Bethpage State Park Ecology

February 2nd is Groundhog Day! To most, perhaps it is a nonsensical holiday. To others, it intrigues by connecting folklore and tradition (from the Pennsylvania Dutch). Nonetheless, the holiday focuses our attention to a very important question: are we in for more winter or much closer to Spring!? If you believe in groundhog predictions, this year Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, thus declaring 6 more weeks of cold weather.  Groundhogs are a quirky, cultural American icon  While having a national holiday is more than most animals receive, I would still argue that groundhogs are wildly overlooked and underappreciated. These creatures provide value far beyond seasonal pop culture, and should be celebrated year round! Let me tell you why. For starters, groundhogs are the largest members of the squirrel family. Classified as marmots, these ground-dwelling rodents burrow massive networks! Through digging, groundhogs aerate the soil faster and bring nutrients to plant roots....

     

 Recently, Bethpage State Park hosted Farmingdale Girl Scouts for a fun-filled nature event in our Picnic Area. This marked the second year we had this troop visit in autumn, which offered another seasonal, colorful kind of day! To kick off our event, I started the group off with a sensory experience in our Picnic Pollinator Garden! Finding dried out flower heads and seedpods atop the stems, the scouts learned that the fluff part of the seed is an adaptation that helps with its dispersal. We picked some milkweed pods that noticeably had this fluffy feature, discussed how it took over in some areas of the garden and why continuing to plant and protect milkweed was so important!    This segued us into our next topic: the Monarch butterfly's lifecycle and their magnificent migration to Mexico for overwintering. I was impressed the girls knew quite a lot about this species, their needs, and their journey. It seems we have ourselves some butterfly enthusiasts (and possibly...