Haven't found much anything on the west pond ravine on the internet (an 1895 geological survey report of NJ said it was well known to contain virgin timber never so much as even mildly selectively cut).
it's hard to know if anything has happened to it since then a major project opened up in the area that required tons of timber from 1917 to 1960 or so but I think that was a but farther to the west in the Wawayanda area it does seem hard to believe that an unknown virgin timber ravine perhaps longer than 2 miles could actually be hidden in NJ but maybe.... I did find this tidbit on a state site talking about the general area the ravine is in (it's a 2000+ contiguous acreage area, but the 1895 report said that all the mountain tops and flatter areas had been utterly logged and burned to pieces with the worst quality timber in the state while the deep ravines where well known to have extensive older forest with the west pond ravine, in particular, known for having the wildest virgin timber not once ever touched): "....is isolated and untouched, accessible only on foot. Marshes and wetlands are scattered throughout the forest with several brooks and streams crisscrossing the lower areas. Hemlock and oak are the dominant species of this relatively undisturbed forest." and as far as I can tell there are no known old dirt roads going into the main ravine area the last mile right after it makes a 90 turns and darts down to the towns in the valley below has a paved road going through it (no easy access to the main portion from this road, narrow and twisty with no pullouts and the ravine drops down below off the edge), but the upper few miles at a ninety degree angle to this portion are road free to this day, in fact I think it might even be largely (completely?) trail free. anyway it seems like it will either be virgin timber or very young second growth depending what happened -- 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]
