George/Lee- I'm reminded of fighting fires in Montana about twenty years ago...we were gridding (10 meter) across the forested landscape, looking for spot fires when I stepped on what I thought was firm duff/moss/? when I suddenly found myself holding myself up with my arms, waist deep 'in the big muddy'! Must have been a stump hole, "healed up" by moss/duff covering! -Don
> From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Nurse logs > Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:27:34 -0400 > > > Lee, > > The two foot thick moss you speak of reminds me of sight I stumbled upon > several years ago while hunting in Northern Maine, just outside of the town > of Portage. I was walking the edge of a small lake to get to the other > side. It wasn't long before it got to swampy and thick with brush so I had > to hike deeper into the forest. I found myself in what I think was a nearly > pure stand of northern white cedar. Every root, stump, log, or fallen > branch was covered with thick moss. With every step I could here a muffled > crunch and quite often steep in a hole up to my knee. It was beautiful and > eerie at the same time. > > George > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Lee Frelich > Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 9:09 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Nurse logs > > > Don: > > That's one of the best illustrations I have seen of the continuing value > of trees to the ecosystem after they die. Foxtail pine is one of my > favorite species. Several years ago we (I was chair of the award > committee) gave the Ecological Society of America Cooper Award to Andrea > Lloyd and Lisa Graumlich for a study they did on long-term changes in > high-elevation foxtail pine forests of southern CA, where they had > reconstructed the tree population for a 2000 year period using tree ring > analyses of live and dead trees. > > You should also see some of our recently burned forests in the Boundary > Waters Wilderness in northern MN, where the fire burned away the duff > and moss that was up to 2 feet thick in 200-300 year old forests, > revealing that many of the the live trees had their root systems mostly > or totally confined to large rotten logs buried in the moss. That's how > the forest maintains itself on a granite batholith where the mineral > soil is patchy and mostly less than a foot deep, in a climate with > frequent droughts. > > Lee > > > > DON BERTOLETTE wrote: > > Randy/ENTS- > > On the topic of nurse logs, I ran across a recent photo I took in a > > foxtail pine forest ...a foxtail pine may live to be 2000 > > years...once dead, they may remain vertical for decades. Once > > horizontal, it may take even longer to degrade into duff. > > The young foxtail seedling growing at the tip of the dead and down, > > soon to be duff foxtail pine in the foreground, probably came from a > > seed that may have taken years to encounter the right combination of > > seasonal moisture, soil warmth, and scarification regime to burst into > > life and lend optimism to a forest currently facing changing climate > > conditions. > > -Don > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > From: [email protected] > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Nurse logs > > Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 22:10:52 -0500 > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™ SkyDrive: Get 25 GB of free online storage. http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_skydrive_032009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
