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ENTS,
Massachusetts has acres and acres of ordinary woodlands.
Beyond the spectacle of autumn foliage and the imagination of
the nostalgic, we fall short on "forestscapes", especially
in-forest scenes, that are an inspiration for the arts. That's
bad news. The good news is that despite the mentioned shortage,
exemplary woodlands do exist in Massachusetts. In this
communication, I'd like to share one extraordinary place with
you. The site is located in Monroe State Forest in northwestern
Massachusetts. More specifically, it is the stretch of forest on
the lower Dunbar Brook watershed that runs for about a mile and
a half along the north-facing slopes of the main Brook, starting
from where the brook is dammed.
I hope the following images sufficiently portray what the eye
sees when hiking along Dunbar Brook. Capturing the essence of
the old growth forest and big trees on film is what I hope to do
with the help of friends. In many communications, I have
attempted to convey Dunbar's status through statistics. The
dimensions and ages of the old and large trees growing in this
deep woods setting have been determined and previously reported.
For example, we have dated eastern hemlocks to 474 years in age
at core height. That suggests at least one 500-year old tree.
There are many trees in the 250-year age class, and there is
another age class of 140 to 180-year old trees.
Insiders have always recognized that Dunbar excels in big
trees. The largest volume hemlock we have modeled in
Massachusetts grows there. One of the site's white pines has
been climbed and tape-drop-measured to a height of 160.2 feet.
Dunbar is also home to the largest single-trunk white pine that
we've yet modeled in Massachusetts - a different pine from the
tall one just mentioned. Dunbar also boasts what may be the
largest forest-grown white ash in all New England. The Rucker
index of Monroe State Forest stands at 123.7, third highest in
Massachusetts after Mohawk Trail State Forest (136.0) and Ice
Glen (128.2). The list of forest and tree superlatives is long,
but there is more to Dunbar than just big and old trees. There
is an unmistakable deep woods ambience that develops from
centuries of natural forest history and from Dunbar's relatively
isolated location. This combination has made the forest a place
of real significance for those in search of inspiring woodlands.
But enough talk. Without further comment, I will let the images
do the talking - accompanied by my image narration, of course.
Image#1-TanyaRolandOnStripedMaple.jpg: This image conveys a
message. Yes, the downed tree that Roland Blaich and his
daughter Tanya are sitting on is a striped maple. Striped maple?
Impossible, you say! Not at all. I visited this very tree for
years and watched it get larger and larger. But alas, it went
down. It now returns its nutrients to the earth that so
faithfully nourished it. As Lee Frelich adroitly explained in a
past communication over the fall of the height champion red
spruce on Greylock, a tree has two jobs, one while standing and
one as a decaying log. The old striped maple's forest job has
not as yet been completed. This provides a degree of solace for
me. However, this big striped maple is not unique. There are
other large members of its species in the watershed. Somewhere
on the north-facing ridge, there is a striped maple that will
challenge the two 66-footers in Mohawk Trail State Forest. In
the past, I have measured these gorgeous understory trees in
Dunbar to 59 feet in height and 33 inches CBH. There are many in
the 24-inch girth class.
Image#2-SugarMapleAndGroup.jpg: Dunbar Brook's old growth
forest has areas where sugar maple primarily and white ash
secondarily dominate. Canopy trees of these two species commonly
grow to heights between 100 and 120 feet, and diameters between
30 and 40 inches. American beech once had a significant presence
in Dunbar, but beech blight has reduced the species population
to a pittance. I once worried about the abundance of white ash
as suggestive of past logging operations in what otherwise
appeared to be primary forest. Dr. Charles Cogbill, New England
ecologist extraordinaire, assured me that on rocky slopes, such
as the north-facing slopes above Dunbar Brook, white ash can be
fairly abundant from natural disturbances. So, it is not
necessary to invoke direct human activities to account for the
abundance of ash. This having been said, trees of at least seven
species in the 150 to 300-year age range grow among the boulders
in the Dunbar forest. In image #2, Roland, Tanya and Monica are
seen near one of many large old-growth sugar maples. The big
tree appears isolated. In other places, big trees may grow in
clusters of 2 or more. The hint of bright light in the upper
right-hand corner is from a blowdown of a single forest giant
that took a number of lesser trees with it. The result of these
blowdowns and subsequent regeneration is a wide distribution of
ages. Dunbar's forest is multi-aged. Lee Frelich has walked
Dunbar's slopes and has been the primary source of information
to me about probable past site disturbances. Lee sees what
scientists with lesser field experience have trouble recognizing
- the fading imprints of multiple medium-to-large disturbances
mixed with countless smaller ones. Maybe Lee could dig into his
memory banks and comment on the Dunbar forest. Hopefully, these
images will serve as memory joggers for him.
Image#3-ForestPrimeval2.jpg: In places, Dunbar is jungle-like
with large old growth emergents thrusting their straight trunks
skyward for 100 feet and more through a rich understory of young
trees, shrubs, herbs, and ferns. American beech, yellow birch,
sugar maple, and white ash dominate the overstory. One sees an
occasional basswood or mature red maple, and there are small
clusters of hemlocks, but this rich, mesic environment isn't
hemlock country, nor red maple country. There is no hint in
Dunbar of the dreaded takeover by red maple - a fiction spawned
within circles of the timber profession to hoodwink a clueless
public into believing that cutting mature forests is needed to
thwart an eventual red maple takeover, the very act that will
guarantee an increase of red maple. In mature forests like
Dunbar's the abundance of red maple is controlled by competition
with other species and ecological processes that Lee and other
top-line ecologists can more authoritatively speak to.
Image#4-BigtoothAspen.jpg: Despite what I am predominantly
showing in these boulder field images, much of the Dunbar
watershed experienced direct human impact, especially along the
lower part of the brook and on the south-facing slopes, but most
of the logging occurred fairly long ago. One regenerating stand
of hemlocks near the start of the nature trail has a fairly
uniform age distribution from 130 to 150 years. There is also
the suggestion of an old fire along a steep ridge. Another
stretch near the brook has a stand of impressive bigtooth aspens
that are now at the far end of their life spans. One on the
other side of the brook may soon become the height champion. It
was 124 feet the last time I measured it, and it continues to
show great vigor. Image#4 shows one of a handful of super
bigtooths. Its circumference just makes 8 feet and its height is
between 105 and 110 feet. I couldn't get laser returns from the
aspen's highest sprigs because of the dense understory.
Incidentally, the Indian name of this beautiful tree person is:
Tree that eats D-Tapes.
Image#5-TanyaAndWhiteAsh: This huge forest-grown ash tree is
over 14 feet in girth. Depending on where one determines
mid-slope to be, CBH values can be obtained between 14.3 and
15.0 feet. My choice gives it a girth of 14.7 feet. The current
height of this forest giant is 123.7 feet. It was once over 130,
but old age and natural crown loss is taking a toll. It is not
long for this earth. In the early 1990s, we cored the Dunbar
Ash, and at the time, we counted 258 rings at core height. Today
this old gent is at least 275 years young. The big white ash is
accessible from the Raycroft Extension trail. It has been the
subject of numerous photographs and a painting by artist Heather
Lenz.
Image#6-ThoreauPine.jpg: This is an image of the great Henry
David Thoreau pine. I have reported on it many times in the
past. Its dimensions are approximately 12.7' x 160.2'. I say
approximately, because it now may be above 160.2 feet. It was
climbed by Will Blozan and Bob Van Pelt in 2004 and
tape-drop-measured. As I recall, Bob modeled the trunk volume to
812 cubes at the time. It is probably at least 830 by now. The
Henry David Thoreau pine is one of the truly great white pines
in New England. It was the first pine that Jack Sobon and I
confirmed to a height of over 150 feet. We used a transit and
got 152.4 feet at the time. That was around 1990. The holes in
the pine's trunk are relatively new and troublesome to say the
least. Tanya took this image of her dad, Monica, and me. Good
photo, Tanya. Thanks.
Image#7-OldYellowBirch.jpg: Roots of this ancient yellow
birch engulf the rock on which it seeded maybe 300 years ago.
"Rock-eating" birches are a common sight in the Dunbar forest. A
Tolkien-like environment of moss and fern-covered boulders,
tangled roots, twisting trunks and limbs, many species of herbs,
and a canopy high above create that magic forest elixir that we
commonly associate with old growth forests.
Image#8-GrandfatherAndGroup.jpg: If total volume is the
criteria, the great Grandfather pine is the patrirach of the
slopes. It's girth is a solid 14 feet and its height at the end
of the growing season is between 144.0 and 144.5 feet. Will
Blozan climbed and modeled this huge pine a couple of years ago.
Grandfather's volume by now is at least 970 cubic feet - if not
more. To cut to the chase, the Grandfather tree is the largest
single-trunked white pine in Massachusetts that we have modeled.
Elsewhere, it is likely exceeded ...
Robert Leverett wrote (August 19, 2009)
Don, Marc, et al:
Here are six more images of Dunbar.
Of late, I have been trying to capture the artistry encountered
by the yellow birch-rock interfaces that I see as well as
photographically explore the intricate root structures of both small
and large birches. The first three images speak to this mission.
Yellow birches do things with their roots that I don't commonly
see with the other species in the Berkshire woodlands. I have come
to accept the yellow birch as a consummate forest architect. Large
birches stay upright in boulder fields for two and sometimes as much
as four centuries, all-the-while meeting their challenge in
artistically compelling ways. Everyone is entranced who comes face
to face with an ancient yellow birch extending its Octopus-like
roots around a Volkswagen-sized boulder. What about the old birches
is it that is so appealing to us Ents? Ed? Don? Beth? Others?
Naturally, I have to include at least one big tree photo in every
submission. Image #4 gives us a peek at a big white pine that has
gone nameless. I think Roland first asked me about it. I sheepishly
admitted to having previously blown it off because it didn't meet
the height criteria I was applying at the time. I've since seen the
light. In the image, Roland and Tanya are stretching as far as they
can and Monica is filling the remaining gap with a foot and a half
span of her hand and forearm. Why this method? I had lost my D-Tape
(still stuck in the aspen?) so I couldn't get the big pine's CBH,
but it is close to 12.0 feet. In July of 2000, I measured that pine
and got 11.6 feet and 125.5 feet in height. My guess is that now it
is at least 130 feet tall and 11.9 feet around, possibly 12.0. That
would make sense - appealing to the growth rates of other huge field
pines in lower Dunbar. Place your bets, folks. Incidentally, there
are three other white pines in the vicinity with girths of 12 feet
or more. Two are quite tall (Grandfather and Thoreau). The other has
lost its top and is short (106.0 feet). I consider 106 feet to be
very short for a white pine. Am I spoiled or what?
Image #5 returns to the imaginative assortment of rocks and trees
that one encounters throughout the forests in the Deerfield Gorge.
Image #6 reinforces the rock-forest theme. The dark monolithic form
in the center of the image has the shape of a Native American
Manitou stone. I doubt that it served that special purpose because
of its location, but I could be wrong.
Those who discover the hidden corners of Dunbar fall in love with
the big rocks and the old yellow birches. If one is inclined to
believe in woodland spirits, this is the place to make their
acquaintance. Although being predominantly of scientific persuasion,
I especially enjoy sharing Dunbar with people who relate to the
magic of the elfin haunts through their spiritual convictions. These
gentle souls have the capacity to experience a level of forest
appreciation that broadens my own and gives me pause to contemplate
the essence of energy forms other than our own. Regardless of
whether one approaches special woodland haunts from a mythological
perspective or through solemnly held spiritual beliefs, the potency
of the magic of the forests is immeasurably strengthened. At least,
that is my observation and personal experience.
Marc,
You've got to see Dunbar. I'd be happy to take you to the big
trees, share the high-canopy old growth areas, explore the hidden
corners with the tree-rock sculptures, etc. Sound like something
you'd like to do? Just say the word. The invitation is open to all
Ents.
I'll close by repeating some of Monroe SF's forest and tree
superlatives, most of which are contributed by the Dunbar area.
1. Largest single-stemmed white pine modeled in Massachusetts
(Grandfather Pine at 970+ cubes),
2. One of two Massachusetts sites to have a tree measured to 160
feet in height (Thoreau Pine at 160.2 feet),
3. Largest forest-grown white ash measured to date in New England
(14.7 feet in girth, 123.7 feet in height),
4. Largest eastern hemlock in Massachusetts modeled for trunk volume
4. Third highest Rucker Index in Massachusetts (123.7),
5. One of the three sites in Massachusetts with white ash trees
surpassing 130 feet in height (MTSF, Ice Glen, MSF),
6. Second largest yellow birch measured in Massachusetts (13.0 x
98.1),
7. One of only 3 Massachusetts sites with five or more species of
trees reaching heights of 120 feet or more,
8. Site of second tallest bigtooth aspen in Massachusetts (124+
feet),
9. One of only 3 locations in Massachusetts with yellow birch
measured to heights exceeding 100 feet,
10. One of only 2 sites with striped maple close to 60 feet in
height,
11. One of two sites in Massachusetts with 4 or more white pines
reaching 12 feet or more in girth,
12. One of a handful of Massachusetts sites with hemlocks confirmed
to nearly 500 years in age,
And the list goes on ........
Bob
Continued
at:
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/f42baadca5402046?hl=en
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