Carole and I spent a little more than a week in southern Missouri. Technically, it's part of the Ozarks. But we saw very little in the way of anything that could remotely be called a "mountain". Some rolling topography and a few hills and some gorges. I had to bypass a placed called Big Tree State Park where they have some state champion bottomland forest--stuff similar to Congaree National Park. We just didn't have the time to go there, unfortunately.
What I did notice during our time on and around the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers (we went there specifically to go canoeing and to explore the huge fresh water karst springs) was how the forest is so totally dominated by oaks! Well over half the trees are oaks! I've never been in a forest so overwhelmingly composed of oak trees. We did see some pines--mainly shortleaf pines--but by and large all we encountered were oak forests. We went to view what was touted as the "last virgin shortleaf pine" stand in the state. I hiked on a very short trail called "The Hall of Giants". I was completely unimpressed. Maybe they were "giants" by shortleaf standards, but hardly worth mentioning. In addition, it looks as if they stand has been groomed because of ice storm damage to the understory, so it wasn't like hiking through an untouched forest at all. In addition, the stand is split in half by a highway. I'll try to post some photos of the pine stand. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
