Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation, Maryland 
ENTS,

This past Saturday, Joe and I visited a stand of hemlocks growing in the Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation in Harford County, Maryland. This location is north of Baltimore and west of the Susquehanna River. The hemlocks on the property grow along the south side of a large bend in Broad Creek and in a series of ravines running south to north that feed into the creek. Two of the ravines, those of Glades Branch and Hemlocks Branch have the biggest and oldest hemlocks. According to the Scout Reservation, the oldest hemlocks have been growing since the 1730's. There were a significant number of large trees, but some large ones had blown down within the past two years. There were many seedlings sprouting and most importantly no sign of wooly adelgid. The groves are relatively small, and appear to be monitored, but I don't know if they receive any treatment.

Darian Copiz

     broadcreek_a.jpg (118879 bytes)

This portion of the map of Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation shows the ravines in which the old growth hemlocks grow. The green tree in Hemlocks Ravine marks the spot where what is claimed to be the second largest hemlock in Maryland grows.

    Hemlocks are not very common in Maryland's piedmont, although in some locations they do even grow in the coastal plain. As far as I know, this is the only old growth stand of hemlocks in Maryland growing outside of the Allegheny Plateau. From what we saw of the rest of the Scout Reservation, there were few other significantly large trees except for a few tuliptrees along Broad Creek. This area north of Baltimore receives the highest amount of rainfall in the state's piedmont. The area also has a few pockets of species that generally occur further north, including yellow birch.

We measured four of the largest trees including what was claimed as Maryland's second largest hemlock. The tuliptree along Broad Creek is also included.

Tsuga canadensis    10' 7" x 141.2'    directly on west bank of Glades Branch
Tsuga canadensis    9' 1" x 141.3'     east slope of Glades Branch
Tsuga canadensis    na x 139.6'        west slope of Glades Branch
Tsuga canadensis    12' 1" x 134.6'    directly on east bank of Hemlocks Branch, second largest in MD
Liriodendron tulipifera     8' 11" x 133.0' south bank of Broad Creek

I found the tree located directly on the west bank of Glades branch to be the most impressive and exciting. It leans substantially over the creek. Both this one and the 12' 1" cbh trees were growing directly at the edge of their respective creeks.     
hemlock1_a.jpg (89728 bytes) This beautiful hemlock leans over Glades Branch. It's base is located directly adjacent to the creek. The picture of the turnk was taken in February, 2003. When taking the picture, Darian foolishly forgot his water bottle resting near the tree. When photographing the tree again in February 2005, he found the same water bottle resting exactly as he had left it. Although he was thirsty, he didn't drink the two year old water inside.
hemlock1a_a.jpg (87875 bytes)
creek_a.jpg (85075 bytes)  This view looks south up Glades Branch from the large leaning hemlock which is visible at the right edge of the picture.
hemlock2_a.jpg (85021 bytes) With all the other equipment it's easy to overlook simple pen and paper, so Darian enters the dimensions of this 141.3' hemlock into his cell phone.
hemlock3_a.jpg (94236 bytes) Joe looking up from the base of what is claimed to be the second largest hemlock in Maryland. A nice patch of liverwort is growing to his lower left.
hemlock3comp_a.jpg (154246 bytes) This is claimed as the second largest hemlock in Maryland.
RE: Maryland hemlocks   Robert Leverett
  Feb 24, 2005 06:23 PST 

Darian:

   Outstanding job. Tsuga canadensis continues to impress, if not
astound me. In my many tree books, I often find authors describing the
species as a medium-sized tree and given dimensions for it that fall far
short of the species that I know. The current tall tree champion hemlock
of New England stands 138 feet tall. The largest ones in girth are on
the order of 14 to 15 feet. Dale Luthringer's Pennsylvania hemlocks get
to almost 146 feet in height and 16 feet around. Will Blozan's hemlocks
go off the charts. Heights to just under 170 feet have been recorded
many times now and Will has measured 16 to 18-foot circumference in the
Smokies.
   We have examples of the species at the boundaries of its range, such
as the one's you measured and the one's Jess has measured, and they are
spectacular trees.
   
Bob