I toured the areas of western Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and part of Berkshire county for the weather service. Took some real interesting pictures. Although there are indeed some trees with damaged and broken tops, and even a few entire trees downed, the far majority of the damage was limited to branches and limbs. Examining the downed limbs, most had some kind of weak points or defects, and succumed to the excess ice weight. Like Heidi stated, the pines, particularly the artifically planted plantations, took the worst. Ice storms are not unknown in the Northeast, and provide a valuable service creating habitat, and trimming bad and weak limbs. Unfortunately, some find power lines since they are in the way. Mohawk, and some of the others, have survived many conflagurations of nature, including ice storms, wind, lightning, you name it. Hopefully none will be weak enough as to get taken down, but thats natural processes at work. Its great that the Mohawk giants were spared though.
We now have enough early successional habitat for our lifetimes, and probably dont need any more 50 acre clearcuts to create more. Ray -----Original Message----- From: "Heidi Ricci" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 10:23:13 -0500 Subject: [ENTS] RE: The Gods Are Merciful Hi Bob I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that the great pines of Mohawk were spared in the recent ice storm. Pines in my area of north central MA took a beating, and many lost their tops. The exemplary characteristics of Mohawk’s forests are more important than ever. It nice to know Mohawk is not only protected by the state as a forest reserve due in large part to your efforts, but also has escaped the devastation of the ice storm. I hear there is another ice storm on the way mid-week. I hope Mohawk is spared again. Maybe there is something about the locale’s microclimate that would explain both the large size of trees there and the different effect of the Dec 12 storm there vs. nearby surrounding areas? Heidi E. Heidi Ricci Senior Policy Analyst Mass Audubon 208 South Great Road Lincoln, MA 01773 781-259-2172 FAX 781-259-1089 [email protected] If you support our public policy initiatives, advocacy positions & environmental projects, join over 100,000 other people as a Mass Audubon member at: www.massaudubon.org From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 4:58 PM To: [email protected] Cc: Heidi Ricci Subject: The Gods Are Merciful ENTS, Today Monica and I went to MTSF to meet up with new Ent Jeff Lacoy. Jeff is an arborist that works locally. He has a strong interest in what we do in ENTS. He could become a star. On the way to Mohawk, Monica and I passed through the township of Goshen. It looked like a war zone. Tree damage in some areas was near 100% with many trees snapped off. It is going to take years for the surrounding forest to recover. As we rode, we could follow the line of damage. By the time we reached Mohawk we saw that, as we were told, the ice damage was above the 1,300-foot contour. By the time we arrived, we knew that Mohawk's great pine forest had been spared. It looked marvelous. We remeasured the Algonquin Pine. This time I got 161.2 feet. Visibility was perfect, so I am setting the current height of the tall tree to the latest figure. The Algonquin Pine is a modest 8.9 feet in circumference, but should join the 9-foot club in one or two growing seasons. Jeff seemed duly impressed with the stature of the Mohawk pines. He has an arborist's eye. He can quickly distinguish very tall from the tall from the almost tall. When he gets his clinometer and laser, I predict that he'll make many valuable contributions ot ENTS. Seeing the vitality of the Mohawk pines always inspires me. I am grateful to the weather gods for sparing the forest icon of Massachusetts. Bob --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
