Will and Steve, I've got to disagree with you about the extent, quality and merchantibility of Southern Appalachian forests pre-commercial logging. The map from the 1905 Report to the President by Rhoades and Ashe shows approximately 20% of the Southern Blue Ridge in primary forest condition with extensive areas of inventoried old-growth in coves estimated to cut over 25,000 board feet to the acre. Anomolous areas, like Cataloochee Valley, NC and Shady Valley TN were documented as having groves of standing timber averaging over 100,000 board feet/ acre. I have a copy of the 1905 map that can be burnt to a CD, or better yet, posted on the ENTS website.
The most productive areas of forest were logged and converted to agriculture long before 1905. I think that pre-European settlement, the Southern Blue Ridge was 80% forested (minimum), with at least 3/4 of that meeting contemporary concepts of old-growth. Those numbers are based on a maximum carrying capacity of 200,000 stone-age amerinds in the 10 million acre area, assuming the 20,000 residual amerinds in 1837 represented a 90% population reduction due to diseases and warfare. I acknowledge that my estimates are conjecture and I stand by them as about as accurate as anyone else could come up with. Today, the Southern Blue Ridge is 75% forested with about 3% of the area meeting an inclusive definition of old-growth, and most of the remaining old-growth on low productivity sites. The population of the Southern Blue Ridge today is nearing 2 million, with 1.1 million in western NC alone. Joe, 1,000 years ago was apparently near the dawn of agriculture in the Southern Blue Ridge, and so the forest cover then would have likely been even greater and more impressive than in 1492 A final thought: with trees like the Trail's End Poplar scaling 2,200 cubic feet of wood, a solid tree of similar dimensions could easily have sawn 12,000 board feet, even with the realitively wide kerfs of the early 20th century. I have seen whole coves of trees in the Smokies and Unicois where almost every tree would saw more than 2 thousand board feet. Kalanu Prong is an exceptional site by today's standards, but 1,000 years ago, there were many coves with similar elevation that had not yet been ravaged by civilization. Josh On May 3, 8:28 am, "Will Blozan" <[email protected]> wrote: > Steve, > > In general, you may be correct. However, there are many, many fine examples > of oak and tuliptree that predate the chestnut blight by centuries. Based on > current day surrogates in the southern Appalachians (all I am speaking for) > I would figure high quality tuliptree was probably not too hard to find and > oak a bit more challenging. Of course, all depends on your definition of > high quality. I bet much of the first cut in the mountains was wasted > "junk". Hollow trunks, curved boles, short trunks, heavy limbs, etc. I often > look over an old-growth forest cove and think there is virtually nothing > merchantable (as in sawn timber) in it. How did anyone make money? > > Will F. Blozan > > President, Eastern Native Tree Society > > President, Appalachian Arborists, Inc. > > _____ > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Steven Springer > Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 8:09 AM > To: [email protected]; [email protected] > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Kalanu Prong, Greenbrier, TN GRSM 4-21-2009 > > My hunch is that we would be impressed with the specimen American chestnuts > and be hardpressed to find a quality oak or yellow-poplar in the Appalachian > mountain range (American chestnut being the dominant hardwood before the > blight). > > (What do you think regarding dominant hardwoods through the Appalachian > range, Will?) > > Steve Springer > > _____ > > From: [email protected] on behalf of Will Blozan > Sent: Sun 5/3/2009 6:30 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Kalanu Prong, Greenbrier, TN GRSM 4-21-2009 > > Steve, > > How is your last sentence supposed to read? > > Will F. Blozan > > President, Eastern Native Tree Society > > President, Appalachian Arborists, Inc. > > _____ > > My hunch is that we would be impressed with the specimen American chestnut > trees and be hardpressed to find a quality oak yellow-poplar in the > Appalachians mountain range. > > Steve Springer > > _____ > > From: [email protected] on behalf of Joseph Zorzin > Sent: Sat 5/2/2009 8:21 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Kalanu Prong, Greenbrier, TN GRSM 4-21-2009 > > Question for Bob and Will and the others. Roughly speaking, what percentage > of the forests of the East - if we could go back a millennium- would appear > to us as "old growth"?? > > Of course there have always been fires, storms, clearings for villages, etc. > I'm just trying to get a sense- if we could go back and wander around the > forests- would they be filled with gigantic trees, thus looking very > different from now, or not? > > Joe > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: [email protected] > > To: [email protected] > > Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 9:11 AM > > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Kalanu Prong, Greenbrier, TN GRSM 4-21-2009 > > Will, > > A phenomenal report as usual. It would be great to have a list of all the > 20-foot circumference trees in the Smokies. Information in email > communications becomes too scattered. Anyway, thanks for the great reports. > > Bob- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
