What a great forest Bob! Good read too.
On Aug 18, 8:25 pm, [email protected] wrote:
> ENTS,
>
> Massachusetts has acres and acres of ordinary woodlands. Beyond the spectacle
> of autumn foliage and the imagination of the nostalgic, we fall short on
> "forestscapes", especially in-forest scenes, that are an inspiration for the
> arts. That's bad news. The good news is that despite the mentioned shortage,
> exemplary woodlands do exist in Massachusetts. In this communication, I'd
> like to share one extraordinary place with you. The site is located in Monroe
> State Forest in northwestern Massachusetts. More specifically, it is the
> stretch of forest on the lower Dunbar Brook watershed that runs for about a
> mile and a half along the north-facing slopes of the main Brook, starting
> from where the brook is dammed.
>
> I hope the following images sufficiently portray what the eye sees when
> hiking along Dunbar Brook. Capturing the essence of the old growth forest and
> big trees on film is what I hope to do with the help of friends. In many
> communications, I have attempted to convey Dunbar's status through
> statistics. The dimensions and ages of the old and large trees growing in
> this deep woods setting have been determined and previously reported. For
> example, we have dated eastern hemlocks to 474 years in age at core height.
> That suggests at least one 500-year old tree. There are many trees in the
> 250-year age class, and there is another age class of 140 to 180-year old
> trees.
>
> Insiders have always recognized that Dunbar excels in big trees. The largest
> volume hemlock we have modeled in Massachusetts grows there. One of the
> site's white pines has been climbed and tape-drop-measured to a height of
> 160.2 feet. Dunbar is also home to the largest single-trunk white pine that
> we've yet modeled in Massachusetts - a different pine from the tall one just
> mentioned. Dunbar also boasts what may be the largest forest-grown white ash
> in all New England. The Rucker index of Monroe State Forest stands at 123.7,
> third highest in Massachusetts after Mohawk Trail State Forest (136.0) and
> Ice Glen (128.2). The list of forest and tree superlatives is long, but there
> is more to Dunbar than just big and old trees. There is an unmistakable deep
> woods ambience that develops from centuries of natural forest history and
> from Dunbar's relatively isolated location. This combination has made the
> forest a place of real significance for those in search of inspiring
> woodlands. But enough talk. Without further comment, I will let the images do
> the talking - accompanied by my image narration, of course.
>
> Image#1-TanyaRolandOnStripedMaple.jpg: This image conveys a message. Yes, the
> downed tree that Roland Blaich and his daughter Tanya are sitting on is a
> striped maple. Striped maple? Impossible, you say! Not at all. I visited this
> very tree for years and watched it get larger and larger. But alas, it went
> down. It now returns its nutrients to the earth that so faithfully nourished
> it. As Lee Frelich adroitly explained in a past communication over the fall
> of the height champion red spruce on Greylock, a tree has two jobs, one while
> standing and one as a decaying log. The old striped maple's forest job has
> not as yet been completed. This provides a degree of solace for me. However,
> this big striped maple is not unique. There are other large members of its
> species in the watershed. Somewhere on the north-facing ridge, there is a
> striped maple that will challenge the two 66-footers in Mohawk Trail State
> Forest. In the past, I have measured these gorgeous understory trees in
> Dunbar to 59 feet in height and 33 inches CBH. There are many in the 24-inch
> girth class.
>
> Image#2-SugarMapleAndGroup.jpg: Dunbar Brook's old growth forest has areas
> where sugar maple primarily and white ash secondarily dominate. Canopy trees
> of these two species commonly grow to heights between 100 and 120 feet, and
> diameters between 30 and 40 inches. American beech once had a significant
> presence in Dunbar, but beech blight has reduced the species population to a
> pittance. I once worried about the abundance of white ash as suggestive of
> past logging operations in what otherwise appeared to be primary forest. Dr.
> Charles Cogbill, New England ecologist extraordinaire, assured me that on
> rocky slopes, such as the north-facing slopes above Dunbar Brook, white ash
> can be fairly abundant from natural disturbances. So, it is not necessary to
> invoke direct human activities to account for the abundance of ash. This
> having been said, trees of at least seven species in the 150 to 300-year age
> range grow among the boulders in the Dunbar forest. In image #2, Roland,
> Tanya and Monica are seen near one of many large old-growth sugar maples. The
> big tree appears isolated. In other places, big trees may grow in clusters of
> 2 or more. The hint of bright light in the upper right-hand corner is from a
> blowdown of a single forest giant that took a number of lesser trees with it.
> The result of these blowdowns and subsequent regeneration is a wide
> distribution of ages. Dunbar's forest is multi-aged. Lee Frelich has walked
> Dunbar's slopes and has been the primary source of information to me about
> probable past site disturbances. Lee sees what scientists with lesser field
> experience have trouble recognizing - the fading imprints of multiple
> medium-to-large disturbances mixed with countless smaller ones. Maybe Lee
> could dig into his memory banks and comment on the Dunbar forest. Hopefully,
> these images will serve as memory joggers for him.
>
> Image#3-ForestPrimeval2.jpg: In places, Dunbar is jungle-like with large old
> growth emergents thrusting their straight trunks skyward for 100 feet and
> more through a rich understory of young trees, shrubs, herbs, and ferns.
> American beech, yellow birch, sugar maple, and white ash dominate the
> overstory. One sees an occasional basswood or mature red maple, and there are
> small clusters of hemlocks, but this rich, mesic environment isn't hemlock
> country, nor red maple country. There is no hint in Dunbar of the dreaded
> takeover by red maple - a fiction spawned within circles of the timber
> profession to hoodwink a clueless public into believing that cutting mature
> forests is needed to thwart an eventual red maple takeover, the very act that
> will guarantee an increase of red maple. In mature forests like Dunbar's the
> abundance of red maple is controlled by competition with other species and
> ecological processes that Lee and other top-line ecologists can more
> authoritatively speak to.
>
> Image#4-BigtoothAspen.jpg: Despite what I am predominantly showing in these
> boulder field images, much of the Dunbar watershed experienced direct human
> impact, especially along the lower part of the brook and on the south-facing
> slopes, but most of the logging occurred fairly long ago. One regenerating
> stand of hemlocks near the start of the nature trail has a fairly uniform age
> distribution from 130 to 150 years. There is also the suggestion of an old
> fire along a steep ridge. Another stretch near the brook has a stand of
> impressive bigtooth aspens that are now at the far end of their life spans.
> One on the other side of the brook may soon become the height champion. It
> was 124 feet the last time I measured it, and it continues to show great
> vigor. Image#4 shows one of a handful of super bigtooths. Its circumference
> just makes 8 feet and its height is between 105 and 110 feet. I couldn't get
> laser returns from the aspen's highest sprigs because of the dense
> understory. Incidentally, the Indian name of this beautiful tree person is:
> Tree that eats D-Tapes.
>
> Image#5-TanyaAndWhiteAsh: This huge forest-grown ash tree is over 14 feet in
> girth. Depending on where one determines mid-slope to be, CBH values can be
> obtained between 14.3 and 15.0 feet. My choice gives it a girth of 14.7 feet.
> The current height of this forest giant is 123.7 feet. It was once over 130,
> but old age and natural crown loss is taking a toll. It is not long for this
> earth. In the early 1990s, we cored the Dunbar Ash, and at the time, we
> counted 258 rings at core height. Today this old gent is at least 275 years
> young. The big white ash is accessible from the Raycroft Extension trail. It
> has been the subject of numerous photographs and a painting by artist Heather
> Lenz.
>
> Image#6-ThoreauPine.jpg: This is an image of the great Henry David Thoreau
> pine. I have reported on it many times in the past. Its dimensions are
> approximately 12.7' x 160.2'. I say approximately, because it now may be
> above 160.2 feet. It was climbed by Will Blozan and Bob Van Pelt in 2004 and
> tape-drop-measured. As I recall, Bob modeled the trunk volume to 812 cubes at
> the time. It is probably at least 830 by now. The Henry David Thoreau pine is
> one of the truly great white pines in New England. It was the first pine that
> Jack Sobon and I confirmed to a height of over 150 feet. We used a transit
> and got 152.4 feet at the time. That was around 1990. The holes in the pine's
> trunk are relatively new and troublesome to say the least. Tanya took this
> image of her dad, Monica, and me. Good photo, Tanya. Thanks.
>
> Image#7-OldYellowBirch.jpg: Roots of this ancient yellow birch engulf the
> rock on which it seeded maybe 300 years ago. "Rock-eating" birches are a
> common sight in the Dunbar forest. A Tolkien-like environment of moss and
> fern-covered boulders, tangled roots, twisting trunks and limbs, many species
> of herbs, and a canopy high above create that magic forest elixir that we
> commonly associate with old growth forests.
>
> Image#8-GrandfatherAndGroup.jpg: If total volume is the criteria, the great
> Grandfather pine is the patrirach of the slopes. It's girth is a solid 14
> feet and its height at the end of the growing season is between 144.0 and
> 144.5 feet. Will Blozan climbed and modeled this huge pine a couple of years
> ago. Grandfather's volume by now is at least 970 cubic feet - if not more. To
> cut to the chase, the Grandfather tree is the largest single-trunked white
> pine in Massachusetts that we have modeled. Elsewhere, it is likely exceeded
> ...
>
> read more »
>
> TanyaRolandOnStripedMaple.jpg
> 515KViewDownload
>
> SugarMapleAndGroup.jpg
> 606KViewDownload
>
> ForestPrimeval2.jpg
> 492KViewDownload
>
> BigtoothAspen.jpg
> 521KViewDownload
>
> TanyaAndWhiteAsh.jpg
> 511KViewDownload
>
> ThoreauPine.jpg
> 548KViewDownload
>
> OldYellowBirch.jpg
> 646KViewDownload
>
> GrandfatherAndGroup.jpg
> 665KViewDownload
>
> SpreadEagleHemlock.jpg
> 506KViewDownload
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