Hello Tom, I've been surprised and pleased with the relative abundance of older forests in the Syracuse area. Unfortunately, I've had very little time to explore the area, so Green Lakes State Park is the only one of the sites you mention that I've visited. There, the sugar maples on the slopes south of Round Lake are impressively large, and species like glade fern and goldies fern point to the richness of the soils. On my brief trip through that area, I didn't see any signs of intensive human disturbance, so that section may be old growth. Other parts of the park certainly have large trees, but the gentle topography and rich soils suggest they could have just developed following land clearing in the early 1800's
Oakwood cemetery is definitely appropriately named with many large oaks spread throughout. The founding date for the cemetery of 1859 has always lead me to believe that most of the large oaks started growing at that time, and took advantage of the favorable conditions provided by the cemetery to reach their current sizes. Some of the oaks could be left from the forest that occupied the site prior to the cemetery, but the cemetery was laid out by a prominent landscape architect, so I assume most of the trees were planted. The forests at two other Onondaga County sites have impressed with their age. The small area of steep slopes around the falls in Pratts Falls County Park support a forest of hemlock and sugar maple that seems unlikely to ever have been cut. Closer to the city of Syracuse, Clark Reservation State Park supports an extensive area of older forest. Parts of the park were farmed, but old hemlocks, sugar maples, and black maples occupy the slopes associated with the karst topography in most of the park. The steep, east facing talus slopes adjacent to the lake also support a pure grove of white cedar with many tree likely between 200 and 300 years old, although I have not seen cores from any. Jess On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 7:06 PM, thomas howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > ENTS, > > I just joined your organization. I've been a lover of trees all my life and > have long been interested in old growth forests. ENTS is my favorite website > and I've met several ENTS people. I live in North Syracuse, NY just north of > Syracuse where I believe Jess Riddle goes to ESF. I'm especially interested > in old growth forests here in central NY. > > North Syracuse contains 2 old growth oak groves that Robert Henry, the North > Syracuse Village Historian (and ESF grad) and I have studied extensively. Old > growth oak forests are quite rare in upstate NY and North Syracuse is > fortunate to have 2 of them. > > I know of 4 old growth forests in Onondaga County. The largest, Green Lakes > State Park, has over 1000 acres of old growth dominated by Sugar Maple > averaging 200-250 years old and with 1 section dominated by Tuliptree over > 140' tall. I believe you are familiar with this forest and I was in the team > with Bob Leverett, Bruce Kershner, Tom Diggins, and others when we explored > it in 2002. > > The largest of the North Syracuse oak groves at North Syracuse Junior High > School on Taft Rd. just west of Rt. 11 is 6 acres of old growth dominated by > White Oak, Red Oak, Black Oak, Red Maple over 100' tall, up to 4' dbh and > 150-200 years old. Bob Leverett led a team that measured tree heights in > both oak groves in Apr. 1998 (if I recall they included White Oak 102', Red > Oak 103', Red Maple 103.9' in the grove at the junior high), and this is the > grove featured in the 5/26/98 USA Today article on tree measurements. The > grove is called the Wizard of Oz Memorial Oak Grove because the grove > possibly inspired L. Frank Baum to create the Great Forest of Oz as he grew > up near the grove and lived across the street from the grove's owner. > > The other grove, about 1.5 acres, is at North Syracuse Cemetery. This grove > is near and dear to my heart as I grew up on a street right by it - it is the > first old growth forest I've ever seen. Oaks up to 200+ years old abound and > the density of large trees is very high - 12 trees greater than 30" dbh in 1 > acre. The grove's largest tree is a Black Oak (measured at 100.5' tall by Bob > Leverett in 1998) and now 43.2" dbh. This grove is potentially threatened > and may be sold for lumber. > > The village of North Syracuse contains significant Black Gum and Sassafras. > Black Gum to 20" dbh are found in both oak groves, and the Cemetery Oak Grove > has an especially gnarly twisted old Black Gum about 19.6" dbh. > > I noticed in Jess Riddle's post on Cicero Swamp that there are some > impressive old Black Gums there. > > The 4th old growth site, the Liverpool School Maple grove, is about 11 acres > at Wetzel Rd. Elementary School next to Liverpool High School. This grove is > dominated by Sugar Maple up to 4' dbh, over 100' tall, and over 200 years old > - the largest tree is a Sugar Maple with lots of spiral grain, shaggy and > balding bark, possibly over 110' tall, and over 4' dbh. Other large old > trees are Red Maple, Beech, Basswood (in 2003 I counted 242 rings on the > cross-section of a fallen Basswood log and this cross-section was over 40' > above the tree's base), and Shagbark Hickory. > > Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse has many huge 200+year-old White, Red, and Black > Oaks. > > So even the crowded Syracuse area has some important trees. I think it would > be good if some of the ENTS could take a look at them. Tree heights in the 2 > oak groves and Liverpool School Maple Grove need to be updated (as neither > Robert Henry nor I have a laser rangefinder). > > I wonder if Jess Riddle would be interested. > > Sincerely, > > Tom Howard > _________________________________________________________________ > You live life beyond your PC. So now Windows goes beyond your PC. > http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/115298556/direct/01/ > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
