Pagoda Dogwood -- A Comeback Story

It was a great surprise, many years ago, when I first encountered a pagoda dogwood in Herrontown Woods. Though its leaves have the classically arc-shaped veins, this is not the highly ornamental flowering dogwood. Nor is it the silky dogwood often found in floodplains. Also called alternate-leaved dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), its discovery took me back to field botany days in the 1970s, when a charismatic University of Michigan botanist, Herb Wagner, introduced us to many of the less common flora. 

I'm guessing the discovery in Herrontown Woods was about ten years ago, and at that time I could find only two specimens of pagoda dogwood in the preserve. One was thriving, the other dying, possibly of an introduced anthracnose disease. Encountering no others, I assumed the species was barely hanging on and in danger of succumbing altogether. 

But the one remaining specimen continued to grow, now more than twenty feet tall, and fortuitously created many progeny when a lower branch touched the ground and took root. Some of these I carefully dug up and divided, then planted in various spots where I'd remember to care for them. 

Initially caged and watered, two of the new specimens took hold in the Barden, thriving in spots sunny enough to generate many blooms this spring. 

Then, within the past couple years, much to my surprise, I began encountering the distinctive reddish stems of young pagoda dogwoods scattered here and there in the preserve, along a stream or up on the ridge. I'd say they are expanding on their own, without any help from people, but it's also true that the town's deer-culling may have reduced the browsing pressure on native woody plants sufficiently for these younger specimens to grow large enough to be noticed. As they grow, their branching will take on the characteristic tiered, pagoda-like shape.

It's rare, in this tragic time, when treasured species like ash and beech are being laid low by introduced pathogens, to find what looks and feels like a resurgence. This post is written in mid-spring, when the foliage is fresh, the birds have returned, periodic rains soften the soil and feed the vernal pools, and a string of deliciously cool days ease the tending of nature's garden. So much in the world is broken. There is so much to grieve, and yet the woods can still fill one with good news.

Postscript: Another comeback story is the butternut tree, a native that had been laid low but is becoming more numerous in town due to some timely intervention years back, along with some ongoing care. Kind of a fun story: I was telling a resident at Princeton Community Village about the butternut tree the other day. She had never heard of it, but a light went off in her head. Charmingly, the roads at PCV are named after trees. with names like Juniper Row, Sassafras Row, Tupelo Row, and Red Oak Row. She had always wondered why there was also a Butternut Row, which she assumed was named after a squash. Now she knows it too is a tree, one that still grows in Princeton, like and unlike all the others. 

Herrontown Woods in the News -- Salamanders and Wet Meadows

There have been some excellent recent writeups in local news media about the Friends of Herrontown Woods' work in the community, in Town Topics, TapInto Princeton, and the PPS District News.

The first was by Carolyn Jones in TapInto Princeton, entitled "How To Save the Salamanders? In Princeton a Volunteer Brigade Helps Out," about FOHW's Princeton Salamander Crossing Brigade--a group put together by FOHW board member Inge Regan that includes community volunteers, high school students, teachers, professors--all taking a keen interest in helping amphibians migrate safely across Herrontown Road in the spring on their way to vernal pools, where they lay their eggs. 

Soon thereafter came a student writeup in the Princeton Public Schools District News about FOHW's collaboration with PHS Environmental Science students and teacher Jim Smirk to turn a detention basin at the highschool into a native wet meadow. 

Don Gilpin followed up on that with a front page article in the Town Topics about our work at the high school. Along with collecting data in the basin, the students are weeding out invasive species and planting natives. Our "Iwo Jima" photo shows the students lifting a tool shed into place that will also collect rainwater for watering plants. The shed was built from scavenged materials by FOHW volunteer Robert Chong. The rainbarrels were donated by Jenny Ludmer of Sustainable Princeton. 

The outdoor learning the students are getting, ranging from applied analytical skills to plant identification, including how to safely and effectively use garden tools, will serve them well in life. Combining the physical and the intellectual, whether helping amphibians at Herrontown Woods or tending to a complex plant community at the high school, reflects the active stewardship Oswald and Elizabeth Veblen valued and hoped to encourage when they donated Herrontown Woods nearly 70 years ago. 

Princeton Grad Students Help Out at Herrontown Woods

One of my favorite things to do at Herrontown Woods is to restore habitat with a group of grad students from SPIA. That's the Princeton School of Policy and International Affairs, formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson school. 

Mariah Lima is the organizer. She somehow discovered Herrontown Woods last year, and this time, for what she called "SPIA Forest Crew Part 2", she brought six friends: Nadia, Rebecca, Caroline, (Mariah), Derek, Veronica, and Matteo.  

It was one of those inspiring spring days, when the shadbush is in bloom, 

when the opulent leaves of skunk cabbage form green ribbons along the streams, 

and when newborn tadpoles nibble algae growing around masses of salamander eggs in a vernal pool.

We decided to work in an area of intense restoration, where years of work had finally slain a giant 3-acre wisteria monster, making room for native species to be planted. 

There were still some garlic mustards to be pulled, and considerable satisfaction to be had in digging out remnant sprouts of thorny Japanese angelica trees with the claw of a hammer, for lack of a better tool.

Rebecca and Nadia planted loci of native seed--ironweed, JoePyeWeed, and coneflower--covering the seed with a thin layer of soil and tamping it down.

Mariah, Derek, and Matteo made cages to protect newly planted elderberry shrubs from browsing deer.

A pileated woodpecker had preceded us, chowing down on insects hidden in a fallen log. Such a pleasure to participate in nature's dynamic cycling of life with a spirited crew at Herrontown Woods. 

Late Winter Blooms at Veblen House

Even before spring officially begins its sweep through the landscape, the Veblen House grounds come alive with blooms.  

Particularly prolific in expanse and blooms are the snowdrops that grace the grounds with white in mid-March, echoing the patches of lichen on the boulders. 

Down below the Veblen House, near the fishpond, are some other early wildflowers mixed in: crocuses, the yellow of winter aconite, and the blue flowers of Scilla, also called Siberian squill. All of these flowers are nonnative, but they do not spread into the surrounding woodlands.

Veblen House was once the meeting place for the Dogwood Garden Club, of which Elizabeth Veblen was a founding member. These flowers date back to those times, with another pulse of planting energy happening during the Bicentennial in 1976, a couple years after Elizabeth passed away. 

Showing up even earlier than these early spring flowers, and far more subtle, are the catkins hanging in profusion from native hazelnut shrubs we rescued and propagated. These grow near May's Garden, which long ago served as Elizabeth "May" Veblen's garden, and has been reborn in recent years as a teaching garden for kids.

It was quite a job to cut and clear some 25 dead ash trees from the woodlot near the house this past winter. If left standing they would have become hazardous. Thanks to Victorino for his skillful felling of the trees, and to Andrew and Ninfa for cleaning up the debris. This patch of lawn is often used for croquet. Other games like horseshoes and bags can be found elsewhere on the grounds. 

The flowers of mid-March serve as prelude to the bigger show to come, as thousands of daffodils burst forth in coming weeks. Many of these were planted by Elizabeth Veblen herself after she and her husband purchased the property nearly 85 years ago, in 1941. 

We are careful not to mow down the daffodils after they bloom, leaving their foliage to collect solar energy to drive next year's flowers.

Soft Open for Firmer Trails at Autumn Hill Reservation

If you haven't been to Autumn Hill Reservation in a while, this would be a good time to check it out. A three year revisioning of the trails to make them drier and more scenic is now essentially complete, and we're doing what could be called a "soft open" on the newest sections. 

Signs give hikers a gentle nudge away from the old trails and towards the new. 

This winter's revisions bypass wet areas and follow ridgelines and historic rockwalls that date back to when this land was farmed 100+ years ago. 

Our wonderful mapmaker from Maine, Alison Carver, is already converting my scrawl and tracking files into a new map. The new configuration, with a new "blue" trail, should give hikers more options for exploring the preserve.

Thanks goes to Andrew and Ninfa for their help in clearing myriad invasive shrubs that were growing along the trail corridor. One of the satisfactions of trail creation is the habitat restoration that happens at the same time. Spared from our loppers were the many native spicebush, wild grape, and tree saplings growing along the routes.

With safety in mind, after the routes are cleared, our chainsaw virtuoso Victorino comes in with his assistant Wilbur and clears hazard trees, usually ash trees that were killed in recent years by the introduced emerald ash borer. Here, Victorino is checking to make sure the dead tree he is about to cut down will be able to fall cleanly to the ground. Note the clever ladder he cut from a tree branch so that he can reach the trunk to cut it.

Note also the Asian bittersweet vine climbing up the tree in the foreground. We cut as many of those as we can as part of the restoration work.

Occasionally I ask Victorino to sharpen the blade of my little electric chainsaw so that I can handle the small stuff.

Victorino also cuts some potential table tops from fallen ash trees that have interesting grain--tables that will tell the story of this forest in their tree rings.

A lot of thanks goes to those who support the Friends of Herrontown Woods with donations that make the work of Andrew, Ninfa, Victorino and Wilbur possible.

In other news from Autumn Hill, as of Feb. 28, there were still three big diabase boulders being held up to the sky by the rootball of this fallen tree. (I happened to be standing ten feet from this fine dental display when the first one fell, a couple years ago.)

But by March 6, only two remained. This drama has been playing out since the tree fell 5-10 years ago, lifting the root-tangled boulders up out of the ground. Don't you sometimes wish the pace of news in the world was more Autumn Hillian?

Lunar New Year Celebration - 2025

About 150 kids and adults came to the Barden at Herrontown Woods on Feb. 23 to celebrate the Year of the Wood Snake. 

A wood snake might be a harder sell for some than 2024's Year of the Dragon, but all was fun and pleasure. 

The main organizers again this year were Danni Zhao (right) and FOHW board member Inge Regan. 

Artist Hope Van Cleaf created some powerful and charismatic interpretations of the Wood Snake, and 

coloring opportunities for the kids.

We took the dragons for a walk in the woods.

Towards the end, anticipation was running high for FOHW's first ever raffle.

Thanks to Herrontown Woods' caretaker Andrew Thornton, MC'ing with his able assistant Vadim, as they helped Danni with the raffle. 

So much thanks to all involved, including Perry Jones, FOHW intern Ninfa, Molly Cooke, and photographer Vera Zhao. 

Photo below by Inge Regan.

Princeton Birding Society Leads a Great Backyard Birdcount

Even in the middle of winter, a woodland comes alive when you walk with skilled birders.

Thanks to grad student members of the Princeton Birding Society for leading our annual Great Backyard Birdcount walk at Herrontown Woods again this year. The Princeton Public Library helped promote the Feb. 15 event.

The main leaders, Irene Sha and Kade Jackson, were able to detect and identify even the faintest bird sounds in the forest. 

In this photo, we're gathered at the Veblen Cottage farmstead, which includes a corncrib where black vultures have raised their young in the past. The black vulture family, which we've learned to respect and even admire for their devotion to parenting and their important ecological role, paid a visit a couple weeks prior, but whether they will raise their young here again this year is uncertain. 

The walk offered an opportunity to try out a new plankway trail we created through a wooded swampy area of Herrontown Woods. 

Kade posted the birdlist on ebird. The list included no revelatory sightings, but much interesting knowledge about birdlife was passed along, and as one of the students said, "All data is good data."

Thanks again to the Princeton Birding Society for joining us and sharing their knowledge on a brisk winter's day.

Autumn Hill Trails Get a Redesign

One project we've been saving for cold winter weather is some more rerouting of trails in Autumn Hill Reservation--the 78 acre preserve across the road from Herrontown Woods. 

It's a perfect time to work in the woods--no ticks, no mud, lots of light being recycled by the snow, and the dense invasive vegetation is less intimidating in its dormant state. I can wear heavy clothes that protect me (mostly) from the thorns of multiflora rose, and the cold air balances all the body heat generated by the physical labor.

Improvements to trails started three years ago, as we began shifting trails away from some chronically wet areas, and built plank walks where wet ground was unavoidable. Last winter, we bypassed some wet areas along the yellow trail. 

This pulse of energy comes fifty years after the YMCA built the original trail loop in 1972, and some 30 years after Bob Wells and the local boyscout troop expanded the trail system in the late 1990s. This according to a little history of Autumn Hill I compiled.

This winter, Andrew and I explored off trail to find drier, more scenic routes, and were gratified to find them. One new trail will follow a ridge. Another will follow an old rock wall previously hidden from hikers' view. 

The process of trail building requires cutting through some dense stands of invasive shrubs. Linden viburnum and winged euonymus are especially numerous, with some having grown to astonishing size. Border privet, Asian photinia, multiflora rose, and autumn olive add to what can be called "thickets of inedibility", that is, the dense, nonnative understory that deer refuse to eat. Birds eat the berries, but if nothing is eating the foliage, solar energy collected by the plants can't move up the foodchain.

There are also many fallen trees that need to be cut through to make a new trail. Ash trees in particular, killed over the past decade by the introduced Emerald ash borer, periodically get blown down during wind storms, their trunks rutted with the zigzag pathways cut by the EAB larvae.

It's rewarding to be able to cut the vines of asian bittersweet and Japanese honeysuckle that have been quietly strangling trees and native shrubs. Cut them at the base and all the growth above will die and eventually fall off. A quick tap on the cut stems with a Buckthorn Blaster helps prevent regrowth.

The most numerous native shrub is spicebush. The deer numbers are down enough that spicebush has been able to make a spectacular comeback, but the shrubs can still be stymied from growing new stems by deer browse.

When the time comes to mark the new trails, we'll remember this word to the wise: Don't nail the trail markers tight to the tree trunk. The tree will slowly swallow the marker. 

Once the new trails are done, the Autumn Hill experience will be drier and more scenic, and I'll have gotten some good winter exercise.