Terri of the Trails: Winter Design

Winter Design

Ouabache Trails Park

January 31, 2014

Those who will walk the woods only during the warm, green season (or maybe, also, when the woods is ablaze with autumn color) miss the extraordinary experience of the forest in wintertime. Each season has its own beauty and surprises. Winter is especially unique.

It is a calming experience to walk through a landscape that shows its bare bones foundation, to be able to see details without cover or adornment, when the presence of fewer colors allows us to see forms and lines more clearly, when sounds are minimal and clear, and when the air is sharp and awakening.

I went on a walk at Ouabache Trails Park two days before Groundhog Day, when many animals are still in burrows or deep in mud, and others are minimally active.

As I walked on through the woods, my boots made a sound like a sharp tang as each step broke through icy crust on top of the snow.

This winter had already been colder than we had experienced for some years in this area. Those deeply cold, icy days, interspersed with occasional days of temperatures near or above freezing, presented an ever-changing tableau of winter design.

To see it, one had only to go, and to look.

First, the Ice.

The variety of ways that water crystals arrange themselves is incredible. Sometimes they form around an object.

Sometimes they form in a mass, with no discernible pattern.

Patterns in ice tell the story of the flow of water, and frozen moments.

Sometimes the story is of a glorious design, created, then lost....

Water can freeze into phenomenal designs that look as it they were created purposefully by an artist …

...and sometimes it creates seldom-seen phenomena.

Here, a thin layer of ice had formed over the frozen creek, with a layer of air between. Water condensed on the bottom of the upper sheet, creating these droplets.

Shattering ice sounded like the breaking of fine crystal, unusually loud in the quiet winter air.

Natural designs that are barely noticeable in the loud fullness of summer become more apparent this time of year.

The forest floor in winter is covered with a layer of dead leaves in shades of brown and gray, and sometimes with a white layer of snow.

Without an obscuring layer of tall plants, the intricate intertwining of tree roots becomes obvious.

We can notice the texture, color and patterns of tree bark, which become a good way to identify trees when they are devoid of leaves.

Sugarberry, or Southern Hackberry

Shagbark Hickory

Kentucky Coffee Tree

Persimmon

American Hornbeam (right) and Grape vine

With the leaves gone, the landscape takes on a very different look. The shapes and colors of trees become clear to see, including the smooth gray of American Beech and the ghostly white top branches of Sycamore peeking through the otherwise brown canopy. An intricate web of branches is woven against a background of blue-gray sky, while rust-colored leaves of young American Beech trees dot the understory. Old Grape vines curve and angle through the whole scene.

A sharp, woody clap, like a child hitting a hollow tree with a baseball bat, lets me know that the woodpeckers are busy in the trees over the next hill.

The winter sun accentuates the skeletal canopy...

...while a russet ground cover softens the view below.

Looking up into the canopy is like looking into pen-and-ink drawings.

The canopy of this Kentucky Coffee Tree is dotted with oval seed pods still hanging on...

...but some of the pods are found below. The round seed inside is easy to locate by the swelling on the pod. The pod's smooth, soft, white-dusted texture contrasts with the sharply-veined, crackly leaves around it, making it easy to spot.

The bean pod of another kind of locust tree, the Black Locust, also lies on the forest floor, its long shape contrasting with the rounded leaf shapes surrounding it. Many small swellings along the pod belie the location of seeds inside.

Even in death, trees present a myriad of textures and designs.

A blue-green smear of lichen can indicate an aging tree.

This live American Beech seems to be clasping a close neighbor that has succumbed. The dead Beech is riddled with holes made by woodpeckers who were searching for the insects inside.

Another dead tree is almost nothing but holes. Its sloughing bark and layers of wood have created different colors and designs.

The roots of this uprooted, long dead tree have become so deteriorated that they have even hollowed and broken, creating homes for wildlife.

Walking along the Trail 5 Loop, you can come upon a tall, bark-covered stump. Stepping around to the other side of the stump reveals a very different view, as if someone had cut a vertical section to reveal the workings within. It has been almost completely eaten up by various wildlife, resulting in an irregular honeycomb of tunnels, channels, chambers and burrows.

In a closer view, you could mistake this for a sea sponge.

A wide variety of fungi can be found on dead and dying trees, old stumps and rotten logs.

A bright white, cottony network of fungi mycelium can be found within the leaf layer, helping to break down dead leaves, twigs, and maple seed “wings”.

The cycle of life continues, even in the winter woods, whether sprouting from old wood, old leaves, or the rich soil, providing spots of green.