2022 Annual Meeting Report
Lee Academy, Lee, Maine, July 11-15 , 2022. We had a great time meeting again in person! We would like to thank Monday evening speak Susan Sieczkiewicz Linscott, Director of Outdoor and Environmental Programs at Lee Academy, presenting a talk titled “A Brief Natural History of the Greater Lee Area." Thanks to volunteer drivers, as we had another year without buses, and many thanks to Lee Academy Staff for transporting canoes to our Tuesday morning site.
Tuesday morning we headed to Dwinal Pond Flowage, in Winn and Lee. Canoes and kayaks were offloaded in a highly organized manner thanks to Lee Academy staff and we were in the water in no time. The success of the canoe trip might pave the way for more canoe trips in future years! We explored the streamside graminoid fens with Trichophorum alpinum lawns, good Carex and Juncus keying opportunities, and the native Lonicera oblongifolia, as well as enjoying aquatics like Potamogeton zosteriformis. A small crew bushwhacked into the southeastern portion’s cedar fens to hunt for Ranunculus gmelinii and Carex gynocrates. If you missed the summer meeting here is some more information on this state of ME focus area: Dwinal Flowage Info.
After loading canoes, we drove to Almanac Mountain in Springfield. We were met by landowners Gordon and Ginny Mott, and forester Mitch Lansky, author of “Beyond the Beauty Strip: Saving What’s left of Our Forests”. All three are heavily involved in regional conservation efforts. Gordon and Ginny mowed an old field for JBS vehicles to park and made several large “JBS this way” signs” to help navigate the site. They were very welcoming and appreciative of our visit and we would like to thank them for their efforts to make our foray a success. Almanac Mountain supports a small (~ 50-acre) old-growth area, dominated by large Picea rubens, Betula lenta (of enormous size), Fraxinus americana, Quercus rubra, and Acer saccharum. The site occurs on a talus slope comprised of car to bus-sized boulders, strewn with many ferns. We found the wood fern hybrid between Dryopteris intermedia and Dryopteris marginalis, both abundant species on the slopes. Of particular interest was the large population of Viola renifolia, growing more densely than any of us had seen. A JBS favorite genus was found, in the form of Botrychium angustisegmentum near the parking area. While no rarities were observed during our short visit, the site was remarkable for forest integrity and structure.
Tuesday night workshops were Botanical Illustration with Alison Dibble and Candy McKellar, Bryophyte Identification Workshop with Ralph Pope, and Aquatic plants of Merrill Pond with Eric Doucette. A downpour and thunderstorm with beautifully dense storm clouds interrupted the outdoor workshop! Thank you to workshop presenters.
Wednesday was an all-day field trip to Mattagodus Fen in Webster Plantation. This site has the picturesque Mattagodus Steam flowing through circumneutral fens, graminoid fens, and shrubby cinquefoil-sedge circumneutral fens. A few members kayaked down the stream but the majority walked overland, botanizing as we went. Notable plants included Dasiphora floribunda, Salix pedicellaris, Symphyotrichum boreale with some just coming into early flowering, thousands of stems of Carex livida, Carex michauxiana, Parnassia glauca, Galium labradoricum, Lonicera obongifolia, Paludella squarrosa, Lobelia kalmii, Cladium mariscoides, and the hybrid rosa Rosa nitida ✕ Rosa palustris (along with both parentals). This is a phenomenal site and if you missed the meeting more information on the site can be found here: MDIFW site
After Wednesday’s long walk through graminoids, we had an easier start Thursday morning at Upper Molunkus Stream, in T1R5 WELS. The main attraction here were specimens of great St. John’s wort (Hypericum ascyron, an S1 species in Maine). The rivershores allowed easy access for keying out grasses, sedges, willows, and narrowing down the subspecies for Calystegia sepium. Members enjoyed the clumps of Adiantum pedatum and Caulophyllum thalictroides on the walk in, and a small number stayed out in the gravel pit parking area keying out the five willow species that grew along a small borrow-pit pond that was covered with Equisteum variegatum.
We packed up around noon to have lunch and botanize at the afternoon’s site, Slewgundy Heater along the Mattawamkeag River in the town of Mattawamkeag. The weather was perfect for JBS swimming and water ballet, although the river’s current made the latter very entertaining! Along the high-energy, circumneutral rivershore, we saw around 15 stems of Hieracium robinsonii, lots of Artemisia campestris ssp. canadensis, Viola novae-angliae, and Solidago hispida. It was a relaxing afternoon of botanizing and swimming. We left the site just in time as a torrential downpour with some hail mixed in occurred on the drive back.
Thursday evening concluded with JBS songs and games. Everyone expressed how happy they were to be botanizing and socializing together again!