Citizen Science on USA National Phenology Network (NPN). Citizen scientists contribute to national research projects by recording the life cycles of eleven trees in Clara’s Woods – four White Oaks, three Red Maples, two Black Oaks, and two Chestnut Oaks – to contribute to two NPN projects, Quercus Quest and Green Wave. The team of Quercus Quest researchers are specialists in oaks from three universities, Morton Arboretum, and US Geological Survey. With the help of volunteer citizen scientists across the nation, they seek to understand how the exchange of genetic material between White Oak species allows oaks to adapt to new environments, and how oaks then shape the populations of insect and fungal species that depend on them. Green Wave researchers are investigating the effects of climate warming on deciduous trees across the United States, for use in forestry and public health administration via pollen forecasting.
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Tree ID walks. Participants attending Tree ID walks through the Four Harbors Audubon Society learn many fun facts about the oak-hickory forest of the northeast - which tree has leaves shaped like hands, mittens, and gloves (or ghosts playing football with mittens), which oak has small lacy leaves and which has huge asymmetrical leaves, which kind of hickory nut has a shell with a snout and which has a thick, round shell, the sexual orientation of Red Maples, and what smooth patch disease looks like on an oak tree (hint: there is a particular kind of patch on the bark). Please contact us if your group is interested in a Tree ID walk in Clara's Woods.
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