We're Going On a Tree Walk...

We went on a "tree walk" with Mr. Mark Louis. First we started out with the park's Black Willow tree, which beforehand Anna and i just HAD to climb. It's around 200-250 years old and the third largest in the state, which is special because Black Willows hardly grow to that size. They're measured by trunk size, diameter, height, and crown size (how far the branches spread).

Next,we came to a Black Cherry tree from which we learned that a substance called cyan (sound familiar?) is produced within the tree. we were given a taste test of the inner bark of a branch to find an awful bitter taste...the cyan. cyan is consentrated and mixed with a variety of other things to create (yes you guessed it you're so smart!) cyanide. For those who dared to taste, i did, we learned what cyanide tasted like (chill! it wasn't enough to affect us in any way), NOT to eat random things you find in the forest, and that Black Cherry leaves a bad aftertaste for about 8 hours...yeahh ick, though actually if you wait a bit before eating you can eat things and they won't taste strongly like cyan.

We learned about the importance of trees along the banks of creeks and rivers as well as how parts of some trees have cells that are like stem cells for human, they adapt to whatever is necessary to help that tree grow.

Gather around, we want to learn about trees!

I'm out on a limb...of a GIANT TREE!! Hello, all the way over there...
Happy Creeking!

~Aimee