| Urban
old growth in Western New York |
thomas
diggins |
|
Mar
12, 2003 12:37 PST |
ENTS,
Great visit to Buffalo and environs. In town for a pre-grant
Buffalo
River meeting at Buffalo State College, but I just couldn't stay
out of
the woods.
Yates Park, Town of Orchard Park. Borders a former ice supply
reservoir
in the middle of the village. Development all around. Small (~3
acre)
stand of beautiful sugar maple dominated woods borders picnic
area, and
abuts one of this small town's only industrial areas (cement
plants and
a rail yard). My tree heights need to be verified with a range
finder
(STILL waiting for availability of my indirect funds for range
finder
purchase). These numbers are conservative, though, as I
generously
shortened the baseline when the apex branch was forward of the
base of
the tree.
1) Sugar maple: Dominates the stand. All sizes represented.
Large living
trees, several large snags, a number of large down logs. A ~9'
CBH tree
fallen in the picnic area and sawed into logs was >180 years
to a small
unreadable rotted center. More than 200 years?
CBH
to 11' 4", height to 96.3' (measured only a few trees,
may have missed the tallest)
2) American beech: Nice size distribution.
Largest:
10' 10" x 86.3' (others appear taller)
3) White ash: Twin trunked, but splits beyond 6'
9'
7" x 100.5' (a nearby 7' single trunk is comparable in
height)
4) Bitternut hickory: 7' 3" x 105.0'
5) Red oak: 8' 2" x 97.5'
6) American basswood: 6' 5" x 95.6'
OK... now surely we must be running out of trees. We're not
gonna come
up with ten species on three acres in upstate New York in the
middle of
a village. Yeah we are!
7) Black cherry: 6' 4" x 95.9'
8) Shagbark hickory: 4' 7" x 97.2'
9) White pine. Nice specimens at one end of the grove.
~7'
x 108.0"
10) Butternut...yes, BUTTERNUT. Twin trunked.
5'
3" (one trunk) x 77.7'
That yields a Rucker Index of 96.0'. Not bad for three acres.
Based on
the variety of trees, some of them shade intolerant, I don't
think this
stand is necessarily free of disturbance. It is, however, an
impressive
piece of old growth. This stand may have had early selective
logging,
allowing recruitment of some of the less tolerant species. It is
also
possible that land clearing around the stand created the
disturbances
that gave shade-intolerants a bigger role than typical within
undisturbed beech-maple woodlands. The lake (to the south) was
dammed
during the first decade of the 1900s, and all of the riparian
timber was
felled at that time. I believe the industrial site (to the
north) was
cleared and farmed much earlier.
What a marvelous old-growth site for educational purposes. Right
in a
town park, and walking distance from an elementary and a junior
high
school. How cool is that? Right after I log off here, I am going
to
upload my data to the NY Old Growth Forest Association via a
page Dave
Yarrow has set up.
Tom
So many trees...so little time! |
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