Delaware Water Gap and Adjacent Sites

Delaware Water Gap and Adjacent Sites, PA

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TOPIC: Delaware Water Gap and adjacent sites
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/650220ae93c9a997?hl=en
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== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Mon, Jan 14 2008 7:12 pm
From: "Dale Luthringer"

ENTS,

Bill Sweeney, “naturalist” supervisor at the Jacobsburg Environmental
Education Center, led a two day exploration of various noteworthy forest
sites within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The first
day Bill invited two members of The Nature Conservancy, Dr. Scott
Bearer, Dr. Dylan Jenkins, and myself on a whirlwind tour of a number of
fine secondary old growth forest sites, as well as one small primary old
growth forest site that totally blew me away. Of course, he saved the
best until just about last, so that is the line I’ll take here.

Day 1, 4/27/07

First site was off Totts Gap Rd near the headwaters of Caledonia Creek.
I only measured a few girths at this secondary old growth site at
~5-10acres in size. Max canopy height approached 90-100ft. Soil
consisted mostly of bowling ball sized rocks:

Species CBH

Black gum 6.8
Tuliptree 10
Tuliptree 10.9

I also made mental notes of visual estimates of age that I felt
confident the trees would attain at the site. I prefer to error on the
low side. I feel the following species should at least reach the
following ages:

Species Visual Age Estimate Comments

Am. Beech 100
Black birch 100
E. hemlock 100
White pine 100
Shagbark hickory 125
N. red oak 125
Chestnut oak 150 probably closer to
200
Red maple 150
White ash 150
Black gum 200 probably closer to
250
Tuliptree 200

The next site we visited was behind a fellow naturalist’s camp, dubbed
“Wilson’s Camp”, which was at the headwaters of Rock Run. I really
enjoyed walking through this site. This was the first dwarf old growth
sugar maple site I’ve seen. It was situated in a shallow bowl shaped
depression on a ridge top where a spring originated creating a small
meandering stream through thick moss covered rocks. The site we
explored was again small, say ~5-10 acres as above. The trees again,
were not large, but old growth characters abound: thick moss up trunks,
balding bark characters, burls, and buttress bases. We did find the
rare and beautiful Loberia sp. lichen which was great evidence of the
lack of disturbance at this site. Again, forest canopy was short,
~80-95ft.

Here’s some brief size measurements:

Species CBH Height Comments

Chestnut oak 5.7
Pitch pine 5.1 84 a pitch pine of similar size
cut down near the camp went to ~90 years
Sugar maple 7.3

My visual age estimates (on the low end)

Species Visual Age Estimate

Pitch pine 100
Am. Beech 125
Chestnut oak 150
Red maple 150
Tuliptree 150
White ash 150
Sugar maple 200
White oak 200

In my opinion, the best site of the day was the Spackman’s Creek site,
about 12 miles down the Delaware River from the town of Milford, PA.
Bill underplayed it, to see what my reaction would be, but my heart
about lept out of my chest when he led us into a small virgin old
growth/hemlock site. It was just like taking a walk back in Cook Forest
or Hearts Content. The site was small again, say ~5-10acres. It was
totally invisible from the highway which was only about ¼ mile east.

We parked our cars and headed up a steep drainage that had a small
waterfall of sorts at the beginning, then opened up in a steep bowl
shaped depression dominated by hemlock and tall white pine. Bill said
he had one he thought might break 150ft in there, but I was awestruck
when the laser readings came back for one at over 160ft! The finest
pine we measured topped out at 9.3ft CBH x 163.8ft high. It was growing
at the bottom of the bowl, had good access to water, and adequate
protection from the wind. This was the first pine we’ve been able to
put into the 160ft class east of Cook Forest in Pennsylvania. It
actually is the tallest known tree in Eastern PA. I could barely
contain myself, which I fear spilled over onto our Nature Conservancy
friends. They made a note of it to be one of their future study sites.

Here’s the stats:

Species CBH Height Comments

E. hemlock N/A 109.3
E. hemlock N/A 113.4

White pine 10.1 137.6
White pine N/A 138.3
White pine N/A 138.4
White pine 9.4 138.7
White pine 9.6 140.8
White pine 9.3 163.8 41 10’22.206”N x 74 54’12.302W”

Visual Age Estimates (on the low end)

Species Age Estimate

Chestnut aok 100
Sugar maple 150
E. hemlock 250
E. white pine 250

After this site, Scott and Dylan had to make their way back to
Williamsport, but Bill and I continued on. Next stop was Sawkill Creek
in Milford, PA. It’s another small secondary old growth site totaling
~5-10 acres, along the main drainage on the edge of the town. It is
bisected into two small sections by a seldom used road and it’s
associated bridge. The first section is very skinny between the creek
and adjacent ridgtop, ~250 yards x 400 yards. The second section, what
is referred to as ‘The Glen’, is much more spread out as the drainage
opens up into a broader flat. It has a nice stand of hemlock and white
pine that appeared to be left after the logging boom days. An old dam
site is located towards the bottom of this area. A short walk from the
vehicle netted a number of pine in the 120ft class:

Species CBH Height Comments

E. hemlock 9.1
E. hemlock 10.4 104.2

Sycamore 8.8 N/A ~105-115ft high
Sycamore ~10 ~120

White pine N/A 119.5
White pine 12.4(2x) 122.8
White pine 9.9 126.1
White pine N/A 126.7

Visual Age Estimates (on the low end)

Species Age Estimate

N. red oak 125
Chestnut oak 150
Sycamore 150
White pine 225
E. hemlock 250

The last site we visited was down river a piece at an old farm site that
had some scattered old trees in its associated drainage, most likely
another secondary old growth site with snags & CWD:

Species CBH Height

Chestnut oak 9.2 N/A
White pine N/A 131.4

Visual Age Estimates (on the low end)

Species Age Estimate

E. hemlock 125
N. red oak 125
White pine 125
Am. Basswood 150
Sugar maple 175
Chestnut oak 200

The last site we visited for the day was along Adams Creek. Another
drainage into the Delaware River, and a fine secluded heavily dominated
hemlock stand. It was hard to believe we didn’t note any HWA here. We
feared it could be one of the last times we looked at this beautiful
hemlock dominated gently rolling rubble stream. This site was large, we
walked most likely at least a mile & a half upstream, dominated by
hemlock the entire way in this steep moist moss covered valley. Didn’t
take many measurements, just enjoyed the view after a long day. I did
measure a white ash towards the end of our walk up the drainage, at the
bottom of the valley to 118.1ft.

Visual Age Estimates (on the low end)

Species Age Estimates

Black oak 100
N. red oak 100
Sugar maple 100
White oak 100
Chestnut oak 150
Tuliptree 150
White pine 150
E. hemlock 200

Bill has always been an extremely gracious host. He put me up in his
guest room, after enjoying a delicious meal his wife prepared for us.
Then we watched “the cage fights” on TV to wind down, before embarking
on another day of old growth exploration. Oh, the cage fights were
after we planned our next day’s foray, and after the assigned reading of
his exploits searching the old growth habitat of the mystical
ivory-billed woodpecker in the great swamps of the Southern U.S.

Day 2, 4/28/07

We only visited one site the next day since I had to be off to the
extreme opposite side of the state by mid-day. Today’s site, Godfrey
Ridge, was to be a totally different site than the others we visited the
day before. This site was at the top of a ridge, and down along the
steep rocky rhododendron filled banks on the upper slopes of the
Delaware Water Gap overlooking the majestic Delaware River. This steep
slope (virtually a talus slope) was heavily dominated by short stature
ancient oak and scattered hickory:

Species CBH Height Comments

Chestnut oak 9.3 96.1+ cored to 166 rings
0.75ft into tree, couldn’t get final 0.7ft of core out of tree, could
easily have gone 300 years, very tight rings
Great rhododendron 1.5 16.1 fatest I’ve personally
measured
Pignut hickory 7.4 80.6+ chunky bark

Visual Age Estimates (on the low end)

Species Age Estimate

Pignut hickory 150
N. red oak 150
White oak 150
E. hemlock 200
Chestnut oak 300

We probably explored about a mile long section of steep slope, but ran
out of time. It was difficult walking, and figured when we hit an old
logging grade (they were logging the adjacent hill off-private land) it
was a good place to turn around. Bill further explored the ridge on a
subsequent trip and reported that the old growth continued along the
ridge for quite aways.

Here’s the latest Rucker Index for the Delaware Water Gap:

Species CBH Height Comments
RI

E. white pine 9.3 163.8 tallest tree in
Eastern PA 118.24
Tuliptree N/A 138.4
Sycamore N/A 118.2
White ash N/A 118.1
E. hemlock N/A 113.4
Silver maple 9.4 110.1
Black walnut 6.9 109.3
Swamp white oak 15.3 105.9 Ed Coyle find
N. red oak 4.6 103.1 Ed Coyle find
Chestnut oak 13.6 102.1 Ed Coyle find

That’s 10th highest out of 33 in the Pennsylvania’s Rucker Index
comparisons. The Delaware Water Gap is now only the 3rd site in PA that
holds known living white pine that currently make it into the 160ft
class. Anders Run was the fourth, but after the death of the great
Cornplanter Pine, it no longer has a living 160ft class pine

It was an exceptional two day trip. There’s no way I would’ve been able
to find all the sites in one day. Bill has spent many years exploring
these sites, and has been itching to get ENTS members to come take a
look at them. I’ve yet to be disappointed. He certainly knows the old
stuff when he sees it.

Dale

== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Mon, Jan 14 2008 7:33 pm
From: Carolyn Summers

At last! A site I might actually be able to see and walk. I¹m only 45
minutes from Milford. What are the chances that Bill would undertake
another tour?
--
Carolyn Summers

== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Mon, Jan 14 2008 8:08 pm
From: JamesRobertSmith

Wow! That must have been something to come upon such a tall pine!

== 3 of 5 ==
Date: Tues, Jan 15 2008 4:20 pm
From: Matthew Hannum

Nice area of the country, the Delaware Water Gap! Hard to believe it
isn't that far from Northern New Jersey (with all its stereotypes) and
even New York City.

While I haven't been in the Water Gap itself, I was up in the Poconos
this past summer in an area not far from Hickory Run State Park.
Unfortunately, the weather didn't work with us that weekend (a lot of
rain and storms), and the rest of the folks there were not really into
hunting for trees, but we had a lot of fun anyway. The cabin we rented
up there had a nice view of the mountains, and one could easily see
plenty of reasonably old trees in various places throughout the area.

The three things that stand out to me the most, aside from the Poconos
themselves were:

- The large numbers of white birch trees. These trees start to appear
in the wild in good numbers somewhere halfway through PA when going
north to south, and are a good herald of the colder, northern
climates. They barely grow at all in southern New Jersey (my old
hometown), and I've never seen one down here in Maryland (we have
river birches, but no true white birches).

- The early presence of autumn. We went on the weekend trip at the end
of August last year, and one could already see a bit of color change
to the earliest trees that grew in the mountains. Back in 2003, my
brother and I were in northern PA, following Route 6 through the Grand
Canyon of PA, about the same time of the year (late August), and we
saw the same thing. It is interesting to me, since once one gets away
from the mountains and travels south, autumn won't make itself known
until a full month later.

- The astounding darkness of the night sky. We didn't get any truly
clear nights, sad to say, and the mountain fog is amazing in its own
right - the Poconos could give the Smokies a run for their money in
that regard. But the second night up there, we had a series of large
thunderstorms roll in. Between the storms, I went out on the balcony
to look around, and I'll never forget that sight - the sky was
essentially jet black. Aside from a few distant lights from other
cabins, the dark clouds blocked out all the stars, leaving pitch
darkness behind. I am so used to the dismal light pollution of the
city and suburbs, where clouds are lit up from below and shine with a
grey-orange hue. But not up there - there was simply utter darkness,
pierced by sporadic blasts of lightening, as far as the eye could see.
It was an amazing and somewhat humbling experience!

== 4 of 5 ==
Date: Tues, Jan 15 2008 6:09 pm
From: "Edward Frank"

Dale,

You have been holding out on me with these reports: Delaware Water Gap, Ohio Pyle. I will need to find something to get even... hmmm...I am sure I will think of something.

Ed

"I am not bound to please thee with my answers."
William Shakespeare

== 5 of 5 ==
Date: Tues, Jan 15 2008 7:10 pm
From: "Dale Luthringer"

Well,

Get ready for a few more in the coming weeks. I've broken into July 07
in my data book. Who knows the surprises that lurk in there.

Dale

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