Larry, In Wisconsin, where hemlocks are/were most numerous, their stumps still remain, too. They are easily recognized from a distance because the large, decaying logs still lay one diameter offset from their stumps and any remaining portions of the crown. In northern Wisconsin, hemlocks were usually felled only for their bark, which was peeled from the branchless bottom section of the tree as it's fallen trunk was rolled along the ground. Recall that hemlock bark was in high demand for tanning leather earlier in the previous century. Tanneries sprouted up where ever hemlocks could be found in large numbers within a few dozen miles of a railroad line, and the tanneries closed up soon after the hemlock were gone. Many of the fallen hemlock logs have become nurse logs for a new generation of hemlock and some yellow birch. The biggest cut hemlock log that I have found in my woodland travels approaches 5 feet dbh, but most are 2-3' dbh. Apparently, someone found it worthwhile to cut a cookie slice out of the 5' dbh log some 40-50 years ago.
Paul J. On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 7:48 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Larry-- > > Around here, many of the old pine stumps didn't survive because people over > the years have dug into them for "fat pine" or "lighter pine" wood--the > heartwood, richly soaked in pine resin, is coveted for starting fires. Of > course, across much of the longleaf pine belt, the stumps were pulled after > logging so that they could extract the resin for the naval stores > industry... I suppose the relatively frequent fires we have in the pine > forests of the South also consumed their fair share of old stumps. > > Don Bragg > > -----Original Message----- > From: Larry <[email protected]> > To: ENTSTrees <[email protected]> > Sent: Mon, Dec 14, 2009 12:53 pm > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Douglas Co., Wisconsin Old White Pine Trees and Stumps > > Don, Even in death trees still hold lots of beauty, those stumps > were so awesome. Down home the stumps don't remain like that. Larry > > -- > 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] > > -- > 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]<entstrees%[email protected]> > -- 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]
