What a great day Barry! I can't wait to see the pix. And I can't believe you worked in Batsto and are familiar with the ghost towns. And it's a bit scary that there is a road named "Burnt Schoolhouse"...yikes! (They need a new road called "Burnt McMansion".) I hope this is not offensive (it probably is...), but I'm curious if there are there still people living there called "Pinies"? I met a woman from Rutgers who does research on a lot of the fish in the water system there and she said she always brings her dog to feel more secure! But I suppose the otherworldy quality is part of what makes it so fascinating.
I just ordered up some books from the library about the flora and fauna and ecology and I'll print up info from the websites Ed posted. I should get out there soon before heat and insects are a problem, right? Thanks and looking forward to the pix. Jenny On Mar 16, 5:31 pm, Barry Caselli <[email protected]> wrote: > ENTS, > Today I took off from work even though I'm supposed to be off the layoff now. > That's because I've had the flu or something since a week ago last night. So > I bought a cup of coffee and a hoagie, and decided to go somewhere in Wharton > SF to eat. I hadn't decided exactly where. But I drove up to the > Batsto/Pleasant Mills church cemetery, and walked around, and took some > pictures. Then I decided to go elsewhere to eat. I ended up at the state > picnic area at the old Crowleytown (or Crowleyville) ghost town site. I'm > very familiar with the site because I worked there on the weekends when I > worked at Batsto in the late 1980s. Anyway, while there I noticed a > particularly big red cedar. So after eating I walked to my truck and got the > tape. The CBH turned out to be 8' 1 1/2". This is the second largest extant > red cedar I know about. (The one at Seaville Methodist Church is 9' 7" or > more.) While walking around I saw a tree that was hollow, and right at ground > level you could look through it from one side to the other, seeing daylight > through it. There was no bark that I could see. I said to myself, almost > outloud, "There's now way that tree could possibly be alive." But no sooner > did I say that, then I discovered that it was a Catalpa, and that it was > alive, without a doubt. There were vertical strips of bark covering live wood > in a couple spots on the trunk, plus a couple branches had a lot of bark on > them, with old seed pods hanging from last year. Those Catalpas never cease > to amaze me! > > I took a lot of pictures of other red cedars there, and some other things > including that Catalpa, and then walked across 542 to the Buttonwood Hill > state campsite, which sits on the site of the Buttonwood Hill Tavern, of the > late 18th century. Right away I noticed the largest extant wild black cherry > that I've ever seen. It's very messed-up looking, but still very much alive. > It's hard to kill a wild cherry. They are real survivors. I measured the CBH, > which turned out to be 9' 9" ! I was very happy! > > I then started to walk up a sand road into the woods. If memory serves, it is > called Burnt Schoolhouse Road. I have to read my maps to see if I'm right. I > walked up that road and saw a nice-sized Atlantic White Cedar that I decided > to measure. White Cedars were all around me. The CBH turned out to be 5' 11". > Not huge, but nice. I saw several with similar girth. But then later on I saw > something I've never seen before- a mature Sassafras, in a forest situation > no less. I had to measure it. It was not giant or anything, but I had to > measure it, since it's rare to see forest-grown Sassafras trees living past > sapling age. This thing actually had a larger trunk than the trees > immediately around it. The CBH turned out to be only 5', but that's a good > sized forest-grown tree. I was happy with all these finds, though the White > Cedar was nothing to write home about. I took many lichen pictures too, for > Jenny and whoever might be interested. I will get them > together soon, with some others from other days, and I will probably put > them all in my Photobucket account. I'll let everyone know once I've done > that. > 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 To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
