Forest Gradient

A cold, wet March Saturday couldn't keep 5 hikers from our hike this past weekend.

CPOP board member Amy led a natural remedies hike, pointing out the healing power of the plants that grow wild and naturally in the Forest. Even before we crossed the Lick Creek bridge, she demonstrated how you can use the non-native plantain that grows in sidewalk cracks for bee stings.

The biggest change right now is on the Forest floor,

The bright green of emerging natives, like the poisonous and medicinal Mayapple,

is finally overpowering the dull evergreen of invasives.

Up above, where it's still gray and still beautiful, we saw a hawk floating between giants.

I love the grapevines dangling from the tops of those trees. Here's one beginning, where the vine comes out the earth and starts figuring out a way to make it to the top.