May. Also in May, we participated in the annual CW Congress meeting, to discuss the Regional Biodiversity Recovery Plan. A program of burning was begun in ELM 14. The maintenance program for ELM 14 calls for maintaining an intermediate successional state. This year the west half of the tract was burned. The Bell s Vireos nested in the unburned portion of the site.
Plans are to alternate sections burned, to control brush and to leave areas for the nesting birds.
The Pond, maintained in that state through the summer, dried out. The elevation at the bottom of the Oxidation Pond is 716.5 feet, and the boards in the A.E. Sea discharge structure are set at 717.0 feet. Thus, there is the potential to maintain a few inches of water in the Oxidation Pond. After the area dried out, some relief features were constructed to provide small islands within the area of water. Seeds of various sedges were planted this fall.