Nature Study, Observations

Plant of the day…

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…or maybe plant of the month is a better title.

If you visit the park in the next few days or weeks there is one plant you will not miss, even if you try! And that plant is the Canada-mayflower, also called false lily-of-the-valley.

Green. Yes! Thank you.
There are literally acres of these guys. This was along Sisyphus.
This will eventually a feathery white flower, and then red berries, A.K.A. bird food !

I shot these on a run up Sisyphus this afternoon and thought I’d pass ’em along. They’re not in bloom yet, but just the sight of all that green finally covering the forest floor will make you smile.

They will bloom in couple weeks with a cluster of white feathery flowers that will eventually turn into red berries, which are a very important source of food for birds in the park.

Yep, they’re common as heck—but their timing is impeccable in my opinion 🙂

More info:

Nature Study, Observations

Warblers are Here !

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Spring in the park is so awesome.

Just at the time we are all back biking and running and hiking, back come all the birds and other furry critters to say “hi” for the new season.

This is a few days old, but I recorded this on my Sunday a.m. (5/3) run on Stegosaurus. For those of you curious about some of the sounds from the trees you are hearing when you’re in the park, I thought  this might be interesting. (Unedited 30 second clip recorded with my phone:)

Back for 2015 are:

  • Black-throated blue warbler (2 sec mark)
  • Black & White Warbler, aka “the squeaky-wheel-gets-the-grease bird (8 sec. mark)
  • Ovenbird singing its unmistakable “teacher, teacher,teacher!” (15 sec mark) You’ll be hearing that one ALL summer long!
  • Black-throated blue warbler again (17sec mark)
  • Black & White Warbler again (20 sec mark)
  • Black-throated blue warbler again (29 sec mark)

In the background for most of the clip are very faint Chickadee “fee-bee” songs…  and my heavy breathing from just coming up the hill… sorry !

Here are some links to the birds mentioned above:

Black-throated Blue Warbler (photo above)

Black-and-white Warbler     blww

Ovenbird     Ovenbird_RWD

Black-capped Chickadee

Want to learn more? Come to the park this Saturday at 7:00am for a bird walk with naturalist Tom Estill.

Trail Work, Volunteering

Next volunteer work days

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YES Plan volunteers start Thursday, June 4th through Monday, June 15th.  We welcome other volunteers on these days.

Youth Works starts Monday, June 22nd. These folks will be in the park on Monday’s and Tuesday’s till August 4th. We welcome other volunteers to join us.

These volunteer days start at 9AM in the front entrance of Pine Hill Park.

A few photos from the last few years:

Moving dirt over landscape fabric
Leaves to help solidfy trail tread
Lots of rock for base
Landscape fabric to hold dirt
Community Work Day Sept 2014. RHS XC team working with the local community folks on Overlook building a causeway.

 

Pulling gorse out by the roots
Working on the ‘putting green’.
Clearing Exit Strategy
Working on the front entrance
Mountain Biking, Trail Updates

Trails are open !

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Pine Hill Park trails are open for mountain biking.

Trails are still tender please ride responsibly.

YES Plan volunteers start Thursday, June 4th through Monday, June 15th.  We welcome other volunteers on these days.

Youth Works starts Monday, June 22nd. These folks will be in the park on Monday’s and Tuesday’s till August 4th. We welcome other volunteers to join us.

These volunteer days start at 9AM in the front entrance of Pine Hill Park.

 

Please be considerate not to ride in these conditions.
Droopy Muffin steep hill

Please do not ride on trails in this condition. Your volunteers would greatly appreciate it.

Nature Study, Observations, Trail Updates

Spring on the Carriage Trail

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Conditions on the Carriage Trail as of April 17th are still pretty wet in spots. Good for frogs — but for bikes, not so much. Good news though, is that it looks to me like the work VYCC did last year in the wet areas is really helping to drain the trail faster.

View of low spot on the Power Line that crosses the Carriage Trail.
Low spot on the Power Line that crosses the Carriage Trail.

 

Mountain Biking, Observations, Trail Updates

April 18th Trails are open for mountain bikes

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Trails are in pretty good shape. Please be considerate and do not ride if we receive a lot of rain.

Carriage Trail is still closed to mountain bikes.

Our first work day is Saturday, April 25th at 9AM. If enjoy the park please come help us out.

 

Meetings, Pine Hill Partnership, Volunteering

2015 Annual Meeting Report

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2015 Annual dinner

Impressive amount of volunteers last year.

  • 3560 Volunteer Hours
  • 4708 VYCC plus Volunteer Hours
  • 68 Work days from the end of April to the end of October
  • 840 Number of volunteers in the park in 2014
  • Thank you very much to everyone who has helped in the park.

 

Projects Completed in 2014:

• Widened pedestrian bridges with Rutland Rotary South
• Rerouted Annex
• Trillium rerouted
• Santa’s Little Helper Mud holes repaired
• Lower Giorgetti by old softball field improved RHS XC team
• Two kiosks for Carriage Trail
• Repaired fabric showing on Underdog powerline
• Installed 7 French Drains on Birches near Voldemort
• First Turn on Exit Strategy had more dirt added to it
• Small reroute on PA4J/Lonely Rock has a less abrupt turn now
• VYCC 3 weeks on Carriage Trail
• VYCC 3 weeks in the fall on Carriage Trail and in the park for a total of 6 weeks
• Ribbon cutting for Carriage Trail
• Repaired powerline on Strong Angel
• Repaired powerline on Jersey Turnpike
• French Drain installed at base of powerline on Jersey Turnpike   near Arthur’s Chair
• French Drain installed on Lonely Rock

 

Future Projects for 2015 and beyond:

• Sore Elbow Segment 2
• Sore Elbow Segment 3
• Furlough needs TLC to prevent water running straight down it
• Shimmer needs TLC on corner to prevent trail erosion
• ‘S’ turn on PA4J near Stegosaurus needs some TLC
• Ramp VYCC started to build off PA4J to enter Strong Angel from West side needs attention
• Reroute for Santa’s near the Droopy Muffin intersection
• Boardwalk at main entrance needs to be leveled
A suggestion was made to widen the boardwalk
A suggestion of taking part of the white pine down that   hangs over the boardwalk that the pileated woodpecker is working over
• Broken Handlebar Extension-anyone will to step up and help with this trail?
• Trail by Carving Bench to prevent people from walking over gardens
• Front entrance-smooth upper tier out so can be mowed
• Fabric on Overlook near the top of Root Ride

Introduced the redesigned Pine Hill Park webpage www.pinehillpartnership.org   Check it out.

We need a champion to drive the Broken Handlebar Trail Extension project

We would like to extend our gratitude to Tim Vile and Ben Reller who have helped us out in many way over the years.

Our board of directors for 2015 are: Joel Blumenthal, Andy Shinn, Keith Wight, Shelley Lutz, Claus Bartenstein, Dave Jenne and Bruce Saxman.

Please use TrailHub.org to find out condition of trails.

Meetings, Pine Hill Partnership, Volunteering

Annual Meeting set for March 30

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We are hoping you can attend the Pine Hill Partnership annual meeting on Monday, March 30th at 6pm at the Godnick Ctr. We will have some great food (both vegetarian, non-vegetarian and dessert), a short business meeting along with a short slide show.

We will have a short slide show to show our accomplishments for 2014 and plans for 2015.  If you are unsure of your membership dues please contact Shelley at shelley.lutz@gmail.com or 775 4867 before 8pm for your current dues status.

Please RSVP to Shelley by Wednesday, March 25th if you can attend.

Trail Updates

Spring Trail Closures-are now open as of May 20th.

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trail_closings_DEC2014These trails are now open as of May 20th. Please ride them gently as the trail tread is tender.

Exit Strategy, Lichen Rock,  steep hill on Droopy leading towards Dewey Wood Rd are closed still closed as of May 10th.  These trails received some TLC on our community work day and we hope to open these in another week or so.

PLEASE DO NOT RIDE THESE CLOSED TRAILS at this time.

 

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