Author: Phil Huhn
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Take this swap and shovel it
From Ann Arbor News article on July 1, 1990 Nature lovers want parks department to dredge marsh for bird life Nature lovers Manfred Schmidt and Will Weber think there isn’t anything wrong with the Mitchell-Scarlett marsh that a huge shovel wouldn’t fix. Schmidt, a landscaper, and Weber, who has a doctorate from the University of…
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Just Duckie
From Ann Arbor News article March 30, 1981 Members of the Scarlett-Mitchell Woods Association were busy over the weekend erecting duck and goose nesting stations in a marsh behind Scarlett Intermediate School. They hope that next year some traveling feathered friends will take up residence in the marsh. The Association is also trying to raise…
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Manfred and Judy – Friends of Mitchell-Scarlett Woods
Friends of Mitchell-Scarlett Woods | A Conservation Mini-Documentary This short documentary gives a quick introduction to two conservationists, Judy and Manfred Schmidt, and the process that they went through to conserve Mitchell-Scarlett Woods, a nature reserve in the middle of Ann Arbor, Michigan, surrounded by a highway and developments. They had to stave off developers,…
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Chokecherry
Chokecherry (Prunus Virginiana – Wikipedia) is a species of bird cherry native to North America. Chokecherries’ is a shrub, native from mid-Ohio to mid-Canada. Chokecherry leaf is oval 1 to 4 inches long and 1/2 to 2 inches wide. The leaf is dark green above with a paler underside. Chokecherry flowers are small, white, 5-petaled blossoms…
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Yellowing Curtain Crust
Yellowing Curtain Crust (Stereum subtomentosum – Wikipedia) is a tough, leathery bracket fungus that grows on dead hardwood, identified by its velvety, zoned, often greenish-brown cap and a distinct yellow staining reaction on its smooth underside when bruised or cut. Found year-round, it commonly causes white rot on dead beech and oak wood.
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Crowded Parchment
Crowded Parchment (Stereum Complicatum – MushroomExpert) is a widespread, inedible saprobic fungus found on dead hardwood, particularly oak, in North America. It is characterized by small, orange-brown to cinnamon, velvety fan-shaped caps that grow in dense, overlapping, wavy clusters. These fungi cause white rot in wood and are known for being leathery when moist and brittle…
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Wild Cherry
Wild cherry (Prunus Avium – Wikipedia) is native to western Eurasia and naturalized elsewhere. The bark is smooth reddish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown horizontal lines on young trees, becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees. The leaves are alternate single egg shaped (simple ovoid-acute), 2-3/4 to 5-1/2 inches long and 1-1/2 to 2-3/4 inch wide, slightly shiny green on top and finely…
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Hackberries
Hackberries (Genus Celtis – Wikipedia) is native from Tennessee to mid-lower peninsula Michigan and from Ohio to Kansas. Hackberry trees are very hearty, but prefer direct sun, so in Scarlett Mitchell Woods will grow slowly. Hackberry bark is described as forming characteristic corky ridges and warts on trunk and branches. The hackberry leaves are alternate, simple, with…
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Birds and Blooms Nature Walk – May 16
Birds and Blooms Nature Walk – Saturday May 16, 2026 @ 10:30 am. The migrating birds have been returning to their nesting grounds or moving north for some time already, but May is the peak of the warbler migration. We’ll pay attention to the many native plants that are blooming and the insects that pollinate them.…
