Niquette Bay State Park Site # 14 Overview

Niquette bay plot # 14 is located on a peninsula jutting out into Mallets Bay in the southern part of the park. The site can be accessed via the Burns trail and the Muhley trail. This is a very diverse site and contains several distinct natural communities as well as an interesting array of geological features. The site is approximately one hectare in area. Its southernmost tip is located in an area which was the site of a small forest fire in 2004. The eastern corner is located on the shore of mallets bay at the outlet of a small creek. The northern corner contours this small stream until the stream veers north. The western corner is located at a cedar ledge where there is exposed monkton quartzite. Between these corners are three distinct natural communities. The first is the limestone cedar community located along several of the ledges in our site. Red Pine and Northern White cedar dominate this community. Next we have perhaps our most diverse community, the mixed hardwood forest. This contains several species which are associated with more southern sights such as shagbark hickory and white oak. This is also home to beech, birch, sugar maple, silver maple, eastern white pine, green ash and several other tree and shrub species. The remaining part of this plot is Hemlock forest. Human disturbance has had a large effect on this plot in the past. The forest fire which occurred in 2004 eliminated the mature forest giving way to a primary successional forest of small shrubs and herbaceous plants as well as many saplings resembling the community composition of the surrounding forest. Interesting from an anthropological point of view is the rusted out car that is located near the center of our site. This indicates that there has very likely been a long history of human disturbances in this area. The bedrock geology is very interesting in this site because it straddles a geological divide between Monkton Quartzite to the west and Dunham Dolostone to the east. This distinction between these two types of bedrock makes this site an interesting study on bedrock and its effect on the ecosystem at large. Finally and what our group found the most interesting is the wide variety of fungus species on our plot. Through our explorations of this site we found over 10 different species of fungus including Indigo Milkies and Black Trumpet Chanterelles.



Monday, October 24, 2011

Management

The management of this site should revolve around allowing natural succession to proceed as naturally as possible. While leaving much of the site to natural processes there are some places where management treatments would help to create a more ecologically sound community. In the burn site while many of the primary successional shrubs and saplings are native, there is a significant population of invasive honeysuckle which has taken hold. By eradicating these invasives from the burned area a more natural succession will take place. Another potential management idea would be to create more delineation to the trail. The trail in many places meanders through our plot with the trail going several different ways and in some areas leading to dead ends. A couple of times while we were at our plot people walked by us asking for the direction of the trail. Protection of snags and vernal pools on our site as wildlife habitat is also important towards managing for the most diverse ecosystem.
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Methods

Forest Composition- Trees were measure using several different instruments. DBH tape was used to get the circumference of trees over 6 inches in diameter and from these measurements DBH and basal area were calculated. An inclinometer was used to determine the height of trees and with this metric along with the DBH we were able to find the total board feet in our plots. We determined that about 50 percent of our plot was deciduous hardwood forest, 35 percent hemlock, and 15 percent was limestone cedar. From these percentages we weighted the basal areas of different species to fit to the entire hectare area. A five meter piece of string was used to create plots on our land with a five meter radius. Most of the distance measurements were done using pacing and compasses including the initial layout of our hectare.

Geology- Before doing any studies of the geology on our site we took a look at the bedrock map as well as the soils map. From these we determined that the best way to determine bedrock type would be to test whether the rock was calcareous or not. A test using hydrochloric acid was done on several exposed rock outcroppings in our site in order to determine whether the rocks contained large amounts of calcium carbonate. A soil pit was dug in order to determine the horizons as well as the PH of the soil on our plot. This was done in only one area, so future studies may want to look in a wider variety of places in the hectare.
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Forest Structure



Maple Beech Birch







Species
Circumfrence ft
Height ft
DBH
Basal
Board Feet

Grey Birch
2.8
37.4
0.89171974522293
0.624502803359163
280.276858147592

Red Oak
2.4
37.4
0.764331210191083
0.458818386141426
205.917691700272

Big Tooth Aspen
4.9
60
1.56050955414013
1.91253983528744
1377.02868140695

Ash
2.1
13.1
0.668789808917197
0.351282826889529
55.2216603870339
Limestone Bluff Cedar-Pine Forest







Red Pine
1.8
19.7
0.573248407643312
0.258085342204552
61.0113748971561

Basswood
1.25
8.9
0.398089171974522
0.124462452837843
13.2925899630817

White Cedar
1.85
13.1
0.589171974522293
0.272622556696012
42.8562659126131

White Cedar
2.1
16.4
0.668789808917197
0.351282826889529
69.1324603318593

White Cedar
2.15
21.3
0.684713375796178
0.368209720475476
94.1144045535315
Hemlock Forest







Hemlock
8.3
59
2.64331210191083
5.48749976063938
3885.14983053268

Hemlock
3.1
45.9
0.987261146496815
0.765493869933872
421.634023559576

Hemlock
4.9
52.5
1.56050955414013
1.91253983528744
1204.90009623108

Hemlock
4
45.9
1.27388535031847
1.27449551705952
701.992130796381

Hemlock
1.4
11.5
0.445859872611465
0.156125700839791
21.5453467158911
 (Stream Corner) White Pine- Beech







White Pine
5.75
60.7
1.8312101910828
2.63362550204876
1918.33281569232

White Pine
6.4
62.3
2.03821656050955
3.26270852367236
2439.20089229746

Beech
3.7
49.2
1.17834394904459
1.09049022678405
643.825429893302

Beech
1.8
16.4
0.573248407643312
0.258085342204552
50.7911953458558
(Soil Pit) Maple Forest







Shagbark Hickory
3.6
49.2
1.14649681528662
1.03234136881821
609.49434415027

Sugar Maple
3.4
39.4
1.0828025477707
0.9208230110755
435.365119636496

White Pine
3.1
16.4
0.987261146496815
0.765493869933872
150.649193602986

Red Maple
3.9
36.1
1.24203821656051
1.2115673009047
524.850954751917

Red Maple
1.6
11.5
0.509554140127389
0.203919282729523
28.1408610166741
Burn Corner







Red Oak
3.05
34.4
0.971337579617834
0.740999659215384
305.88465932411

White Oak
3.45
34.4
1.09872611464968
0.948105180737555
391.377818608463

Hemlock
4
34.4
1.27388535031847
1.27449551705952
526.111749442168

Hemlock
3.15
23
1.0031847133758
0.79038636050144
218.146635498398

Largest Tree
Tree Species: White Pine
Height: 62.3 ft
DBH: 2 ft
Board Feet: 2350

Most Abundant Species
Species: Eastern Hemlock
Number of stems/ha: 311




















Basal Area of Dominant Tree Species on Plot #14




Snags
Species
Height (ft)
DBH
Decay Class

Hemlock
22.96
1.3
5

Hemlock
25.42
1.09
1

Hemlock
13.12
1.12
1

Green Ash
32.8
1.05
1

White Cedar
23.78
0.62
4

White Cedar
17.22
0.78
2

White Cedar
18.86
0.84
3

White Cedar
20.5
0.88
5

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