First-Year Colloquium 109-01
Connecticut Woods
Spring 2001
Meeting time: W 2.40-3.55 in Seabury 305; some weekend field trips
Instructor: Gary Reger, x 2393
From the retreat of Lake Hitchcock to last weekend's hike, forests have played many roles in Connecticut: complex ecology, abode of Native Americans and colonists, economic resource, balm for the tired urban soul. Through an eclectic selection of readings and a series of required field trips that culminate in an overnight in late April, we will be exploring some of those roles. Students must be willing to walk in the woods in winter and early spring and have (or acquire) appropriate clothing.
Books
Connecticut Walk Book. A Trail Guide to the Connecticut Outdoors, 60th ed. (Rockfall, CT 1997).
William Cronon, Changes in the Land. Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (New York 1983).
Forest Trees of Southern New England, pamphlet guide produced by the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association.
John Kirchner and Gordon Morrison, Eastern Forests. A Field Guide to Birds, Mammals, Trees, Flowers, and More (Boston 1998).
Peter J. Schmitt, Back to Nature. The Arcadian Myth in Urban America, 2nd ed. (Baltimore 1990).
Tom Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape. A Natural History of New England (Woodstock 1997).
Assignments
The basic tasks of this class are:
(1) Participate in the discussions and other work done during our class meetings.
(2) Read the assigned readings and be ready to talk about them.
(3) Participate in the walks. These are the equivalent of roughly two class meetings. You will need to be flexible about days, as the weather will determine whether we go on Saturday or Sunday. I will notify you by email Thursday or Friday about which day is a "go." We will typically start early and try to be back to campus by mid-afternoon. You will get notification about whether to pack a full lunch or just snacks.
(4) As part of one of two groups (half the class each), choose a walk for a Saturday or Sunday. This will involve researching possible walks, presenting the options in class, leading a discussion about the advantages/disadvantges, knowing what equipment we will need (e.g., boots for stream crossing, a full lunch to eat on the trail, etc.). The class as a whole will then decide which proposal to adopt. There are two of these walks, on February 24 or 25 and on March 10 or 11. Proposals will be presented the Wednesday before (see schedule). Each walk should be planned for about 3 hours, but longer or shorter walks can also be proposed. Be sure to take into account driving time when planning a walk.
(5) An overnight and hike at a place to be determined on the weekend of April 21-22.
About the reading:
The reading in this course is intended to provide a range of material for understanding forests and human relations with them, but is hardly exhaustive. Kirchner and Morrison have written a non-traditional field guide, focused on an ecological approach to understanding the forested landscape. Parts should be read carefully, others can be skimmed.
Wessels' book is a practical guide to reading forest history through current signs. The short chapters concentrate each on a different type of forest disturbance -- fire, logging, windthrow, farming -- and should give you some of the tools to detect evidence of these disturbances in the forests we see. But remember that Wessels' examples are all to some degree idealized to emphasize the features he is trying to explain; real forests are often more complicated, and less obvious.
Since trees may be about all we'll see, I've included a short field guide to the forest trees of southern New England.
The Connecticut Walk Book is an excellent guide to the trails maintained by the volunteers of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. It should be indispensible in helping you plan walks, though it is by no means exhaustive of hiking possibilities in the state. This is a book to use as a reference, not to read from end to end.
The last two books, Cronon's and Schmitt's, offer different historical approaches to understanding human relations with forests and nature. I hope they will provide us with food for thought about the complexities of those relations as we walk through the woods. Both will repay careful reading.
Personal responsibility on the walks:
(1) Be on time for the pick-up.
(2) Dress appropriately for the weather; bring extra clothes. Check the weather the day before and the morning of the walk, and check your email for messages from me an hour or so before we are scheduled to go.
(3) Bring food and water for yourself on the walk.
(4) Leave cell phones and other electronic appliances at home. I will carry a cell phone in case of emergencies.
Schedule of Classes
January 17: Introduction
January 24: Reading maps
Read Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape pp. 12-61
January 31: The Geology of Connecticut
Read Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape pp. 63-127
February 7: The Holocene Vegetation History and Ecology of Connecticut (guest: Scott Smedley [to be confirmed])
Read Wessels, Reading the Forested Landscape pp. 129-165; Krichner and Morrison, pp. 8-51, 58-62, 72-75, 81-85, 90-92, 154-219
February 10 or 11 (Saturday or Sunday): Walk I
Read Kricher and Morrison, Eastern Forests pp. 414-451.
February 14: No meeting
February 21: No meeting
February 24 (Saturday): Walk II
February 28: No meeting
March 7: Group I presents its walk proposals..
March 10 or 11 (Saturday or Sunday): Walk III
March 14: No meeting
March 21: Spring Break (no class)
March 28: The Woods, Native Americans, and the Early English Colonists
Read Cronon, Changes in the Land.
April 4: Group II presents its walk proposals.
April 7 or 8 (Saturday or Sunday): Walk IV
April 11: No class
April 18: No class
April 21-22 (Saturday-Sunday): Overnight and walking at Macedonian Brook State Park. For some photographs from that trip, taken by Jacob Schneider, click here.
Read Krichner and Morrison, pp. 269-309; Schmitt, Back to Nature.
Online Resources
Connecticut Forest and Parks Association. The CFPA is a private group founded around the turn of the century to preserve woods in Connecticut. Today one of its chief tasks is to maintain a system of blue-blazed trails throughout Connecticut; these trails are described in the Connecticut Walk Book. Some of these make for excellent walks.
America's Roof: Mt. Frissel. American's Roof describes itself as a "Guide to the Highest Places in the U.S. and the World." The link here takes you to their description of the walk up Mt. Frissel, on whose southern slope lies the highest point in Connecticut (the peak is actually in Massachusetts).
The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection maintains the state park system in Connecticut. their webpage provides information about season use, activities, camping, and other useful information.
The Appalachian Trail Homepage provides links to all sorts of information about the Trail, which skirts through Connecticut in the northwestern corner of the state. Brief descriptions of sections of the Trail in Connecticut and connectors can be found here, an article in the useful Trails.com website.
The Riga Plateau deals with a section of the Appalachian Trail that does not require overly strenuous hiking but rewards with spectacular views. This article on the Riga comes from the homepage of Backpacker.com.
Eastern Mountain Sports is one of a number of suppliers of outdoors equipment. They have stores in downtown Hartford and in West Hartford. Trinity has a relationship of some sort with them which may entitle you to a discount.
TopoZone provides topographical maps for the entire United States.
Check here from time to time; I'll be adding resources as I discover them. If you know of or find something useful, please pass on the URL so that I can post it!