Barry, Being involved with ENTS makes you see things in a forest you have been to many times before that you have never noticed. Pretty cool, huh?
JP On Feb 28, 7:23 pm, Barry Caselli <[email protected]> wrote: > ENTS, > Today I drove up into one of the easternmost areas of Wharton State Forest > where there was once a bog iron furnace called Martha Furnace. I believe it > went into blast in 1800, and of course the entire bog iron industry failed in > the 1840s. There was of course a village around the furnace, a company town, > as all the furnaces had. If you worked at the furnace, you lived in the town. > The furnaces were that remote. > Anyway, surrounding the site of the ironmaster's mansion, as well as a few > other spots in the old village, you will find old, mangled, sad-looking > Southern Catalpa trees (Catalpa bignoniodes). Many of them look so bad that > you would think that they couldn't possibly be still alive, yet they are (and > very much so, for now). I'm sure they've survived a forest fire or two since > the Martha Furnace days. > Among these Catalpas there is the remains of an old buttonwood. It is > basically a hollow half stump, but it is still alive! There is a living > vertical leader growing from it. I bet it had a CBH of 10 to 11 feet when it > was still a complete tree. It's an amazing thing to see. There are also some > Black Walnut trees among the Catalpas, but just a few. > So, using the digital camera, I photographed most of the Catalpas from > various angles, trying to show the living parts, and also trying to show how > bad they look, to show how amazing it is that they are alive. But here's a > very cool thing I found: I found one Catalpa that had fallen over, with some > of its roots sticking out in mid air. A part of the trunk got forced > tightly against the ground. It then rooted, and either an existing branch > grew into a new tree, or a new tree grew from that small section of trunk > that's against the ground. You can see the base of this new tree growing > outwardly over the old horizontal tree. It's hard to figure out exactly what > this thing did, really. > Then I found another Catalpa that's even more odd. There is a two-trunk tree > that fell over completely (it's still alive though). A new tree has grown up > from the former root mass and base of the tree. But several feet away there's > a smaller tree that is bent over (not uprooted). This is also still alive. > The trunk comes out of the ground, then goes into a curve, ending up going > towards the ground again, but somehow part of it ended up laying on top of > the root mass of the double tree that fell over. I can't figure out if the > new tree growing from the root of the fallen tree has anything to do with > this other bent-over arcing tree. It must, because the bent-over arcing tree > is alive, but where are its branches and top? This tree growing on the root > of the other one must also be the bent-over tree. I can't figure it out. I am > unable to come up with a completely viable chain of events that caused what I > saw there, since two trees that are near each other > are involved. It's very, very odd, but very cool. > Nearby I found another oddball Catalpa. There's a tree that was leaning, > apparently. Somehow it leaned so bad that it touched the ground in one spot. > Try picturing a backwards letter S, laying over horizontally, but with the > curves not near as acute as an S. This thing leans over to the ground, and > then goes back up, almost vertically. It has grown so much since it fell over > that the part of the trunk that is growing back vertically again is > noticeably larger in diameter than the part that comes out of the ground > where the original roots are. And that part appears dead now, and the part > that is laying on the ground, which is a few feet long, is rooted now. > Also nearby I found a beautiful large pine that I think is a Shortleaf Pine. > At about 6 to 7 feet above the ground a second leader starts. This tree is > quite big so I measured it. I had to measure it at 3 feet above the ground in > order to get below the flare from the second leader. At 3 feet above the > ground I got a circumference of 6'9". Just to make sure I was getting the > smallest possible measurement, I measured again, 4 inches lower, and came up > with 6'9" again. > Also nearby, across the sand road, (where the forest is 100% pine trees), I > found a smallish Pitch Pine with an unusually long branch on it. It was cool. > Also nearby I found an Atlantic White Cedar that had fallen over, with some > of its roots out of the ground. The treetop is in mid-air. But three of the > branches of this tree are now growing into new trees. They are evenly spaced > along the trunk of the tree. > I took the opportunity to walk down to the bog along the Wading River, and > saw lots of Pitcher Plants. I've never visited any of our bogs in the winter > before. The Pitcher Plants apparently die back each year and then grow new > plants each Spring, just like any perennial I suppose. So it was neat to see > all these baby Pitcher Plants coming up. There was no sign of any of the > Sundews yet. > Anyway, further away I found a Pitch Pine that had broken and fallen over. > The CBH must be at least 5'6". I took the opportunity to measure the tree as > it lay on the ground. I came up with roughly 65 to 68 feet. It appears that > most of the standing trees there are that height. > And finally, further away still, I found a small PItch Pine that had fallen > over and was completely horizontal, with some of its roots in mid-air. > Half-way up the length of the tree, it turned upward and started to grow > vertical again. But in this case the entire tree is alive, not like the > Catalpa described above that fell over and rooted before growing upward again. > > This bit of forest is so cool. I wish some of you guys could have been there > with me to see all this. I have visited this site many times, but never > surveyed it so carefully before. > Pictures will come later. I want people to see what I saw. > > Take care, > Barry > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
