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Ridgelines Spring 2020

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Ridgelines Spring 2020 Newsletter of the West Rock Ridge Park Association Spring 2020 From the President: This year marks the 45th anniversary of the 1975 legislation creating the West Rock Ridge State Park and the Conservation Area. We are grateful to all whose foresight, hard work, and perseverance led to the creation of West Rock Ridge State Park, preserving this wilderness park for all of Connecticut's citizens to enjoy. In particular, we express our deep gratitude to Peter Cooper, Bill Doheny, and Barrie and Steve Collins for spearheading these efforts! We are grateful to the state parks staff and the volunteer trail workers who maintain the park for all of us to enjoy (see articles on pages 3 and 7). So many people enjoy the fruits of those labors: schoolchildren, university scientists and researchers, bikers, hikers, and fishermen and women, residents of the four neighboring towns: Bethany, Hamden, New Haven, and Woodbridge, and residents from across the state and the country. The park's trails offer many beautiful vistas (see article page 5), and the park is home to a wide variety of birds and other wildlife (see article page 4). We are grateful for the state legislators who recognize the value and importance of Connecticut’s parks, and of West Rock Ridge in particular, and have accepted the challenge from CFPA (CT Forest & Park Assn) and FCSP (Friends of CT State Parks) and have adopted West Rock Ridge State Park: State Reps. Themis Klarides and Lezlye Zupkus, and State Sen. George Logan. In these days of social distancing due to the COVID virus, the park provides a welcome respite, a place to enjoy solace, exercise, and fresh air while adhering to social-distancing protocols. The parking lot near Lake Wintergreen is full most days, with cars parking on the adjacent roads. Several Hamden residents living near the park enjoyed - from within the safety of their homes -- a late afternoon visit from a bear in April, seen here checking out one family's chicken coop. We hope you are staying safe, and that you're finding time to get out and enjoy the park. --Ted (Theodore B.) Lynn Ticks and Lyme Disease Found Less at West Rock By Tom Ebersold West Rock Ridge State Park is one of the areas the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) surveyed for the prevalence of the deer tick, or black-legged tick, which can carry assorted diseases, most famously Lyme Disease, and less commonly anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Powassan virus. Scott C. Williams, Ph.D., is an environmental scientist who works at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) in New Haven, and who has been studying Lyme Disease, ticks, and their animal hosts. As part of his research, Williams did tick sampling in various locations across the state and reported these results from 2019. He said at West Rock, he sampled by Regicide Drive and the Red Trail near the southbound entrance to the West Rock Tunnel. He said he sampled there eight times in 2019, and only picked up 15 adult and 10 nymphal deer ticks. In an email to him, I mentioned that I continually pull and cut invasive plants at West Rock. In a December 2019 email response, Williams wrote, "On average, we sampled 3.1 deer ticks/visit at West Rock and 7.6 deer ticks/visit at our other locations within New Haven County. Our highest was Tolland County with 9.0/visit and lowest was Middlesex County with 2.4/visit. We are finding that forested habitats in good health, like West Rock, have fewer ticks than areas in poor health like with lots of deer and lots of invasives. So please! Keep on pulling and killing the invasives. It does make a difference." In his research, Williams discovered a connection between the prevalence of the invasive shrub Japanese barberry and black-legged or deer ticks. On the CAES website, he writes, "It was found that the growth form of barberry retains humidity throughout the day providing an ideal microclimate for tick survival reproduction and that controlling barberry creates a more hostile environment for ticks." At a lecture where he presented these findings, he explained that the moisture-loving ticks in barberry can spend more time higher off the ground looking for a host to grab than in an area lacking barberry that is less humid. This means that people have a greater likelihood of picking up a tick in a barberry-infested area. Barberry-lined trails is a serious problem in Fairfield County and other hiking areas in Connecticut, but thankfully not at West Rock. West Rock is fortunate that it has only a limited amount of the invasive Japanese barberry plant because CAES studies have shown that there are far more ticks in area with barberry than in areas without it. Most of the barberry I have seen is located along the fence at edge of Baldwin Drive where people are not hiking anyway. According to Williams, in a healthy forest, there are 10 Borrelia infected ticks per acre, as compared to an unhealthy forest where there are 130 Borrelia infected ticks per acre. With fewer ticks in the woods, people are less likely to pick them up, and therefore less likely to be bitten with the potential for becoming infected. In my view, barberry also causes problems because it tends to grow quickly and grow over trails, so in infested areas, it is difficult to avoid brushing up against this prickly shrub. The most likely time for people to get bitten is starting in the spring as the temperatures warm up and the tiny nymphs are active and through the summer as the adults are seeking a meal so they can breed more ticks. Ticks cannot bit you unless you brush against a plant on which they are resting, waiting to latch on to an unsuspecting host. West Rock is helpful in this regard for a couple of reasons. First, many of the trails are wide, so the chance of brushing up against something is low. This is particularly true of the loop around Lake Wintergreen. There are also few trail sections that pass through grassy areas. There are problem areas where the invasive plants crowd the trail, and narrow them, which is an important reason why I clear them wherever and whenever I can. I have also gotten bit by ticks while doing this work, usually because I was not careful enough to do a thorough tick check as soon as I got home. My personal protection involves always wearing long pants with socks tucked into my pants, and spraying either picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus on my clothing. These are both effective, natural repellents, as compared to DEET, which is a neurotoxin, and permethrin, which is an insecticide. Neither can be used on skin for that reason. For people who use these chemicals, think about how they probably end up on other clothing when you put them in the washing machine. Before getting into my car, I check for ticks on my clothing. At times I find a tick crawling around my car the next day. Due to trail work, I am more likely to pick up ticks than hikers and cyclists because I am pushing my way into brushy areas to prune them back or clear them, typically invasive plants. When I get home, I remove the clothing by my washing machine, and not my bedroom, in case there are any stray ticks I missed. Then I shower and do a tick check. I never wear shorts in the woods since a time when I was in the woods for three hours doing trail work and came out and found a tick embedded in the skin on the back of my leg behind my knee. At times when I have not followed these procedures, I have gotten bit and sometimes have gotten Lyme Disease. 2 CAES Tick Testing is Free If you do get bitten by a tick, remove it and place it into a dry container, and then bring it to your local health department, which will submit it to CAES for testing at no charge to you. CAES tests for Lyme, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis. The station will not test dog ticks or lone star ticks because these ticks do not carry these particular diseases. In a few weeks after submitting the tick, you will receive a report back detailing what type of tick you submitted. If it is a deer tick, then they will let you know whether it was engorged and by how much. If it was engorged, they will let you know if it carried any of these three diseases, and the potential for infection. According to CAES, unengorged ticks are not tested because it presumed that they did not have the opportunity to transmit any diseases. Larval ticks are not tested because they have not had the opportunity to become infected with any of these diseases. The key for effective treatment of Lyme is prompt treatment. Catch it and treat it early, and it should clear completely. If you are bit, after removing the tick, monitor for any symptoms and if you start to feel tired and achy, seek medical attention. The closer to the time of the bite, the more effective the treatment, so don't wait for the results of the tick test if you are not feeling well. CAES publishes an annual summary of the tick testing program. In 2019, it tested 56 deer ticks from Hamden with no specific information as to where in town these were found.
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