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TOPIC: Logoly State Park, Arkansas
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/56821fff199c6ae0?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Mon, Sep 8 2008 3:59 pm
From: doncbragg@netscape.net



ENTS--


It has been a while since I've made a trip report, and while this may not have much to it, it was still quite a bit of fun.


This past weekend my family and I traveled to southwestern Arkansas near the small city of Magnolia to visit Logoly State Park (http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/logoly/). Logoly SP covers 368 acres of wooded and hilly Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain--in this case, materials deposited during the Eocene.? These deposits have been eroded somewhat over the millennia, producing an interesting, rather dissected terrain with a number of seeps and springs providing the main geological highlights.


The vegetation of Logoly SP is almost entirely all second-growth, with a very rare tree here and there that probably predates the big cut of the late 1800s/early 1900s.? The forest is a mixed hardwood/pine stand, with most of the pines being loblolly (and a smaller if still appreciable quantity of shortleaf). Most of the hardwoods are typical for the region--southern red oak, sweetgum, white oak, blackgum, hickories, etc. The understory is a mixture of these hardwoods, plus other common sights in this area (American holly, red maple, flowering dogwood, horse-sugar, witch hazel, etc.).


A few interesting species for this part of Arkansas--American beech is abundant, as is northern red oak. Both are on the fringes of their range in this part of Arkansas, and neither are common at all (in my limited experience) except in these areas with somewhat broken terrain--I have also seen beech and northern red oak in other parts of this dissected Coastal Plain along the gullies, seeps, and small drainages that are common to this landform.? These areas appear to act as small coves, with their ability to stay cooler and moister than the surrounding hills.

Few of these second-growth trees would be considered truly impressive, although most of the major hardwood overstory species grow to at least 18 to 24 inches in diameter or slightly larger, even the beech and northern red oak get this big. I was mostly interested in getting a few of the larger loblolly and shortleaf pines for a height modeling project I'm working on, but given the limited time I had (less than an hour), I couldn't measure many trees of any species...

I didn't get a lot of time to explore the tops of these trees to truly maximize them--the pines are pretty good, but the hardwoods could have used some more effort (my hungry kids kept me humming).? These trees are pretty typical for those on average to good sites in this region--the tall shortleaf, for example, was growing along a small drainage in a bit of a little valley, while the shortest one was along a small ridgeline. Still, Logoly SP is an interesting place to visit, given the numerous mineral springs and interesting species outliers found here.? Sorry, I didn't get any pictures, though...

Don


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don C. Bragg, Ph.D.
Research Forester
USDA Forest Service
Southern Research Station
DonCBragg@netscape.net
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The opinions expressed in this message are my own, and not necessarily those of the Southern Research Station, the Forest Service, or the USDA.