Hittin' the Trails

I'm so excited! Today we formed groups based around our interests for the research project. Everybody was so passionate about their topics; I anticipate some really in-depth presentations to surface out of this.

As for my group, which consists of myself, Leah, Matt and Lizzy, we will be investigating the forested border area between Randy Warren's farm and the Barrington Headwaters. Specifically, we'll be looking for popular corridors, or pathways, that mammals move through. From there, we'll hopefully be able to determine what corridor factors make the area attractive to animals, which animals (and plant species) are dominate, and we'll even be hoping to set some "track traps" to procure some physical evidence of animal presence. This research is going to be extremely enjoyable to me since I have been hoping all along that my project would be based around animal behavior.

Much of what our group will be doing is akin to the exploration we did with Dan Gardoqui last week. In fact, Dan has already agreed to join us for a few hours this week and next week as well, to help us along in our identification of signs of mammal presence. I've only met him once, but I think he is just brilliant when it comes to discerning the nuances of the woods... definitely skills one can only evolve by devoting much of their life to outdoor advent ures. I'm very interested to see what else we can learn from Mr. Gardoqui while he is with us. As Randy Warre n has also invited us back to his farm for a mini-tour of the abutting Barrington Headwaters ar ea and some more in-depth oral history, I think he will be a tremendous source of information as well.

I don't think I've ever been more excited in my life about what class will bring next! I already feel a strong connection to my team members and our goals within the scope of this project. We seem to have similarly high expectations and a sense of place outdoors that will serve us well as we track animals through their popular paths. Look for lots of pictures to come!