A field trip report by YNC member (Halifax chapter) Maceo Arruda Kyriakidis
I had lots of fun on the Jack Pine barrens of the Herring Cove Backlands on Sunday’s Young Naturalist Club family hike.
It was very fun and interesting looking at lichens and mosses close up with the magnifying glass, and learning cool things about lichens, mosses, and Jack pines. I learned that some lichens like to be walked on because it crunches them up and makes them spread. We also discovered the lichens, when looked at closely with a magnifying glass, looked almost like little cities with lots of secret passageways. While the moss, looked like a big forest.
It was interesting how the Jack pine cones grow right from the trunk. These cones only open in very high temperatures so the Jack pine is one of the first trees to grow after a forest fire. We even found some ashes at the base of many trees.