Beneficial Waters Along the GRT EarthCache
Beneficial Waters Along the GRT
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The Green Ribbon Trail is one of my favorite trails in the area. No matter what section I choose to hike, I usually spy a variety of wildlife along the way and I always come away feeling more calm and relaxed than when I started. Good trails have that effect on me.
This Earth Cache will take you along a section of the Green Ribbon Trail to three separate informational signs. Your goal is to learn a little bit about the area surrounding the trail and why a muddy trail isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Lace up your boots, and take a nice walk.
Enjoy the trail.
If it’s wet, enjoy the mud.
Be careful. Be Respectful.
Stay on the trail.
Please use the parking coordinates provided.
The Green Ribbon Trail Beginning at Parkside in Upper Gwynedd Township and ending at Stenton Avenue in Whitemarsh, the Green Ribbon Trail is a passive recreational trail that shadows the Wissahickon Creek. This 12.6 mile trail is well marked and connects a variety of parks and protected natural areas such as Parkside Place, Penllyn Woods, Four Mills Nature Reserve and Fort Washington State Park. For more than 50 years, WVWA has either acquired or received permissions to allow trail access over more than 40 properties and 200 acres to complete the Green Ribbon Trail. In the last few years, WVWA worked with Cedarbrook Country Club to obtain a nearly half-mile trail easement through the club. With this easement, seven stepping stone crossings and the Rotary Bridge, the Green Ribbon Trail is now complete. You can now walk the entire trail without getting your feet wet while seeing a diverse wetlands, woodlands and meadows!* This cache will take your to the Four Mills Nature Reserve area. Parking is available at the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Administration Office on Morris Road. *(description taken directly from the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association website: (visit link)
Definitions (from Wikipedia):
A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink and shoreline stability. Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life.
A floodplain or flood plain is an area of land adjacent to a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge. It includes the floodway, which consists of the stream channel and adjacent areas that actively carry flood flows downstream, and the flood fringe, which are areas inundated by the flood, but which do not experience a strong current. In other words, a floodplain is an area near a river or a stream which floods when the water level reaches flood stage.
Vernal pools, also called vernal ponds or ephemeral pools, are temporary pools of water that provide habitat for distinctive plants and animals. They are considered to be a distinctive type of wetland usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the safe development of natal amphibian and insect species unable to withstand competition or predation by fish. Certain tropical fish lineages (such as killifishes) have however adapted to this habitat specifically.
Stage 1: Floodplain - N40 08.831, W75 13.527
Stage 2: Laundering Water - N40 08.868, W75 13.566
Stage 3: Vernal Pond - N40 08.898, W75 13.649
Stage 4: Erosion – N40 08.885, W75 13.652
Logging Requirements: Please email me the answers to the following questions. Once you've sent the answers, you may log the find. I may delete logs if answers are not received within a few days of logging.
Stage 1:
1. From the informational sign, list 2 ways that floodplains are beneficial.
2. Take the short path down to the water. Look around at the surrounding area. Which area is the floodway and which is the flood fringe? How can you tell the difference?
3. Standing at the informational sign, look around you at the surrounding area. Does the floodplain include the area behind you uphill from the creek? Why or why not?
Walk along the trail to the next waypoint.
Stage 2:
4. Look carefully at the pooling area in front of you. From the reading, you can see that this area is a wetland. The trail here runs between 2 waterways. From what you learned at Stage 1, are you looking at a floodway or a flood fringe?
5. How is the wetland here beneficial to the surrounding area?
Continue along the trail to the next waypoint.
Stage 3:
6. If you didn't have the sign in front of you, what features of the area tell you that it is a vernal pond?
Look behind you toward the creek and you’ll see another sign (stage 4). If the water is low, walk to this sign. If the water is high, go back to stage 1, cross the first bridge and take the trail to the right. There is no need to get your feet wet.
Stage 4:
7. Compare this pond to the vernal pond at stage 3. Using the information from the reading and from your own observations, is this also a vernal pond? Why or why not?
OPTIONAL: Post some photos from your walk along the trail. Let me know if you saw any wildlife while you were here.
Additional Hints
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