By Louis Silcox as seen in the Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette
The latest Wednesday Walk in Wilmot’s Wonderful Woods ventured into the Schmidt Woods, near the recreation centre.
The Schmidt Woods are named in honour of Harold and Enid Schmidt, longtime residents of Baden area and strong supporters of their community. While many people simply enjoy the cool calm of the woods, keen people start to see differences in the trees around them. And they should. Former resident Wayne Buck has identified 26 different trees growing in this small plot. We think there may be even a few Wayne didn’t count. We’ll soon post Wayne’s list is on the Let’s Tree Wilmot website
Our primary goal on this stroll was to find the fairly rare rock elm. We found one, although there are others. We also learned why it is sometimes called cork elm. We also looked for black ash, an important tree to our indigenous predecessors. A Baltimore oriole sang for us. If you go, pay attention to the poison ivy signs. I missed one.
The next walk is June 5 at 7 p.m. at Baden Hills. Different trees, different soil, sure, but how did these hills get here 10,000 years ago? What did this area look like before Europeans arrived? Visit Letstreewilmot.ca for more information.
