ENTS,
On 5/2/2009 Jack Howard and I visited Clark Reservation State Park in Onondaga County, NY. This site has a deep plunge bowl formed by a gigantic waterfall at the end of the Ice Age.In the bottom of the pool is a meromictic lake that used to be called Green Lake but is now called Glacier Lake - it is one of 3 rare meromictic lakes in Onondaga County ( the other 2 are Green Lake and Round Lake in Green Lakes State Park).

 
The forest at Clark Reservation is said to be potentially old growth and the area has been preserved since the late 1800s, and the White Cedars on cliff edges are speculated to be 1000 years old but none of the cedars seem to be close to that. Most trees at Clark Reservation are quite small and the forest actually is second growth. Even most of the cedars don't seem to be very old. The oldest cedars are possibly in the most public area of the park, a grove by a picnic shelter near the edge of the cliff (with the lake on the bottom). I counted 110 rings on the intact 2.5" radius of a White Cedar stump in this group - the center is hollow. I counted 120 rings on another White Cedar stump near the picnic shelter. Hackberries grow at the edge of the bowl in which the lake sits.

Jack and I took the steep trail down to the lake hoping we'd find old growth down there, down a long steep stairway that was carved out of the limestone rock in the 1880s I believe. The trees are small all the way down and are obviously quite young. The forest is quite diverse with Basswood, Yellow Birch (most impressive trees but not very large), Hickory, some White Cedar (mostly small and young looking), and by the lake some rather large Red Maple (mostly multi-trunked), Hop Hornbeam, Black Ash, White Cedar (again not large or old looking), Mountain Maple, Canada Yew.

The trail along the lake is rough and rocky and trees are mostly small; there could be old growth farther down the trail near the lake outlet as there are more White Cedars there but no trees in that direction looked large or old so Jack and I climbed back out of the bowl.We took part of the Rim Trail - very rugged limestone ledges over which a waterfall at least as great as Niagara poured thousands of years ago - biggest trees there are open-grown Basswoods.T hen we took Table Rock Trail along limestone ledges - a much easier walk and very peaceful, but trees are small here also, due to poor growing conditions. We saw Boxelder, Butternut,  Shagbark Hickory, and more White Cedar. Cedar often grows in clumps, and I measured one cedar trunk at 10.5" dbh (2.8' cbh) which is typical of the biggest cedars at Clark. I counted 20 rings on the 1" radius stump of a White Cedar branch. The largest tree on the Table Rock Trail is a Red Oak 20.5" dbh (5.4' cbh) with rugged old bark. The forest has a lot of Hop Hornbeam and some Sugar Maple. Most trees are under 50' tall.We walked over to Dry Lake, a much smaller and dried up plunge bowl and a beautiful spot with a cathedra like feel to the forest ringing the open bowl. One of the largest trees there a Basswood 18" dbh (4.7' cbh) and an even larger Ash 24.1" dbh (6.3' cbh), largest tree seen at Clark. This tree has a large scar on 1 side.Rugged White Cedars cling to limestone ledges in this part of Clark also, with their roots draping the ledges. I counted 110 rings on an uneven 4"-8" radius White Cedar stump,and also 100 rings on the intact outer (inner part hollow) cross-section of a White Cedar log.

It seems that the oldest White Cedars are about 200 years old and they are old growth trees, but the rest of the forest is second growth. Claims of trees over 200 years old appear to be unfounded.