| RamsHorn-Livingston Sanctuary, NY |
Dee
& Neil Pederson |
| Jul
10, 2003 17:25 PDT |
On the subject of the Catskill, NY region of the Hudson River,
an
unusual and cool forest is the RamsHorn-Livingston Sanctuary:
http://www.scenichudson.org/parks/shparks/ramshorn/index.html
It is the largest tidal, freshwater swamp forest on the Hudson -
400+ acres. The mix of forest is interesting: northern
white-cedar
[near a southern range margin in the Hudson Valley], eastern
white
pine, swamp white oak, black gum, red maple, ash, etc. In some
parts
of the forest no one tree dominates, according to a vegetation
survey
by Spider Barbour.
Canoeing the streams through the forest reminded me a bit of
being
in the Congaree. It has a southern feel. In fact, I got chiggers
from
one of my visits there!
There aren't too many big trees, however. From the appearance of
the
crowns of many trees here, I get a feeling the high water levels
and
fluctuating water levels may limit tree size. The beaver are a
big
limitation to the swamp white longevity and size these days.
However, the cedar ranged in age from 130-190 years. The Nyssa
look
to be 200-400 years [the rings of this population of gum are the
worst Nyssa rings I've looked at to date. Crossdating, let alone
age
determination, under the microscope is difficult]. The swamp
white
oak range from 70-285 years. I did not get too closeto the
center of
the old tree and it was experiencing significant suppression in
the
early 1700s. 280+ years is approaching the maximum known age of
~300
years [according to Harlow].
It is hard to say if this forest has ever been harvested. Its
proximity to the Hudson and older population centers would make
one
think it would have been logged in the past. Also, I did not
core the
commercial species, except the cedar, so perhaps only pine was
removed in the past. The cedar are small now at 150+ years [<
2 feet
dbh]. They were definitely saplings in Cole's and Churches time.
However, if today's forest is representative of what this site
is
capable of producing, it is hard to think much of the forest was
ever
worth the effort of wetland logging. Winter logging, especially
at
the end of the Little Ice Age, might make logging more
profitable.
Charcoal production might have made logging worthwhile as well.
Neil
|
| Re:
Historic Hudson areas |
David
Yarrow |
|
Jul
10, 2003 21:55 PDT |
|