| Black
Mountains, NC |
James
Smith |
| Jun
19, 2007 20:56 PDT |
I've just returned from a three-day trip to the Black Mountains
of
western NC. Too tired to post much of a report, but while I had
a good
time hiking, I saw some very discouraging sights concerning our
hemlocks. They're all but gone there. I took my travel trailer
to the
Black Mountain campground and noticed that almost all of the
hemlocks
are dead, but some were thriving. So I asked the campground host
about
that, and he told me that the NFS had chosen certain trees to
treat with
adelgicide. Such trees were marked with silver tags. Weird how
they've
treated small and medium-sized trees in the camgpround, but
allowed the
old giants there to die.
Standing on top of Horse Rock, just below Celo Knob, I could
look down
on the vast countryside, through the photochemical haze courtesy
of the
hydrocarbons, and realized that the once vast sea of forest had
become
not so much an island as a series of relatively small plots of
green.
I think the cause is lost--not just the hemlocks--but the
planet's
ecosystem as a whole. I'm convinced--more now than ever
before--that
it's going to all come crashing down, far sooner than later. |
| RE:
Black Mountains |
tuce-@msn.com |
| Jun
20, 2007 05:28 PDT |
James,
That's terrible, I guess I'll never have the Privilege to see an
Old
Growth Hemlock Forest in my Lifetime! Man better wake up, before
its to
late! It seems like the wrong people are running the show!
Larry
|
| RE:
Black Mountains |
Edward
Frank |
| Jun
20, 2007 18:52 PDT |
Larry,
There are still old growth forests of hemlock in areas farther
west in
Tennessee. Talk to Charles Hinton. Up here the adelgid is only
about
halfway across PA. Cook Forest has the finest old-growth hemlock
in
eastern Untied States. There are old growth hemlock in Michigan
as
well. Much of NW Pennsylvania is dominated by hemlock and it
will be
tragic when it reaches here. But for now the old-growth is
intact. So
you still have a chance to see some old-growth hemlock forests,
but
don't put it off too long.
Ed Frank
|
| Re:
Black Mountains |
Kirk
Johnson |
| Jun
22, 2007 20:27 PDT |
It probably looks like that since we're in the heart of the
adelgid
infestation and die-off of hemlocks. But, over time the rain
will fall and
the unaffected tree species will grow and fill in the blanks.
And some
generation long in the future will probably even see abundant
hemlocks again
cloaking the landscape (not to mention chestnuts). But, we must
have the
maximum amount of intact, protected areas such as state parks,
national
parks, national forests, national wilderness areas, etc. to
allow the
forests to grow and evolve over time.
Kirk Johnson
|
| Couple
of photos of Black Mtn hemlocks |
James
Smith |
| Jun
26, 2007 19:12 PDT |
|