| Catlin
Woods, Litchfield CT |
Ernie
Ostuno |
| Jul
29, 2004 03:56 PDT |
Catlin Woods is located in the White Memorial Nature Center in
Litchfield County, CT. It consists of about 30 acres containing
several
dozen big white pine and hemlock along with mature hardwoods
such as
oak, birch and maple. The oldest trees are estimated to be over
200
years old.
I have two publications that describe this site. The first is a
paper
from 1956 and was written by David Smith of the Yale School of
Forestry.
He cites evidence from seven cored trees that the stand
originated prior
to 1800 and showed evidence of major disturbances between 1806
and 1834.
The only known disturbance since that time was the cutting of
blight-killed chestnut trees in the early 20th century. The more
recent
publication is titled "The Natural Areas of the White
Memorial
Foundation" written in 1976 by Frank Egler and William
Niering. In it
they state that the site was never ploughed farmland but was
probably
used as pasture for cattle and a few opengrown trees were left
as shade
for cattle.
I visited this area in 2001 and 2003. I found the southern 5-10
acres to
contain primarily hemlock with the largest exapmle to have a dbh
of
about 3 feet. The northen segment of about 15-20 acres has a
nice stand
of white pine, with some having dbh of 2-3 feet. While not a
prime
example of true old growth, this site is quite unusual for
Connecticut,
especially in that it exists on such easily accessable, level
terrain.
Ernie Ostuno
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