Dan, I love your reports on the Smokies. They are a wonderful place. I gotta get back in there.
James P. On Jan 6, 6:28 pm, ranger dan <[email protected]> wrote: > ENTS- > > Over the holidays, I spent a week exploring in the Smokies, and I > thought I might share some of my findings with you. The most > rewarding day for finding ancient trees was spent crosscountry (off- > trail) in the Forge Creek drainage, near Cades Cove. I will post some > images if someone will enlighten me on how to reduce my 800mb images > to 400mb or smaller so I can send them. > > Up the Forge Creek trail about a mile, you come to the obvious > beginning of virgin forest (I use the term to mean never-logged, > regardless of age of trees or fire history), where you pass through > flanking old white oaks like a gate into the wonderland of big trees. > To the left of the trail is a 15'cbh chestnut snag that must be at > least 50' tall, with hollows where limbs were, and a rapid taper. > Seems all chestnuts were that way, from the logs and snags I've seen, > and this one's the largest of any I've seen in more than 30 years of > exploring. The tuliptrees ahead are much more impressive than I think > the chestnuts could have been. The first ones are just ahead. The > largest here I measured at 18'cbh a few years ago...it's just upslope > from the trail, and it's hollow. There are a few big hemlocks here, > all dead, with limbs starting to fall. The largest of them is between > 3 and 4'dbh, like almost everywhere else. Any bigger than that is > extremely rare. I've never seen one as big as 5', though I know they > are out there. There are a few smaller still-living ones, no doubt > saved by the efforts of those who care. I was saddened to see that > some of the big ones farther up the trail had been treated (Will, I'm > sure you can tell us the details), as there were paint spots at the > bases, but all were dead. > > Just across the creek is the confluence of Licklog Branch. > Disappointment at first...no big trees along the creek or on the > slopes above for a long way. There has been a lot of hot fire in the > Cades Cove area in the not-so-distant past, leaving slopes like the > south-facing one here devoid of old trees, and with sterile soil. > Yellow pines here have been wiped out recently by pine bark beetles, > leaving a few, scattered small chestnut oaks. Even the north-facing > slope is younger, hemlock forest...yes, mostly dead. A few cling to > life still, and fewer still seem to have some resistance to the > adelgids, but always the smaller ones. As always under hemlock and > often elsewhere, is a tangle of Rhododendron maximum, scourge of the > crosscountry explorer. Many curses!! > > Things change beyond. I crawled up out of the damn rhodo into clear, > open forest. Where the valley turns southward, I started up Molly's > Butt. Yep, that's what it's called. Up one side and down the other I > went. The west-facing side of the ridge is chestnut oak-dominated. > Many look to be 200-300 years old, 30-36"dbh, with a few old > tuliptrees as large. They don't get very big on these hot slopes. > There's an understory of huckleberry. > > Then things started getting good. On the east-facing slope above, the > understory of Kalmia opens up into a steep little cove, just below the > ridge, where the first giants live. There's a hollow tuliptree 17'cbh > that you can go inside, surrounded by some lesser but still impressive > and very old cohorts. I love to examine the crowns of old > tuliptrees...every one a unique sculpture of stout, shapely limbs, > hollows, and neat details. A short distance up the ridge, in high > coves at the foot of Molly's Butt, lies a paradise of clear, open > ground on lush soil (probably full of spring wildflowers like > Trilliums) which nurtures huge tuliptrees, northern red oaks, and > black cherries. I was having a photographic frenzy while trying to > measure some of the biggies and leave time to get back down before > dark. The guardian of the grove was another 17' tuliptree. One about > as large had recently fallen by the trunks of 2 more giants, creating > a spectacle of the megaflora. Several are over 5'dbh, many over 3'. > A few oaks are around 4', and a coulpe cherries nearly 4'. No > hemlocks to grieve over. There's more spectacular forest on this > north side of Molly's Butt than I had time to see, but there was more > on the way down. > > Even the south-facing slope leading down to Ekaneetlee Branch has some > large tuliptrees in coves. Where I met the creek, there are giants > upstream, ones to see some other time. There are hemlocks along it, > and on the north slope, but few, and none very large. The rhodo isn't > as thick here, either, and there is clear ground above. A fallen 5' > thick tuliptree log spans the creek, making for an amazing footlog and > vantage point for viewing standing trees as large and larger nearby. > Far upslope, I measured the largest of the day at 19', an open-sided > tulip with charcoal on the exposed heartwood of the uphill side. > There is a lot of fire scarring on the larger trees in the Cades Cove > area (and in Joyce Kilmer and plenty of other places, incidentally). > This one stands in an open grove that extends up to the ridge top and > probably to the gentler slopes surrounding. But it was getting dark. > Down into the rhodo again to cross the creek. > > Helluva challenge but I gotta do it while I can and before the fallen > hemlocks make it even more challenging. I guess there will be lots of > good footlogs coming, though. Can't wait to get back. > > Dan Miles
