Both Maria and I (Brennan) are Berks County natives and were immediately drawn to working with Nolde Forest. Since we both visit regularly, to walk with our dogs, our initial research ideas were solely based on our personal observations while in the park. We talked about how we both noticed a fair amount of (what we guessed to be) parasites in the trees and wondered if they were harmful to their hosts, as well as if they impacted any other surrounding organisms. Shown in the picture above is one of the things we assumed to be parasites attached to a tree branch.
After discussing the idea more, we decided that our research topic would include parasites but be more broad. We are going to research the general threats to biodiversity within Nolde Forest.