Beaver Dam Marsh

     One of the richest natural areas at Sweet Briar is the main inlet of the big lake, dammed by a family of beavers. It is a good place to catch sight of one or more beavers, and in addition it is the major campus breeding site of American toads, red-spotted newts, and canada geese. The toads' crepuscular singing is a characteristic part of Sweet Briar's spring soundscape. Other wildlife using the marsh include muskrats, wood ducks, pileated woodpeckers, raccoons, spring peepers, and an array of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates.

     In March 1997 several hundred toads battled for mates and laid long streamers of jelly-covered eggs. Their trilling was ear-numbing. Millions of eggs wound around the base of every emergent plant. In spring 1998 and spring 1999, toad numbers were down precipitously for reasons we don't understand. Amphibian numbers are in decline worldwide, so we await each season's breeding population with curiosity and concern.

     The beaver marsh is important for teaching, student research, conservation of our fauna, protection of the lake's water quality, and recreational use by hikers, birders, and other naturalists. The area is used for field trips in Bio 1 (Introductory Biology Laboratory I), Bio 118 (Field Natural History), Bio 124 (General Ecology), and Bio 122 (Animal Behavior). Rachel Cooper '96 mapped the locations of treecutting by beavers around the marsh for her senior research. Fionna Matheson '98 compared habitat selection in two tadpole species. A group of ecology students quantified beaver cutting around the perimeters of both lakes in '00.

Rachel Cooper and signs of a beaver's feeding
	Fionna Matheson and Sara Seyfarth measuring tadpoles

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Butterfly Research Garden and Buddleia Patches

     In 1998, with funds provided by the Juliet Halliburton Burnett Davis Environmental Studies Fund, a new Butterfly Research Garden was planted just beyond the train station in Old Orchard Field. Seventy-nine pink butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii var. 'pink delight') were planted in an X, with the arms oriented to the compass. This garden will be a permanent census site for long-term studies of monarch butterflies being conducted by Lincoln Brower and Linda Fink. It is also used for student research and labs and, with its expansive views to the north, it has become a favored destination for evening walks. In addition to monarch butterflies, in good weather the garden lures swallowtails, sulfurs, skippers, day-flying hawkmoths, and hummingbirds.

September 1999, view from the west

     The butterfly research garden is cared for by student workers and volunteers with help from Physical Plant. Students are paid through the Carry Nature Sanctuary Fund and the Monarch Butterfly Research Fund. If you are interested in helping out with occasional or regular watering, weeding, planting and pruning between May and October, let us know.

     A row of tall purple and white Buddleia in the median strip of the Meta Glass student parking lot is also a butterfly magnet in the summer and fall. At the peak of the monarch's fall migration students can count more than a hundred monarchs at a time on these bushes.

     In spring of 1999, a third patch of Buddleia was planted next to the Guion science building, with four plants each of six different color varieties. Students will study the preferences of different butterflies for each of the varieties.

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VDOF Study Plots on Paul Mountain

The Virginia Department of Forestry established two study plots on Paul Mountain in the 1960s: one within an area that was thinned; the second within an area that was not thinned. The trees in each plot, individually numbered with white paint, were examined and measured every five years from 1964 through 1994.

Numbered trees in unthinned forestry plot in June 2001