Northrop and Christodora 2011
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In 2011, Christodora was unable to use the camp at Great Mountain Forest, because they needed to replace the septic system, so we instead had a six day Summer Ecology Program (SEP) at Northrop. Since we did not have a license to run an overnight camp, the students slept in tents at Taconic State Park, but spent the day at Northrop.
The SEP director, Micah Strauss, working closely with Northrop alumnus Hubert Ling and Christodora board member Pamy Manice, planned a project which took advantage of the old Northrop vegetable garden, which had not been touched in 18 years, since the fire in 1993. The campers marked off a square in the garden and a square of the same size in the woods nearby. The woods, we thought, had not been cut in about a hundred years, since the last farm was abandoned. We found a large tree by the side of the road, which had recently been cut down because it was interfering with a power line, and one of the campers counted 87 rings, so the woods had been undisturbed for at least that many years. The campers recorded the species growing in each plot, learning some lessons about ecological succession.
Besides their time at camp, the 2011 group also visited Bashbish Falls. One day Hubert took them on a hike around Guilder Pond, where they saw sundew, a carnivorous plant, and tiny little black frogs in the bog. Afterwards, Micah led them up to the summit of Mt. Everett.
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