Eberwhite Woods Stewardship Committee

Why Do Leaves Change Color? Almost every parent, grandparent, and teacher has been asked "Why do leaves change color?" Kids are naturally curious about this phenomenon they can witness themselves - a great time to take a walk in EWW with your child and have a conversation about pigments, changing leaf colors, and work on your tree ID. Here is a fantastic article from ( http://eekwi.org/veg/trees/treestruecolor.htm) that summarizes "Why do leaves change color?" nicely.  Where do leaf colors come from? Leaf color comes from   pigments . Pigments are natural substances produced by leaf cells. The three pigments that color leaves are: chlorophyll   (green) carotenoid   (yellow, orange, and brown) anthocyanin   (red) Chlorophyll   is the most important of the three. Without the chlorophyll in leaves, trees wouldn't be able to use sunlight to produce food. Carotenoids   create bright yellows and oranges in familiar fruits and vegetables...

Welcome back to school everyone and hello fall! Though Friday was the fall equinox of 2018, and temperatures have just started to cool down, Eberwhite Woods still looks like a green jungle. But that green will soon change to many red, yellow, orange, and brown, and animals will begin to prepare for winter. Right now, birds and frogs are not very obvious in the woods - their mating season is over, so frogs have stopped calling and birds are duller in color and vocalizing less. The woods are still filled with noise - chattering chipmunks and squirrels, and their sounds are easily mistaken for birds or frogs. These small mammals are all over the woods and are loudly protecting their territory and warning off interlopers. A fun way to spend a walk with kids is to have them look for the many caches of nuts these rodents have made around the woods. In addition to the small rodents, the other noisy creatures of the forest and surrounding meadow are insects. If you stop to listen t...

Though Eberwhite Elementary is finishing their 2017-2018 school year this week, the woods surrounding the school are as active as ever. Insect activity is increasing, plants are growing with vigor and speed, baby birds are hatching, painted turtles are migrating, and the ponds are slowly shrinking. As the summer passes, the ponds and forest of Eberwhite Woods provide important habitat and resources that vary as animals' requirements change over the season. We often assume that animals living or reproducing in ponds spend their entire life in water, but this is not true for many creatures. Many animals only spend part of their life cycle in water and use the surrounding habitat as their home. Thus, it is important to protect and conserve Eberwhite ponds, and also the surrounding forest, meadows, and grasslands. Daytime Raccoons There have been some interesting and perhaps surprising observations in the past few weeks. A raccoon was seen intently digging in the mud...

New Species Appearing in EWW Virginia waterleaf, common black snakeroot, crown-tipped coral fungus ( photos by Jenny Jacobs) Attack of the Gypsy Moths!!! Interestingly, the female adult moths are white and flightless, while the males are brown and fly to females by following her scent (called a pheromone) that she releases to attract them. The adults are nocturnal, which means they are active at night. After mating, the female will release an egg mass of approximately 75-1000 eggs often on a tree trunk or other hard surface. When walking through Eberwhite Woods, one may occasionally find egg masses on tree trunks. The egg masses are covered by peach colored hairs, taken from the female adult's abdomen, and the hairs help protect the eggs from predators, parasites and winter conditions. The adult moths die after reproducing and the eggs survive over winter where the life cycle resumes the following spring. The first major outbreak in Michigan was in 1986 and there ha...