Journal of a Book Pony

Applejack isn't the only pony who has been working hard to catch up on her duties after our long trek north and back. Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are responsible for monitoring the biodiversity and population dynamics in and around Ponyville. That includes assessments of the diversity, density and age structure of the plants via regular and scientifically rigorous sampling of various ecological communities. That sounds like so much fun! Today Fluttershy was heading out to Whitetail Woods to do some transect sampling. I volunteered to tag along and enter the data into her wax canvas field notebook. An excellent choice in rugged bound stationary, I might add.

The early fall is such a nice time of year. The lush growth of summer is bearing fruit, the air is cool and fragrant, and the leaves are beginning to turn color. We packed dice, flags, a spotting scope, a random number table, a key to identifying the plants of Ponyville, Canterlot and the Everfree Forest (I want one!), measuring tape, stakes and string. We also packed a picnic lunch and Angel Bunny.

Fluttershy's starting point is 500 paces into Whitetail Woods, following the Leaf Runner Trail. From there she uses the dice and her random number table to find a fresh starting point on the trail, either forward or back. At the fresh starting point, the dice and random numbers give her a compass direction and she uses the spotting scope to establish a straight line for her belt transect, which is three paces wide and one hundred paces long. We placed flags to delineate the study area, and then the fun began!

Fluttershy identified every plant at every pace, measured every tree diameter at withers' height, and I followed her and wrote it all down. Angel Bunny also sampled the plant life, in his own way, although not so much in the belt transect and not really at random either.

Fluttershy has noted a fair bit of disruption to the various plant communities around Ponyville. Discord's plants saw to that. As a result there has been an increase in the number of secondary successional plants colonizing the gaps left by toppled climax plants. But overall, Ponyville's plant communities are recovering nicely. The Running of the Leaves helps.

Every year, ponies wrap up fall by running as a herd through the forests. This causes the cells walls in the abscission layer of the tree leaves to thin and the leaves to fall. The pounding of so many pony hooves also stimulates the health of all the plants in the communities the run goes through. Thus the rapid recovery of the plants here after the Tree had eliminated Discord's vines.

We stopped for lunch under the trees. I noticed that I could tell where we had walked by the appearance of the plants we had passed. The leaves of the understory plants were suddenly going yellow and the leaves in the trees were changing to red, orange and yellow right before my eyes. Pony magic.

After lunch, Fluttershy finished up the day's data collection with a quadrant, or rectangular plot, sample area. She rolled and looked up a random point on, and a direction perpendicular to, her belt transect, then looked up a random distance to establish the lower corner of the quadrant. We pegged and strung a cord from one corner to the next to make a six pace by twelve pace rectangle and then Fluttershy methodically identified every plant and measured every tree diameter in the quadrant.

The job done, we packed up our things, collected all the flags, scooped up Angel Bunny and headed home. Behind us, the trees were beautiful.

Now that I'm back I'm trying to catch up on my reading. We should be having another potluck supper soon, probably at Rarity's boutique. It will depend on everypony being up for it. What should I make?

Applejack has been working long hours tilling fields, planting and weeding. The lion's share was done as part of Winter Wrap Up, but there's still plenty to keep the Apple family busy.

Dash is off on Wonder Bolts Reserves duty, but she'll be back tomorrow. She has weather duty in Ponyville too and Applejack isn't going to be too pleased if her fields and orchards don't get watered on time.

Rarity should be making a run to Manehatten soon with an order of Spring formal wear and to touch base with Coco Pommel. I think Pinkie Pie has been stashing ling thin balloons everywhere for "animal balloon emergencies".

Fluttershy has high hopes for kits from her jackalope pair. She's added willow and poplar trimmings to the options in the diet of the animals she has under close husbandry. She's looking for areas around her cottage where she can plant some pioneer trees and bushes and boost her primary productivity. Preferably near a stand of mature trees. And she's going to make a few brush piles. A good balance of interspersed cover types and early succession woody plants along grassy areas makes for good rabbitat.

It was sunny but really cold today and the wind made it a biting cold. It was really starting to nip at my hocks on my trot down to the Town Hall to see how Applejack's crew was getting along. Toe-Tapper and Torch Song were upstairs going over the props and making sure we had enough make-up. It's going well.

Even bundled up in my red and gold horse blanket I was cold cantering back home. Ponies have started to put up festive garlands, candy canes and decorated trees but I didn't stop to admire them. I could practically feel Windigos blowing down my neck. Well not really. It takes a lot of hard feelings and bickering to summon Windigos.

So much of Equestria's ecology is chained to the combined mood and will of all ponies and so much can go so very wrong. That's why we have the Hearth's Warming holiday, to bring cheer to ponies when winter would have us stable ourselves away. Ponies change the seasons but ponies can also bring the Windigos. We can be our own worst enemies sometimes.