Photo Phenology 3: A photo essay

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“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”¹

Silver Maple

For the third time during the course of this year I’ve undertaken a personal, somewhat unscientific version of phenology in the parks of the Menomonee Valley. Phenology is the science of observation, specifically of seasonal variations in the life cycles of plants and animals. The Urban Ecology Center has volunteers who go out into the two parks adjacent to its Menomonee Valley Branch on a monthly basis to photograph in a methodical manner. On my first two phenology excursions I accompanied UEC teams. This time, it being a glorious autumn afternoon, I went more spontaneously, alone. The light was magnificent and kept getting better as the day wore on.

Sumac & Steel

The quote above is from Aldo Leopold who was a habitual and meticulous phenologist as well as one of our country’s most famous ecologists and author of the classic, A Sand County Almanac. The quote is suggestive, I submit, of a current way of thinking about the Menomonee Valley. The history of the Valley could easily suggest that our predecessors tinkered with it in rather unintelligent ways. The original, natural landscape was not just discarded piecemeal but very nearly in its entirety. Now, however, there is a concerted attempt to ameliorate the situation and reintroduce some of what was lost. I believe we have gotten better at intelligent tinkering.

My ramblings took me in a loop around Stormwater Park, adjacent to the 35^th Street Viaduct, then briefly into Three Bridges Park. Here is what I saw.

Switchgrass & Ingeteam

Black Oak

Wild Grape

Purple Aster

Silver Maple

If you're paying close attention you will have noticed that silver maple leaves can turn red or yellow. I was skeptical so I checked with Jeff, the wildlife ecologist at the UEC. He assured me that this is true.

Cricket

Nest

Hawthorn

Stormwater Park & Viaduct

View from Valley Passage Bridge

Kayakers Posing

Sumac Explosion

Tomatillo in Community Gardens

Community Garden Boxes & Sky

Signage

Oak Seedling

City on a Hill

I will end as I began, with a quote from Leopold:

“Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.”²

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Notes

1.  Aldo Leopold, Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold

2.  Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac with Other Essays on Conservation from Round River

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

Photo Phenology

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Phenology refers to the observation of seasonal plant and animal life cycles. Aldo Leopold was a habitual phenologist. Substantial portions of his classic book, A Sand County Almanac, are devoted to such observations. Photography, of course, can serve the phenologist well with its ability to record the visible world with indiscriminate accuracy—as long as you know where to point the camera!

The Menomonee Valley Branch of the Urban Ecology Center has undertaken a long-term project that it calls Photo Phenology. The idea was inspired by the proximity of the Center to newly rehabilitated parklands in the Menomonee Valley. Stormwater Park, 3 Bridges Park, and the Hank Aaron State Trail are all a short walk from their back door. 

tracks in the mud

Once a month, on the fourth Saturday, a team equipped with UEC point-and-shoot cameras goes out on a regular route to record the changes that are happening with the seasons. Last Saturday I accompanied UEC staff members Lainet and Michael on their rounds. They explained that certain vantage places are repeated each time to establish consistent points of reference. They capture several views of the river and the broad landscape. They also keep their eyes open for small details and ephemeral changes, such as animal tracks, blossoming flowers, etc.

We chose Stormwater Park, an undulating strip of swales and ponds under the 35^th Street Viaduct that functions as a passive runoff treatment area for the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center. Because this was the first outing since the snow melted away (finally!), we observed a greater than usual accumulation of trash. Another UEC program called Volunteer Park Rangers is devoted to clean up and maintenance of the parks.

Here are some of the things we saw on our phenological excursion. Leopold, indefatigable phenologist as he was, knew its limitations as well. He cautions us not to read too much into surface appearances: “It is fortunate, perhaps, that no matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all of the salient facts about any one of them.”

Lainet

willow

scat

invasive teasel

Stormwater Park

ice

shelter

cup

layered landscape

pigeon

Michael

LG

jogger

Valley Passage

out in front

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

 

Menomonee Valley in fog

The fog and the unseasonably balmy temps drew me outside this morning. I've always treasured days like today, surprise days, like unexpected gifts. Of course, "unseasonably warm" has taken on newly ominous significance in our post-Katrina and now post-Superstorm Sandy circumstances. Not to mention our own record-breaking drought.

Still, I enjoyed being out. I went to one of my usual haunts, the Menomonee Valley, to check on the progress of the Airline Yards Park. (To read about the groundbreaking of Milwaukee's newest park, check out my earlier post.)

Luck was with me. A crew was out spraying what I assume to be fertilizer, or perhaps a seed/fertilizer mix, on the new contoured slopes of the park.

The Menomonee River was lower than I can remember seeing it, except during the height of the drought this past summer! Much is revealed in the shallows of an undernourished urban river.

These last two shots are from the Hank Aaron State Trail, which runs through the Stormwater Park below the 35th Street Viaduct.

I've always loved how fog brings out the colors in the landscape - even the relatively monochromatic one we have in late autumn - or snowless winter.

Although I enjoyed my excursion, I do hope the springlike weather passes and we get some snow.