Paul, Larry, Here in Pennsylvania I am finding that many of the older accounts of pockets of old growth are still intact when visited today. Perhaps this is due to earlier conservation efforts, or maybe large timber companies just did not go out and systematically cut everything identified as old growth. Perhaps the rampant logging operations had simply died off before these pockets were identified. The other category of old growth are those where the forests are generally stunted, and while old, are not of any great size and may have survived because they were unsuitable for timber purposes. In the case of New Jersey, all that can be done is to check out the locations that have been documented and see if the patches of old growth are still there.
Ed Frank http://nature-web-network.blogspot.com/ http://primalforests.ning.com/ http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=709156957 ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Jost To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 3:58 PM Subject: Re: [ENTS] a couple more NJ possibilities Nearly every historical account of virgin forest or old growth that I have found for Wisconsin was logged after publishing if it was publicized before the state natural area program was started. There are a few exceptions on public and private land, but for the most part, they all ended up being dead ends from a tree hunt perspective if they hadn't been immediately protected somehow. You will likely find many accounts and most will probably be dead ends, too. Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: "x" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 2:45 PM Subject: Re: [ENTS] a couple more NJ possibilities > 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] > -- 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]
