Very interesting. This forest, the one in Estell Manor, (actually part of a huge forested area, but anyway) is composed of Pitch Pine, Eastern Red Cedar, which is growing straight and tall, reaching for the light, and a few oaks, like White Oak, Spanish Oak, Willow Oak, and I can't remember what others. As I said, the forest grew in since 1919, except for the few mature trees that were already there at that time. It covers ruins and foundations too. But there was also a glass works in the area in the 1830s. I'm not sure how much of the forest was cut for that. There are also a lot of cedar swamps and hardwood swamps. Some of the cedars are quite big also. Oh, I remembered something else too. A large part of that area, which used to include what is now that park, is in a large private game preserve. I'm not sure how long the game preserve has existed. Maybe a long time. Barry
--- On Sat, 1/9/10, Lee Frelich <[email protected]> wrote: From: Lee Frelich <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [ENTS] Old growth in the NJ Pine Barrens? To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010, 8:36 AM Barry: According to my book, old forest (or woodland or savanna) can divided into primary (never logged) or secondary (logged in the past). Within each of those, there would be climax forests (dominated by species of trees that are shade tolerant that can replace themselves without disturbance other than individual or small group tree death), or subclimax forest, dominated by species that are not shade tolerant and require more substantial disturbance to regenerate. Nested within these categories would be forests dominated by long-lived species, classified as old growth) or short lived species, classified as old forest. For pine barrens, in general an unlogged remnant would be primary, subclimax, old growth forest if you consider the species to be long-lived, or primary, subclimax old forest, if you consider the species to be short lived. The lifespan of a given species might vary regionally. In MN jack pine is long-lived in the Boundary Waters (200+ years), but short lived on sand plains in central MN (70 years). Your pitch pine forest, if it had been logged, could also be secondary, subclimax old growth or old forest. Forest generally refers to tree vegetation with >70% canopy closure, woodlands are between 30 or 40% and 70%, and savannas less than 30 or 40%, so you could also modify that term to fit the area you are interested in. Most pine barrens were originally in the savanna or woodland categories, but with fire exclusion have grown into forests. This system allows one to place almost any forest, woodland or savanna into a category with a few words that describe the situation. I had forgotten that I wrote about this until I saw your question. Lee Barry Caselli wrote: > ENTS, > On Tuesday I posted this, and got no response, even though I asked for input > on what I was saying. I thought that with the words "old growth" in the > subject line, I might get people to talk. > Anyway, here it is again: > ENTS, > Today I was down in the Atlantic County Park at Estell Manor. I wanted to eat > my lunch, do some hiking, and re-visit my favorite Pitch Pine. > While there, I realized something. > But first you need some background info to understand. In 1917 a munitions > plant was built on the site for the war effort for WW I. On the history page > for this park, on the park website, you can see old photos. In a couple of > the old photos you can clealy see that some of the mature Pitch Pines from > the forest at that time were left there when the site was cleared for the > munitions plant and village. The plant was closed when the armistice was > signed in 1919. It was subsequently dismantled and abandoned. In the ensuing > 90 years the forest has grown up again, the Pine Barrens reclaiming the area. > But scattered around in the woods there are Pitch Pines that are larger than > the others. Some of these are along the dirt roads, which are old rail beds > from the munitions plant days. My favorite pine is one of these trees. > Several months ago it hit me that the biggest Pitch Pines in the park may > well be the ones that can be seen in the historic photos, trees that were not cut when the site was cleared to build the munitions plant in 1917. That would make the trees 90 years older than the rest of them, give or take a couple years. > Today I realized something else, that we could call those older trees "old > growth", at least in a limited sense. What do you think? > I have posted about my favorite tree before, by the way. The CBH is 6'11". > Oh, and here is the web page I mentioned: > http://www.aclink.org/PARKS/mainpages/historic.asp > And the 3.5 minute video I shot of the tree is here: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=272KWC_O7qA > Barry >
