The meeting/agenda: Our meeting is at the Marbletown Community Center in Stone Ridge and will start promptly at 7PM, Thursday, January 29th. The Community Center is located at 3564 Main St Stone Ridge, NY 12484 Across from Key Bank and Near the intersection of Main St and Leggett Rd. We will have a brief meeting and will present our finalized schedule for the coming year. Two of our club members will talk about the workshops they will be offering to the club. This will be followed by our featured lecture (as described below). Bill’s lectures and classes are always so popular that I suggest getting there early to ensure getting a seat . We will also have a limited number of handouts to follow the lecture.
Lecture: The club is pleased to have MHMA’s founder and distinguished educator, Bill Baikaitis, return to present a lecture on Ecological Functions of Fungi. Bill will touch upon habitats that mushrooms are associated with and will even talk about growing your own…winecap mushrooms that is; (Stropharia rugusoannulata ).
A note about our calendar: If you can lead a walk or event and have not gotten back to us, please let us know the dates of your event by next week. We plan to have our calendar for the year available by the date of this meeting. If you would like to lead or host a walk but feel uncertain about doing this yourself, our Vice president, Barbara Plume, has kindly offered to help anybody wanting to lead a walk. Thanks, Barbara!
Recent Events: Thanks to naturalist Jim Herrington who recently led MHMA on a winter tree identification walk. As folks attending found out, Jim has a wealth of knowledge that he shares about our environment; this includes many little known
facts about trees, plants, animals and history...all making for a very enjoyable as well as informative walk.Thank you Irene, who shared her notes from this walk (below).
Despite the chilly temperature, the club had a good turnout for the tree identification walk at Mills-Norrie State Park. About fifteen people attended the outing today led by environmentalist James Herrington. He started by recommending a book : Winter Tree Finder by May T. Watts and Tom Watts. The main focus was to make identification through the twig. Determining twig pattern, either alternate or opposite, was the first step. Alternate meant the twigs did not line up on either side of the branch, whereas opposites did. Examples of both were seen. The bud on the twig was looked at next. Buds occurred singularly or in clusters and with different shapes. The bud of the hickory was unique in that one side was a different color than the other. Other tree characteristics were also discussed; bark, habitat, overall tree shape and leaf features. And of course, mnemonics for remembering. The trees we saw (list may not be complete): Ailanthus, Dogwood, Sugar Maple, Norway Maple, Red Oak, Hemlock, Buckthorn, Elm, Hickory, White Cedar, Sassafras, Black Cherry, Butternut, Locust, Basswood, Sycamore, Paper Birch. A good time was had by all.
I invite all of you to write about any event/what you learned; we can then post your event synopsis and educational material to share with others.
We are looking forward to seeing everybody and learning together at our winter meetings. Lisa
