Dale,
Cool stuff! I like the appearance of tree-of-heaven but not the circumstances of their presence. Remember the fire cherries at Tionesta we saw with Jess? They were a good bit larger. Will F. Blozan President, Eastern Native Tree Society President, Appalachian Arborists, Inc. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dale Luthringer Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 11:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Ft. Machault & Hoge Island-Allegheny River ENTS, On 9/5/08 I had a trip to Franklin, PA to research a canoe purchase for the park. After I was finished, I took some time to scout the old Ft.Machault site and Hoge Island. Ft. Machault was one of the original French forts built on the Allegheny River drainage during the French & Indian War: http://www.brigniagara.org/Warforempire.htm "In the spring of 1753, French forces departed Montreal to establish a chain of forts in the Ohio country. Originally ordered to go to the Chautauqua area, they received new orders changing their destination to Presqu'ile (modern day Erie, PA). The French force arrived at Presqu'ile on May 3, 1753. They began work preparing the site for the fort on a bluff overlooking the peninsula and Lake Erie, near Mill Creek. The French proceeded to build another fort at la riviere au le Boeufs (present day Waterford, PA). From this spot the French could transport their supplies by la riviere au Boeufs (also known as French Creek) to Fort Machault (Venango) and the Ohio River where they would build Fort Duquesne (present day Pittsburgh)." "1754 -The French reinforce their forces in the Ohio via lakes Ontario and Erie and build Fort Machault (present day Franklin, PA) and Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). -Washington Surrenders Fort Necessity." There is no visible structure of Ft. Machault today. If one can read the lay of the land, and has some knowledge on how these forts were set up, one kind find the site with its associated terrain. I believe it was located on French Creek, just upstream from the confluence of the Allegheny River. The entire site is now a "community park". Just up-river from the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River is Hoge Island. I wasn't able to get on the island, but was able to observe some of its tree species. mainly silver maple. Small stature silver maple was located on the lower terrace, with larger silver maple dominating the upper terrace. From a distance, it looked like the silver maple on the upper terrace would not have significant heights. Other species visible on the island include sycamore and black willow with Japanese knotweed on the river edge. The old Ft. Machault site was a nice walk, but invasive species were evident: Japanese knotweed, privet, tree of heaven. It was nice to measure two new species for our Allegheny River drainage tally: boxelder, fire cherry. Tree of heaven played games with me in terms of its ID. I never saw them this big before (medium tree sized). The sumaras were quite distinctive. I wanted to call them black walnut something fierce, but there were no nuts, and they certainly didn't have the bark: http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=7 Thankfully, I haven't seen these yet at Cook Forest. I didn't measure any, since they were heavily guarded by poison ivy on the ground and crawling up their trunks, but they were decent in size, say ~14" DBH x ~60ft high. Next time I'm in the area I'll try to be a little more persistent and see if I can get a decent height for one of these. Also thought I'd add a fire cherry to our PA list at 0.9ft CBH x 24.3ft high. Looks like a new state champ. first one on the list though. Here's the day's tally: Species CBH Height Comments Boxelder 4.7 20.2 Butternut 8.8(3ft up) 72.1+ Fire cherry .9 24.3 41 23.391N x 79 49.249W Honey locust 10.4 73 Silver maple N/A 87.1+ Silver maple ~20(2x) 91.1 Sycamore N/A 90.9 Sycamore N/A 98.8 Tree of heaven ~3.1 ~60 Dale --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
