcellus Highway about 6 miles west of Marcellus and 8 miles east of Dowagiac.  We’ll park at the Cass County roadside park.  If you wish to drive directly, we’ll meet there at 10 am.  Russ Forest is shown on county and regional maps.
 
 

Monday, November 21, 7 PM, Oshtemo Public Library – Cherl Lyon- Jenness, Director of Undergraduate Studies in WMU’s Department of History, will present “Remnants of our Landscape from Influences of 19th Century Horticulture.”  Dr. Jenness recently published For Shade and for Comfort: Democratizing Horticulture in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest.
Monday, December 5, 6:30 PM, Markin Glen House – Annual Christmas Potluck.  Donald Dickmann, Professor Emeritus, MSU Department of Forestry and co-author of the recently published The Forests of Michigan will present “A Search for Michigan’s Forests.”

January 9, 2006 –  Wood Hall, Western Michigan University – 7 p.m.

Pam Smith, a graduate student of Dr. Dennis Woodland from Andrews University presented her findings concerning the Biogeography and History of the Warren Dunes State Park in Berrien Co. Michigan.  We recall that she was a leader of a field trip in July , 2005 to the Warren Dunes.  She defended her thesis   Andrews and then she is now off to Colorado and we wish her well. She mentioned that she intends to return for the “Foray” we are sponsoring in May. 

February 20, 2006 – Monday,  Oshtemo Public Library – 7 p.m.

Tyler Bassett will present  The Plight of Urban Ecosystems and One Unlikely Success Story. 

Highways. Stormwater. Lawn fertilizer.  It’s a wonder our native habitats can persist within the urban matrix.  Tyler will share how one special wetland, a prairie fen in Kalamazoo, has persisted in spite of the pressures of urban development.  He will also discuss some of the interesting characteristics of fens, and other unique ecosystems threatened by urban sprawl

Tyler became fascinated with the world of plants through native landscaping and the propagation of native plants from seeds collected in his travels in natural areas throughout southwestern Michigan.  He graduated from Western Michigan University with a B. S. in Biology in 2000 and has since been conducting plant and animal inventories for the Kalamazoo Nature Center, Michigan Natural Features Inventory and independently.  He continues to work with native plants in landscaping, as well as conducting inventories and providing recommendations on the management of our natural landscape.

March 20, 2006 – Monday, Oshtemo Public Library – 7 p.m

Dr. David Karowe will address “How will Climate Change Affect Earth’s Vegetation?  He is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at  Western Michigan University.  He earned his B. A. in Biology from Harvard University and is Master’s and PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan.  Dr. Karowe’s research addresses the impacts of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on the nutritional quality and defensive chemistry of plants as well as the consequences of altered plant quality for higher levels in the food web.  Dr. Karowe teaches courses in Ecology, Evolution, Global Change and Introductory Biology.

April 17, 2006 – Monday, Oshtemo Public Library – 6:30 p.m.

Plant Auction Planned -  now Revised to be a Donation for the Door Prizes

To be given at the Foray sponsored by our chapter at the Indiana Dunes Area.

Ken Hiser will be out speaker on the topic “ A Tour of the Diversity and Ecology of an Upper Amazonian Rainforest”.  During the winter of 2005, he worked as a field assistant at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station ( TBS) in Ecuador, studying the population ecology of the blue-crowned manakin ( Lepidothrix cornonata) .  This species of small birds is relatively common, and males form  leks ( assemblages of displaying males) during the breeding season.  TBS is situated in the upper Amazon basin, within the 1.7 million acres Yasuni Biosphere Reserve.  This is an area of extremely high biodiversity that is both remote and pristine.  During the 3 months he was at TBS, his experiences provided many lessons about the rainforest and its organisms, including humans. 

In Ken’s presentation, he’ll discuss the general features which characterize Amazonian rainforests.  He will describe a small sampling of the variety of organisms that inhabit the forest, the work of researchers who are attempting to tease apart and study the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms within this incredibly complex place.  He will share his observations about other human activities which pose a direct threat to the survival of these invaluable forests.

Ken is currently an adjunct Biology instructor at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.  He is a graduate of Western Michigan University and the University of Missouri – St. Louis where he studied the evolution and diversity of the Neotropical grass genus Lxophorus for his graduate research.  His field research in both birds and plants spans Michigan, Missouri and throughout much of the Neotropics.
 

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