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This was part of a project sponsored in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Council for the Humanities On June 19th, 1999 Tom Weldon led visitors on an interpreted walk that focused on changes that have occurred in the environment surrounding the Bidwell House -- changes that have been typical throughout the Northeast. Even though much of what can be seen in the woods here is the product of natural forces at work, far more than would be expected at a casual glance is the outcome of human intervention. |
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| For example, the woods along the Royal Hemlock Trail, are dominated by maples and ash, as would be expected if nature were left to her own design. But there was also a lot of white birch. This is typically a young forest tree, that grows rapidly after the woods have been cleared, then dies as climax species take over. So the woods, seeming ancient, have been disturbed over history. |  |
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| Next in point were the simple dandelion and burdock growing in the lawn. Probably most people assume that these are native weeds; but, no, both were brought in by Europeans as garden herbs, and escaped to push aside indigenous plants. | |||
| A small chestnut tree sprouting up from the remnants of an older tree's root system, doomed to die before it grows much taller, tells how a devastating blight was brought into this country by the importation of a fungus on resistant oriental chestnuts that were planted in New York. Maple and ash trees with leafless, dying tops warn of the catastrophic consequences of acid rain and other air born pollutants. As a conclusion, Tom cautioned that our present behavior is accelerating changes in natural communities because of our careless use of technologies capable of producing ever-increasing stress on native environments. | |||
