Author: Phil Huhn
-
FSMW Board Meeting (July 18, 2024)
Online Zoom Meeting July 18 7:30, Thursday FSMW is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. In this meeting we will explore what we as a community can do to manage and care for Scarlett Mitchell Woods, the central 40 acres of the Scarlett Mitchell Nature Area. This area contains the heart of the woods and the pond, which…
-
Traveling Cherry Millipede
In 2023, I started seeing these millipedes that I had not noticed in the past. The iNaturalist site said these are the Traveling Cherry Millipede (Pleuroloma flavipes). One can see these little guys from North Dakota, to Connecticut, to northern Louisiana and even southern Texas. The traveling cherry millipede does secrete toxic cyanide compounds to…
-
Northern Blue Flag Iris
Last year I photographed the irises on the west edge of the pond, but I never saw them in bloom. This year I did the workday on June 1st and the irises were in bloom. Now, one can identify them as northern blue flag irises (Iris versicolor, which means “variously colored”). The iris has 6 petals,…
-
Doug Fulton’s, A Naturalist’s Journal
Doug Fulton was a journalist with the Ann Arbor News. He wrote hundreds of articles. Many of the articles were environmental and nature based. He wrote two full page articles on Scarlett Mitchell Woods. On the ‘Mitchell Scarlett Woods Nature Area’ sign is an image of a bird. Ever wondered what’s the bird, well the…
-
Workdays in the Distant Past
The Friends of Scarlett Mitchell Woods has workdays on the first Saturday of the month. The concept of workways is far from a new thing. The following is from an Ann Arbor News article from the May 1st, 1970 newspaper. Nature Walks, Cleanup Set “Operation Mitchell – Scarlett Woods” will start a two-weekend spring campaign…
-
Spring Beauty
The Spring Beauty (Claytonia) is one of the spring ephemerals. It is a low plant with loose clusters of 5 petals white or pink flowers, striped with dark pink. It has a pair of slender leaves This picture was taken on April 4, 2024, on our first Spring Serendipity Walk. In the morning at 10:00,…
-
Spring Ephemerals in Scarlett Mitchell Woods
e-phem-er-al something that lasts for a very short time : ‘fashions are ephemeral’ The word is derived from the Greek ephemeros, ‘lasting for only a day’. To read more about spring ephemerals see this article by Robin Sweetser. This article will talk about the following 10 ephemerals:
-
Spring 2024 Serendipity Walk – Path Less Taken
The last of four Spring Serendipity Walks took place on May 18, 2024. This time we focused on Scarlett Mitchell Woods – West, sometimes referred to as the Korschak section after the previous owners. It took 25 years to procure this section with funds from the City of Ann Arbor, a grant from the State…
-
Parks/NAP Millage
Ann Arbor has 161 parks and Natural Areas with more than 2188 acres. About 50 acres of Scarlett Mitchell Woods is a part of the City’s Parks. On Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, voters will decide to renew the city’s parks maintenance and capital improvements millage at the rate of 1.1 mills. Previous Park millages were…
-
Ann Arbor Board of Education Budget Cuts
Ann Arbor Board of Education approves massive budget cuts of $20.4 million. The remaining $4.6 million will be accomplished through some other non-classroom reductions, including the sale of district properties. 50 acres of Scarlett Mitchell Woods is owned by the Ann Arbor Public Schools. For more information see WEMU.