Fall Mini-Foray and State Board Meeting
September 29, 2018
The Huron Valley Chapter of the Michigan Botanical Club (http://michbotclub.org/huron-valley-chapter/) is pleased to hold the MBC Fall Board Meeting and Mini-Foray this year at the Eddy Discovery Center in the Waterloo Recreation Area. Waterloo offers miles of trails and opportunities to explore diverse geology and habitats ranging from bogs and forested wetlands to mature oak-hickory forests. The exhibit hall at the Discovery Center explores Michigan’s geology and habitats from the Ice Age through European settlement to today.
In addition to the Board meeting, we will be providing guided walks in the morning and afternoon along with a presentation following lunch. The schedule will be as follows:
10:00 – 12:00
Fall Board Meeting
Field Trips (open to the public)
Woody Plants of Forest and Fen 1
Trip leader: Robert Ayotte
On this field trip we will explore Pleistocene derived landforms and soils, and their associated woody plant communities. We’ll start in an Oak-Hickory Forest on a scenic esker, and ramble down to a poor fen on the margin of an old lake. The walk will be moderately strenuous, approximately 2.5 miles total. You know what to bring.
Lycopods of the Waterloo Recreation Area, Trip leader: Dr. Tony Reznicek
Tony will lead a trip focusing on lycopods of the Waterloo area. This will be a reprise of a popular trip led by Connie Crancer some years ago. The timing is excellent, because the University of Michigan Press recently released Michigan Ferns and Lycophytes: A Guide to Species of the Great Lakes Region by Daniel D. Palmer.
12:00 – 1:00 Brown Bag Lunch (Bring your own, refreshments provided)
1:00 – 2:00 Across Michigan by Covered Wagon in 1888 (open to the public)
Dr. Garret Crow
In June of 1888 an exploring expedition by Michigan Agriculture College, concerned with the botany, forestry, and agriculture of the North Country, crossed the northern Lower Peninsula from the shore of Lake Huron to the dunes of Lake Michigan. The Party, consisting of Dr. W. J. Beal, Liberty Hyde Bailey, and C. F. Wheeler, 2 botany students; the expedition was widely reported on by reporters from the Detroit Free Press and the Tribune who accompanied the group. Nearly 100 years later Ed Voss and Garrett Crow, based on all the specimens collected all newspaper accounts, photographs in the MSU Archives, historical literature, maps and advice from local historians, attempted to reconstruct this pioneering scientific endeavor—and in 1975 retraced the route themselves. The expedition is described in detail in The Michigan Botanist 15: 3–70; limited reprints will be available after the talk.
2:30 – 4:30 Field Trips (open to the public)
Woody Plants of Forest and Fen 2, Trip leader: Robert Ayotte
See description above
Kettle-Hole Lake/Bog Ecolog, Trip leader: Bill Brodovich
Bill will lead a trip to a tiny kettle-hole lake with a bog margin just one-third mile (as the crow flies) from the Eddy Center. Unlike other lakes and ponds in this area, there are no trails leading to this one, so it is nearly pristine. To get to it, we’ll follow the Bog Trail much of the way. The going won’t be rough, but some of it will have to be cross-country. Waterproof footwear or canvas tennis shoes are recommended.
The Eddy Discover Center closes at 5:00. It is located at 17030 Bush Road, Chelsea, MI 48188 An MDNR Recreation Passport is required for entry.