Hi All,
I want to share with fellow tree enthusiasts some exciting discoveries and forest ecology research in the Inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. This region is based primarily of Ordivician limestone and sits upon a slightly higher formation called the Jessamine Dome. The soils of the region are among the most valuable in the commonwealth. It is the location of the first settlements in Kentucky [Fort Boonesborough, Harrodsburgh, Danville, Logan's Fort, Bryan's Station, etc.] during the late-1700s. Of course, horse farms still dominate the region. Thus, there is little forest across the region. The exception to this is the Palisades formation along the Kentucky River. I was asked by Beverly James, preserve manager, to look into the age structure of Floracliff Nature Sanctuary along the Inner Bluegrass in southern Fayette County [http://www.floracliff.org/about.html]. I was not too hopeful in the potential for old trees because the preserve is close to a major corridor [now I-75], has a series of fields within the sanctuary, is close to Lexington, KY, and, from an earlier visit, is dominated by a second-growth forest being overrun by bush honeysuckle. Yet, on the first visit, Beverly and her assistant Althea Wiggs, brought me to some very interesting looking chinkapin oaks, trees that seemed a bit out of place in the second-growth forest. Sure enough, their ages indicate they are out of place. In fact, they are from another time. With a great crew, now including Dr. Ryan McEwan of U. of Dayton, Ciara _____ (volunteer asst. at Floracliff) and Chris Boyer (undergrad at Eastern KY U), the six of us cored 20 living chinkapin [or chinquapin, if you prefer]. The first tree we cored came in at 372 yrs, the oldest documented tree in KY at the time. that record did not last too long, however. The second tree came in at 398 yrs, now the oldest-documented tree in KY. About half of the remaining sample shows chinkapin oaks from a different era living in Floracliff. Below is the 'prelim' age structure for the chinquapin oak at Floracliff. These are ring counts, except for the two oldest individuals (who are cross-dated versus the other oak chronologies in eastern KY), so many of these ages could be ±5-10 yrs. We have not ring counted just the most interesting individuals. Tree Date/Rings Comments 1 1637/372 yrs cross-dated 2 1611/398 yrs cross-dated 3 109 yrs ring count 4 153 yrs ring count 5 147 yrs ring count - shows a release from competition in 1920s 6 351 yrs ring count 7 321 yrs ring count 8 212 yrs ring count - rotten tree, ~ 1/2 of the radius 9 219 yrs ring count 11 315 yrs ring count 12 349 yrs ring count 14 287 yrs ring count - rotten tree 16 344 yrs ring count 17 370 yrs ring count 19 341 yrs ring count 20 81 yrs ring count - tree next to main trail At least nine trees over 300 yrs [I think there are 1-2 more that will come close to 300 yrs]. What amazes me is that six of these trees are ~340 yrs and 3 of those are ~ 370 yrs or older - WOW! I'll send Ed pictures of trees 2, 16 & 19. Related: under the direction of Ryan, most of this crew spent a couple days at Griffith Woods, a representation of the oak-blue ash savanna thought to be a settlement-era ecosystem that dominated the Inner Bluegrass [http://www.friendsofgriffithwoods.org/index.html]. This notion, however, is being challenged by the work of Ryan McEwan and Julian Campbell. A small, but powerful sample of remnant oaks and ash across the Greater Lexington area indicates that they are indeed old trees; many date to the late-1600s and early-1700s. However, most of these trees show an incredible increase in ring widths soon after European settlement, suggesting the Inner Bluegrass was initially forested prior to Euro-settlement. Initial cores from Griffith Woods seems to suggest something similar [ref available here: http://academic.udayton.edu/RyanMcEwan/Pub/Pub.htm]. I'll send Ed some pix of these trees, too. neil --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
