| Minnesota
old-growth forests: dead and alive
Tornado
damage to Townsend Woods, Cannon River, Prairie Creek, Riverbend,
and the Cavity Lake Fire
|
Lee
E. Frelich |
| Aug
29, 2006 08:01 PDT |
ENTS:
The August 24 tornado in southern MN had a path 1/2 mile wide
and 30 miles
in length and was an F3 with winds 150-200 mph.
I can now confirm, however, that as it plowed across the
landscape, it
missed every old growth stand near its path. Townsend woods,
with its 250
acres of giant cottonwood trees 15 feet or more in
circumference; 70 acre
Townsend Woods, with its 300 year old sugar maple trees; and the
Cannon
River, Prairie Creek, and Riverbend stands, old growth maple and
basswood
forests that contain the world's only occurrences of the
endangered
Minnesota Dwarf Trout Lily, all had close encounters with the
tornado and
hurricane-force downbursts, but none were significantly
affected.
Isn't there something wrong with this pattern? Aren't tornadoes
supposed
to go out of their way to level every last old growth forest
remnant?
For those of you into meteorology, radar images of the
supcercell and hook
echo, as well as pictures are posted at the National Weather
Service
Website: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx/?n=24aug2006
NWS Photo
Nearly all trees snapped or uprooted in a swath near
Lake Emily.
At the other end of Minnesota, unfortunately the Cavity Lake
Fire killed
much of the 310 year old stand of red and white pine on Mile's
Island in
Seagull Lake. A few small patches remain alive, probably enough
to reseed
the rest of the island and perpetuate the genetic heritage of
this 5000
year old population. The 200-400 year pine stands on the south
half of
ThreeMile Island and around the southwest half of Seagull Lake
were
completely exterminated. The ancient cedars of Seagull Lake
survived in
some areas, but I have reports that some of the 500-1000 year
old trees
were killed by the fire.
Lee
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