ENTS,
Here are reports on a couple Adirondack sites my brother and I visited a few
years ago:
Cathedral Pines of 7th
Lake Hamilton Co. Adirondacks NY
7/30/2005
Jack Howard and I visited this magnificent 3-acre grove Sat.
7/30/2005. It is right by NY 28 just north of 7th Lake, and is a
stand of towering ancient White Pines on a knoll on the side of the road (left
side when heading north). At least 1 (possibly 2) of these pines towers to over
150’ – according to a report by Howard Stoner
(championtrees.org/oldgrowth/data/CathedralPinesds30712.htm) the tallest tree
is 152.8’ by 11.8’ cbh; according
to Kershner and Leverett (2004 – see below for ref.) the tallest tree is 152.1’
by 41.8” dbh (10.9’ cbh); as far as I know these are the first trees in NY to
be accurately measured to over 150’.
These White Pines are glorious trees – lofty, ragged,
windswept – I have never seen so many White Pines over 40” dbh in 1 place.
Other trees are Hemlock, Yellow Birch, Sugar Maple, Red
Maple, Red Spruce, Balsam Fir, Beech, Mountain Maple – all much smaller than
the pines, and Striped Maple dominates the understory. Goldthread is very
common as a groundcover.
Trees measured:
White Pine 41”
dbh 10.7’
cbh
White Pine 39.5”
dbh 10.3’
cbh
White Pine 47.2”
dbh 12.4’
cbh biggest tree measured
White Pine 45.8”
dbh 12’
cbh sap oozing out of trunk filled grove with pine fragrance
White Pine 45.4”
dbh 11.9’
cbh
White Pine 44.4”
dbh 11.6’
cbh
White Pine 38.9”
dbh 10.2’
cbh
We saw a White Pine est. 4’ dbh but it was on too steep a
hill to safely measure.
Cross-section of mostly hollow White Pine 113 rings in 2.3”
radius, total radius 1 foot, tree
should be over 200 years old.
Lower area by huge 49” dbh (12.8’ cbh) White Pine snag
monument to fallen World War II aviator (B-24 bomber):
“The Tree created by God and old when our
Country was born, fine and clear and straight…
dedicated to the Memory of 2nd Lt. Malcolm L.
Blue
Navigator of a Liberator Bomber with 8th Air
Force –
Killed in action over France – June 2, 1844 [should be 1944]
Few Men Have Earned This Memorial”
Red Spruce log cross-section intact 2.5” radius - 60 rings
Lots of ancient treefall pit and mound topography
Sugar Maple cross-section of log 8” intact radius 187 rings
Since this maple is a lot smaller than the pines, and White
Pine is a pioneer species, the pines are almost certainly older than the maples
– if the maple was close to 200 years old, the giant White Pines could easily
be over 250 years old; they could have become established after a fire or
windstorm around 1700 or earlier.
One of the huge White Pines was half dead , and from one
side looked like a snag with a living branch – one side of the tree had no bark
at all, and the living branch was supported by a narrow strip of bark rising
over 70’ up the tree. About 30’ up the dead part was a huge burl; it was one of
the most picturesque trees I’ve ever seen.
There were big burls up the living White Pines as well..
At least 5 White Pines were 12 X 100 (12’cbh by 100’ tall).
Cathedral Pines could be the 4th tallest forest
in NY.
Tallest NY forests:
Elders Grove, Adirondacks White
Pine to 159’+
Zoar Valley Tuliptree 156’
Vanderbilt Estate, Hyde Park Tuliptree 155’
Cathedral Pines of 7th Lake White Pine 153’
Kershner and Leverett (2004) The Sierra Club Guide to the
Ancient Forests of the Northeast San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2004.
Height data for other sites from ENTS Website.
Tom Howard 7/8/2009
Raquette Lake Red
Pines Hamilton
Co.
Adirondacks, NY 7/30/2005
Jack Howard and I visited this magnificent 10-acre grove on
a hill by NY 28 above the south inlet of Raquette Lake Sat. 7/30/2005. Across
NY 28 toward the open lake is a small island covered with what could be old
growth Red Pine (with 1 White Pine at end of island).
The main grove on the hill overlooking the marshy south
inlet is dominated by old growth Red Pine and White Pine, the first old growth
Red Pine I’ve ever seen close up – Red Pines in lower part, White Pines in
upper – the description in Kershner and Leverett (2004) is accurate and led
Jack and me to this enchantingly beautiful site. On a bright sunny afternoon
Red Pines are among the most beautiful of all trees in the way they catch the
sunlight, their reddish trunks glowing in the light. Red Pine trunks have the
deep subtle fragrance of the great sunlit Ponderosa Pines of the Western
mountains, and the long stiff needles of the Red Pines glisten with silvery
sunlight just like the Ponderosa Pines of the West; also like the Ponderosa
Pines Red Pine bark is composed of plates that look like artistic jigsaw
puzzles. The Raquette Lake grove is probably the finest stand of Red Pine in
NY, with trees 200 years old, to 28” dbh, and about 100 feet tall.
This grove has the most highly developed ancient treefall
pit and mound topography that I’ve ever seen in an Eastern forest; pits are
over 3 feet deep and huge White Pines rise out of pine-needle covered mounds.
I counted 80 rings on the cross-section of a branch recently
fallen from 60’ up a large White Pine – 80 rings on 4” intact radius (total
radius of branch 7” but inner part uncountable) tree possibly 200 years old.
Trees measured with “D” tape:
Red Pine 20.4”
dbh
White Pine 39.9”
dbh tree
from which branch cross-section was counted
White Pine 38.1”
dbh
White Pine 38.6”
dbh
White Pine 35”
dbh on
same mound as tree just above
White Pine 41.2”
dbh 10.8’
cbh largest
tree seen
Red Pine 21.2”
dbh
Red Pine 24”
dbh 6.3’
cbh
Most Red Pines seem to
be 20”-24” dbh – we saw a few that looked larger, but we didn’t measure any
more as time was getting short.
Dominant: White Pine, Red Pine
Associate (and smaller): White Cedar, Hemlock, Balsam Fir
(common), Red Maple,
near
edge – Paper Birch, Quaking Aspen
Many conifer seedlings seen
Other plants: Bunchberry Dogwood, Starflower, Low Bush
Blueberry, Goldthread
I know of only the following old growth Red Pine forests in
NY:
Raquette Lake Red Pines
Floodwood-Rollins Pond Region, Adirondacks
(championtrees.org/oldgrowth/data/Floodwood-RollinsPondsds30322.htm) report by
Howard Stoner
near Little Whiteface Mountain, Adirondacks – seen from
chairlift Oct. 1973 – said to be old growth Red Pine in Ketchledge Adirondack
Tree book
Zoar Valley – NY’s southernmost stand to 20” dbh 210 yrs.
old (Bruce Kershner email July 4, 2003).
Red Pine in old growth state is one of NY’s rarest trees.
Kershner and Leverett(2004) – Bruce Kershner and Robert T.
Leverett, The Sierra Club Guide to the Ancient Forests of the Northeast,
San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 2004.
Raquette Lake Red Pines could be on Neil Pederson’s Eastern
Old List.
Could this be the stand photographed on the Red Pine page of
Eastern Old List?
Also is this the site on the White Pine page listed as
Raquette Lake NY with trees aged 188-197 years?
Tom Howard
7/17/2009
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