RSPP#1 Begin here. Traditional Cache
TaconicNYSParks: The 2017-18 winter series has officially ended.
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Your RSPP Winter series has likely begun here.
Active land management is essential to preserve the character of the landscape and native biodiversity for future generations. As you walk on the trails today, be on the lookout for signs of work done by Rockefeller Preserve staff and volunteers.
After stopping here, take a short walk to the Preserve Office, and stop by to say hi to the Park staff and grab a map and Field Guide. Also be sure to check out the Preserve Gallery and read our kiosk before hitting the trails.
Then venture onto the Swan Lake access trail. On your right, see if you can spot the site of the Preserve’s fern garden, run and managed by garden volunteers. It is home to more than 20 different ferns including cinnamon fern, interrupted fern, Northern maidenhair, hay-scented and Christmas ferns. Deer generally do not eat ferns.
Come back in the spring and summer and you will be able to see these ferns, as well as nearby native wildflowers that were propagated and planted by Preserve staff. Native wildflowers provide critical food for many species of butterflies, insects, rodents, and birds. Deer have greatly reduced the diversity and abundance of wildflowers, so Park staff and volunteers work each year to plant more. Among the wildflowers planted at the Preserve are: Joe pyeweed, Wood asters, New England asters, swamp milkweed, yarrow, turtlehead, black-eyed susan, woodland sunflower.
Look out for pale yellow-green tubes sticking out of the ground. These tubes protect native tree seedlings from being eaten by a large number of deer. They are the forest of the future.
The Preserve has volunteer stewardship projects in the spring, summer, and fall.
WARNING: Be careful of poison ivy, thorny shrubs, and parking lot muggles!
Bring a pen and tweezers.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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