ENTS,
I received the new book Ontario's Old-Growth Forests as a Christmas present.
This book by Michael Henry and Peter Quinby is fabulous! it is filled with
color photos of glorious old growth trees and forests, and there are detailed
descriptions of over 50 old growth forests with photos of each site, maps of
each site, age of oldest trees, forest type, and preservation status. The book
is divided by forest regions with emphasis on the spectacular White Pine
forests of Ontario, including Algonquin Provincial Park (where White Pine to
486 years old has been found), Temagami (where the largest old growth Eastern
White Pine forests in the world remain). There is not much height information
and the authors suggest ENTS methods. They refer to a White Pine 67 meters tall
(about 220 ft.) in 1860, and to what could be Ontario's tallest trees today -
White Pines 50 meters tall (about 164 ft.) in Gillie's Grove west of Ottawa.
Old growth oak savannas are also covered including Paradise Grove in
Niagara-on-the-Lake and High Park in Toronto which I visited a week ago; also
old growth Black Gum over 400 years old in Backus Woods near Lake Erie. There
is a chapter with more wonderful photos of the ancient White Cedars of the
Niagara Escarpment - these are Ontario's oldest trees and there is a photo of a
tree that sprouted in A.D. 701! Also a White Cedar that died in A.D. 770 after
living 1890 years! There is a great deal of information about how to recognize
old growth, about salamanders, bats, etc. and other creatures that live in old
growth forests, scientific, spiritual value of old growth, efforts to preserve
Ontario's threatened old growth forests, essays about various values of old
growth forests, and even an essay about a type of forest little heard about -
boreal rain forest by Lake Superior. There is so much more, including detailed
descriptions of species like Hemlock, White Pine, Red Pine in old growth
settings. I highly recommend this book!
I've also examined some trees in Toronto, and I'm including a report about them
here. I did not have the laser rangefinder with me. Lynndale Park is a park
near where my brother lives in Toronto.
Lynndale Park,
Toronto, Ont. 10/31/2009
and other Toronto sites Dec. 2009
Lynndale Park is a small neighborhood park in the
Scarborough section of Toronto.
It is near Wood Glen Rd. off Kingston Rd. The main feature
of this pleasant little park is a group of about 22 partly open-grown Red Oaks
and White Oaks up to 50 ft. or a little more tall. The oaks seem to be about
80-100 years old.
Trees examined:
Red Oak 30.3”
dbh
Red Oak 32.8”
dbh largest tree
White Oak 24”
dbh should be largest White Oak
Red Oak 32.5”
dbh
White Oak 18.9”
dbh average for White Oaks
I counted 12 Red Oaks and 10 White Oaks.
Near edges are large open-grown Silver Maples, and 2 big
Black Locusts near Wood Glen Rd. entrance. Black Locust 23.5” dbh.
Wildlife – Black Squirrels, common in all Toronto parks.
Toronto has a great many oaks in its neighborhoods, mainly
Red Oaks with some White Oaks; these trees average 50-70 ft. tall and a few Red
Oaks reach 4 ft. dbh.
All Oaks in these areas in eastern Toronto are second growth.
Large old growth Red Oaks and White Oaks are the dominant
trees in Queens Park in downtown Toronto – these trees average over 4 ft. dbh
and have open-grown form as they are remnants from old growth savanna. I
counted about 170 rings on the stump of a giant Red Oak (stump radius over 30
in.).
High Park in western Toronto has a restored old growth Oak
Savanna ecosystem with huge Black Oaks. On Dec. 26, 2009 Jack Howard and I
visited High Park and examined the following:
Black Oak stump 167
rings 30”
radius
Black Oak
cross-section 206
rings 12”
radius – from well up in tree; remains of this fallen tree are next to a
massive standing open-grown Black Oak over
4
ft. dbh. The tree I examined like other fallen trees at High Park was most
likely the victim of a storm. The stump of the tree with 206 rings was over
50 % hollow and I could only count 103 rings on the nearly
40” radius stump.
Black Oak
cross-section 164
rings 55”
radius – this cross-section lying on
top
of a stump close to 6 ft. across, and near a huge standing Black Oak
with
massive spiral grain trunk and open grown form.
Tom Howard
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