The buckeye butterfly was a colorful companion on my walk.
There is a favorite hike of mine in the Greenbelt. It is a circular hike beginning at the Greenbelt Nature Center to the Blue Trail towards Rockland Avenue, where it connects with the Red Trail. The route crosses Rockland Avenue over the mill bridge on the Blue Trail to ascend the serpentinite hills of Northern Seaview to High Rock, returning eventually through Egbertville Ravine to the Nature Center, about 5 miles.
The mapped route for the day, about 5 miles, counterclockwise from the Nature Center.
This time, though, I stopped briefly at the massive restoration field a the juncture of the Red and Blue Trails. The fencing that had protected the site has long been removed, and I was curious to see what was coming in. Theoretically, the project’s aim was to create a stable habitat that was inhospitable to the alien vines that had overrun the site in its period of neglect. This involved bulldozing and scraping the topsoil and applying herbicide to eradicate the existing vegetation. Native trees were planted and fencing was erected to deter deer foraging. Here is my assessment: My general impression is that where trees had grown to a sufficient height to provide shade, the understory was nearly devoid of invasive vines. The areas where tree cover was insufficient, a large colony of mile-a-minute was taking over. This pernicious weed was even colonizing the margins of the shady area near the trail as if waiting for any amount of purchase of a patch of sunlit ground.
There is no perfect remedy in a natural setting to keep alien vines from intruding. The best we can hope for, without intensive continuous management, is a mixture where the alien, rambunctious plants do not overrun the areas where a diversity of plants can thrive. Shading is critical it seems.
The bucolic Bluebelt dam at the intersection of Meisner and Manor.
Since I had gone past my turnoff to cross Rockland Avenue, I debated whether I should backtrack or continue in reverse direction. I had never done that on this hike, so I decided it might be fun. At least the views would be different. I proceeded down to the Bluebelt pond at Meisner and Manor. My companions were a few buckeye butterflies flitting ahead of me.
The pond at Meisner and Manor is part of the Richmond Creek Bluebelt. The capital project for this natural stormwater system was started in 1997. It was an impressive land engineering feat, again with the requisite bulldozing, vegetation eradication, land contouring and replanting of native plants. The pond at Meisner and Manor is actually called, inelegantly, an “Extended Detention Basin”. The quality of the natural area seems to be holding up as compared to the restoration done in the woodlands, calling into to question whether there are different management philosophies at play. A beautiful healthy American Sycamore graces the edge of the stream entering the pond, a testament to the care taken in considering a pallette of native plants and trees.
Late-blooming cardinal flowers in their preferred habitat.
One of the most pleasant parts of the walk is through Egbertville Ravine, where Richmond Creek flows towards Richmondtown. This is the deep ravine that runs along Rockland Avenue down to Richmond Road. In his book, Secret Places of Staten Island (1998, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company) Bruce Kershner described this site: “What adds to Egbertville Ravine’s beauty are the ancient tulip trees, beech and red oak that line it. This makes it one of the three oldest forests in Staten Island. The age of one four-foot diameter tulip tree was measured at exactly 200 year old(!).” (p.78)
I paused at the bridge crossing Richmond Creek, captivated by a school of small fish swimming in a gentle sunlit pool, while water striders delicately waltzed on the surface of the water.
I crossed Rockland Ave. at Eleanor St. and walked up Tonking up to High Rock. The Blue trail and Paw trail lead up the slope with a pause at Walker Pond. The pond is looking good these days and seems to be well devoid of trash. A few years ago, our dedicated Forest Restoration Team donned waders and braved the swampy, muddy bog to clean up trash. Also, the platform is in a state of woeful neglect and has been effectively blocked from public gatherings by the Parks Department, lowering the chance of littering. I watched frogs swimming in the lily pad filled water, their little heads peaking up from the surface.
I reached the top of the hill leading to the Environmental Education Building and had my lunch at the picnic tables at the parking lot at the top of Nevada Avenue. So far, so good, I thought. The reverse route was just unfamiliar enough to sharpen my senses for the introduction of surprise and delight, and stave off the feeling of the familiar and routine.
After lunch, I headed down the Greta Moulton Green trail and Yellow trail towards Paulo’s Peak (Moses’ Mountain). I decided I deserved a little nap, so I wandered to a hollow in the hills and settled down for a snooze. A calling flicker and a chorus of cicadas kept me company. As I dozed, I let the quietness settle around me. A new sound alerted me of something different. I heard a deep, loud huff!, pausing and repeating. Looking up with drowsy eyes, I saw a white tail deer moving rapidly down the hill at a loud gallop. I stayed still in my place and returned to my nap.
Again I heard a deep, loud huff!, nearby. It was the same deer, alerting the remaining members of its herd that there was danger nearby. Because I was motionless, I can only surmise that the deer picked up my scent on an errant breeze and was alerting others to seek safety.
Researching on a deer hunter website, I learned that this behavior is actually two parts of a warning system. Daniel Schmidt from the web site Deer and Deer Hunting, reports that the huffing or blowing through the nostrils is an alert that some unknown danger may be present and to signal others to get ready to flee. Some deer use it to signal curiosity about an unusual prompt in their surroundings.The deer process their environment to ascertain the danger and some think the forced inhalation and exhalation is the way to increase the adrenaline in their blood and prep their bodies and muscles for the energy they need to escape the threat. The deer may stomp the ground as well before their sense of flight takes hold and they bolt to safety.
I got to my feet and continued downhill to cross Manor Rd. to the back side of Paulo’s Peak on the Yellow Trail. Here I had to be careful because remember I had only done this in the reverse direction, and therefore, I could easily miss the unmarked trail turnoff to go to Northern Seaview.
Sure enough, I missed it and found myself staring at the Bluebelt dam again at Rockland. Did I want to just backtrack the way I came? No! I was determined to retrace my steps and find that unmarked trail. It was after a couple of false starts that I found it. This trail is truly unmarked, unlike the other unmarked connector trails with a plain white circular marker with green type. These trail markers should not be confused with the White trail circular trail markers, but I will write another article about that sometime. This trail follows Rockland Ave. on the other side from the Bluebelt dam, which is what I wanted, and connects back to the Blue trail. Soon I came to the other restoration project, the deer exclosure at the top of one of the serpentinite hills.
The exclosure at the top of a serpentine hill, full of blooming goldenrod.
The idea of the project is to preserve the native milkweeds and sedges, so I do hope it is a success. The exclosure seems to be doing its job of preventing deer foraging, as the goldenrods were in full bloom among many other plants I was not able to identify at such a distance. For an in-depth understanding of this project, please see the excellent presentation by Don Recklies available on video here.
I followed the Blue trail back to cross Rockland Ave. over the mill bridge, turned right and headed back towards the Nature Center and my waiting bicycle. I was pretty satisfied with this walk through the Greenbelt. One might assume that hiking in the Greenbelt is a been-there-done-that kind of experience, but I assure you that much joy, wonder and adventure can be found with a little openness and willingness to explore.
—Hillel Lofaso
Fall 2024
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