Here are reports on a couple Adirondack sites my brother and I visited a few years ago:

Cathedral Pines of 7^th Lake Hamilton Co. Adirondacks NY   7/30/2005 

Jack Howard and I visited this magnificent 3-acre grove Sat. 7/30/2005. It is right by NY 28 just north of 7^th Lake, and is a stand of towering ancient White Pines on a knoll on the side of the road (left side when heading north). At least 1 (possibly 2) of these pines towers to over 150’ – according to a report by Howard Stoner (championtrees.org/oldgrowth/data/CathedralPinesds30712.htm) the tallest tree is  152.8’ by 11.8’ cbh; according to Kershner and Leverett (2004 – see below for ref.) the tallest tree is 152.1’ by 41.8” dbh (10.9’ cbh); as far as I know these are the first trees in NY to be accurately measured to over 150’. 

These White Pines are glorious trees – lofty, ragged, windswept – I have never seen so many White Pines over 40” dbh in 1 place. 

Other trees are Hemlock, Yellow Birch, Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Red Spruce, Balsam Fir, Beech, Mountain Maple – all much smaller than the pines, and Striped Maple dominates the understory. Goldthread is very common as a groundcover. 

Trees measured:

White Pine             41” dbh            10.7’ cbh

White Pine            39.5” dbh            10.3’ cbh

White Pine            47.2” dbh            12.4’ cbh biggest tree measured

White Pine            45.8” dbh            12’ cbh sap oozing out of trunk filled grove with pine fragrance

White Pine             45.4” dbh            11.9’ cbh

White Pine            44.4” dbh            11.6’ cbh

White Pine            38.9” dbh            10.2’ cbh

We saw a White Pine est. 4’ dbh but it was on too steep a hill to safely measure. 

Cross-section of mostly hollow White Pine 113 rings in 2.3” radius, total radius 1 foot,  tree should be over 200 years old. 

Lower area by huge 49” dbh (12.8’ cbh) White Pine snag monument to fallen World War II aviator (B-24 bomber):

“The Tree created by God and old when our

Country was born, fine and clear and straight…

dedicated to the Memory of 2^nd Lt. Malcolm L. Blue

Navigator of a Liberator Bomber with 8^th Air Force –

Killed in action over France – June 2, 1844 [should be 1944]

Few Men Have Earned This Memorial”

 

Red Spruce log cross-section intact 2.5” radius  - 60 rings

Lots of ancient treefall pit and mound topography

Sugar Maple cross-section of log 8” intact radius 187 rings

Since this maple is a lot smaller than the pines, and White Pine is a pioneer species, the pines are almost certainly older than the maples – if the maple was close to 200 years old, the giant White Pines could easily be over 250 years old; they could have become established after a fire or windstorm around 1700 or earlier.

One of the huge White Pines was half dead , and from one side looked like a snag with a living branch – one side of the tree had no bark at all, and the living branch was supported by a narrow strip of bark rising over 70’ up the tree. About 30’ up the dead part was a huge burl; it was one of the most picturesque trees I’ve ever seen.

There were big burls up the living White Pines as well.. 

At least 5 White Pines were 12 X 100 (12’cbh by 100’ tall).

Cathedral Pines could be the 4^th tallest forest in NY.

Tallest NY forests:

Elders Grove, Adirondacks             White Pine to 159’+

Zoar Valley                                     Tuliptree  156’

Vanderbilt Estate, Hyde Park  Tuliptree  155’

Cathedral Pines of 7^th Lake White Pine 153’ 

Kershner and Leverett (2004) The Sierra Club Guide to the Ancient Forests of the Northeast San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2004.

Height data for other sites from ENTS Website. 

Tom Howard  7/8/2009 

Raquette Lake Red Pines    Hamilton Co.      Adirondacks, NY       7/30/2005 

Jack Howard and I visited this magnificent 10-acre grove on a hill by NY 28 above the south inlet of Raquette Lake Sat. 7/30/2005. Across NY 28 toward the open lake is a small island covered with what could be old growth Red Pine (with 1 White Pine at end of island). 

The main grove on the hill overlooking the marshy south inlet is dominated by old growth Red Pine and White Pine, the first old growth Red Pine I’ve ever seen close up – Red Pines in lower part, White Pines in upper – the description in Kershner and Leverett (2004) is accurate and led Jack and me to this enchantingly beautiful site. On a bright sunny afternoon Red Pines are among the most beautiful of all trees in the way they catch the sunlight, their reddish trunks glowing in the light. Red Pine trunks have the deep subtle fragrance of the great sunlit Ponderosa Pines of the Western mountains, and the long stiff needles of the Red Pines glisten with silvery sunlight just like the Ponderosa Pines of the West; also like the Ponderosa Pines Red Pine bark is composed of plates that look like artistic jigsaw puzzles. The Raquette Lake grove is probably the finest stand of Red Pine in NY, with trees 200 years old, to 28” dbh, and about 100 feet tall. 

This grove has the most highly developed ancient treefall pit and mound topography that I’ve ever seen in an Eastern forest; pits are over 3 feet deep and huge White Pines rise out of pine-needle covered mounds. 

I counted 80 rings on the cross-section of a branch recently fallen from 60’ up a large White Pine – 80 rings on 4” intact radius (total radius of branch 7” but inner part uncountable) tree possibly 200 years old. 

Trees measured with “D” tape:

Red Pine            20.4” dbh

White Pine            39.9” dbh            tree from which branch cross-section was counted

White Pine            38.1” dbh

White Pine            38.6” dbh

White Pine            35” dbh             on same mound as tree just above

White Pine            41.2” dbh            10.8’ cbh            largest tree seen

Red Pine              21.2” dbh

Red Pine             24” dbh            6.3’ cbh

Most Red Pines seem to  be 20”-24” dbh – we saw a few that looked larger, but we didn’t measure any more as time was getting short. 

Dominant: White Pine, Red Pine

Associate (and smaller): White Cedar, Hemlock, Balsam Fir (common), Red Maple,

            near edge – Paper Birch, Quaking Aspen

Many conifer seedlings seen

Other plants: Bunchberry Dogwood, Starflower, Low Bush Blueberry, Goldthread

I know of only the following old growth Red Pine forests in NY:

Raquette Lake Red Pines

Floodwood-Rollins Pond Region, Adirondacks (championtrees.org/oldgrowth/data/Floodwood-RollinsPondsds30322.htm) report by Howard Stoner

near Little Whiteface Mountain, Adirondacks – seen from chairlift Oct. 1973 – said to be old growth Red Pine in Ketchledge Adirondack Tree book

Zoar Valley – NY’s southernmost stand to 20” dbh 210 yrs. old (Bruce Kershner email July 4, 2003). 

Red Pine in old growth state is one of NY’s rarest trees. 

Kershner and Leverett(2004) – Bruce Kershner and Robert T. Leverett, The Sierra Club Guide to the Ancient Forests of the Northeast, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 2004. 

Raquette Lake Red Pines could be on Neil Pederson’s Eastern Old List.

Could this be the stand photographed on the Red Pine page of Eastern Old List?

Also is this the site on the White Pine page listed as Raquette Lake NY with trees aged 188-197 years?

 

Tom Howard

7/17/2009