| Adirondack
High |
Robert
Leverett |
| Jul
12, 2007 07:40 PDT |
ENTS,
This past weekend, Monica and I visited John
Davis and his wife
Denise. We all met up with Howard Stoner on Sunday. There were
multiple
highlights of the trip, but for me two really stood out: (1)
canoing 6
miles on Lake Champlain, and (2)exploring an old-growth region
on the
lands of the Ausable Club. The latter was partly to confirm the
area as
old growth. It is and has OG in spades. The places is awesome.
We
measured a red spruce, or re-measured it (Howard had previously
discovered and measured it). With Howard's mid-slope correction,
we can
reliably report the height at between 110 and 111 feet. We both
get
numbers in that range. As such, the red spruce goes to the head
of the
ENTS height chart for red spruce in the Daks. Other species in
the
Ausable area are of modest height. White ash and hemlock just
exceed 100
feet. Sugar maple and American basswood fall just short.
However, tree
height is not the big selling point. The area is replete with
ancient
trees and hemlocks in particular. A couple of downed ones that
had
fallen over the trail and had been cut off shown no areas of
fast
growth. The rings are packed. Minimum tree ages are around 250
years
with maximums probably exceeding 400. Lee Frelich's eye is
needed.
For folks who do not know, the New
York Adirondack Mountains are
the old growth jewel of the Northeast. The mountain range covers
about
6,000,000 acres. The Daks are a separate mountain chain from the
Appalachians and they are presently considered to be young
mountains
composed of ancient rock. Young mountains in the East? That is a
remarkable discovery. It hasn't been known that many years. They
appear
to have been formed as a giant bubble beneath the Earth and are
still
growing. Mount Marcy is the highest summit at 5,344 feet above
sea
level. Algonquin Peak is second at 5,114 feet. Giant Mountain at
slightly over 4,600 feet rises fully 4,000 feet above its
eastern base.
Marcy and Algonquin along with a couple of others support alpine
areas.
The alpine acreage in the Daks is much smaller than that
contained in
New Hampshire's slighly more lofty White Mounatins, but it is
still
there. Glaciation created many dramatic landforms in the Daks.
They are
highly scenic, but it is their substantial acreage of old growth
that
distinguishes them. Estimates range from 350,000 to over 500,000
acres
of primary forest. Dr. Michael Kudish doesn't flinch at 500,000,
and
from what I see from the roadways, I don't flinch either.
Monica and I plan to return to the Daks
in mid-August to continue
exploring potential old growth areas and we have a great group
of folks
to do it with.
One final bit of news. I will officially
be starting a forest survey
for Broad Brook Coaltion today. There will be lots to report on
that in
the future to include laying the groundwork for hemlock
treatment.
Bob
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