Balsam Mountain, Catskills, NY   Jess Riddle   Nov 13, 2006 13:52 PST  Ents, Balsam Mountain rises to just over 3600' elevation in the central Catskills near the northern edge of the Catskill Forest Preserve. Broad ridges connect the mountain to other peaks of similar height, but moderate to steep slopes descend in all directions. The mountain's entire western slope lies within the narrow Rider Hollow, and two hiking trails ascend that slope and major ridges to access the summit. Trail guidebooks describe the forest the paths traverse as mature hardwoods originating from lumbering operations in the mid 1800's, so the presence of conifer plantations along the lower trail is rather surprising. A spruce plantation, probably white spruce, lines the southwest side of Ridge Hollow while a more extensive planting of European larch flanks the stream's northeast side. Species                    Cbh      Height Larch, European     NA        108.6' Larch, European     5'6.5"    116.9' Larch, European     5'9"       117.2' Larch, European     5'11"     128.8' Spruce, White         7'2"       115.9' However, once trails reach the narrow coves on the slopes of Balsam Mountain itself, the trail descriptions become much more accurate. Hemlocks, still healthy, with scattered yellow birch dominate a few north facing slopes, but a mature, uneven aged hardwood forests covers the rest of the area. Sugar maple, red maple, beech, white ash, black cherry, yellow birch and striped maple grow ubiquitously on the mountain below about 2900', but their relative proportions in the canopy vary with topography. Red maple is a major forest component along the small streams, but is scarce on the adjacent slopes. Sugar maple, perhaps the most common species overall and the largest in most areas, is especially dominant on the slopes and their small benches. On the one large bench the trail crosses, white ash and black cherry share dominance, and beeches dominate the one other area of gentle topography, the broad ridges. Beech sprouts grow in the understory throughout the area, but striped maple dominates the understory on the large ridges. In the shallower soils above 2900', yellow birch plays a much more important role and forms most of the overstory. On one north facing ridge, striped maple, mountain maple and witch hobble combine to form a continuous shrub layer under the birch. On the uppermost 100' of the mountain, balsam fir, black cherry and scattered mountain ash share canopy dominance with the yellow birch. Species                    Cbh      Height Ash, White              10'5.5" 115.1' Aspen, Bigtooth      6'2"      101.3' Birch, Yellow          10'9"    79.8' Cherry, Black          7'6.5"   104.6' Hophornbeam         3'6"       61.8' Hophornbeam         3'7"       66.0' Maple, Striped        NA        53.1' Maple, Striped        2'0"       54.2' Maple, Sugar           11'1"    ~90' Maple, Sugar           11'4"    ~93' Serviceberry            2'9"      70.7' Serviceberry            3'4"      71.4' Serviceberry            2'9.5"   72.7' Jess Riddle RE: Balsam Mountain   Robert Leverett   Nov 14, 2006 05:23 PST  Jess,    Great report as usual. Good data on the understory species. It looks like striped maple in the 45 to 55-foot height range is going to prove fairly common in the mountains of the Northeast. That's a heck of a white spruce. I can't think of a taller one that ENTS has measured. Bob   Home