Marilla Reservoir, PA   djluth-@pennswoods.net   Apr 03, 2006 09:33 PDT  Kirk, I just visited the Marilla Reservoir in Bradford. Very small area of old growth  hemlock (~5 acres), medium stature trees. New bike trail going right through it. The old growth is not considerable in size (~5 acres), but I would estimate a few hemlocks to possibly reaching 250 years old. Most are much younger than that. There were also a scattering of old red and sugar maples in this area. Here's a very rough visual age estimate of some of the older trees in the site, most of which were greatly spread out from each other: Species         Estimated Max Age (visual characters) Am. beech       125 E. hemlock      250 red maple       200 sugar maple     150 yellow birch    250 The old yellow birch above was quite large for a forest grown specimen, at least with the ones I've come across so far in NW PA, at 11.3ft CBH x 44.5ft spread x 84.6ft high (230.8 AF Points). I think I'll nominate it for Scott's PA big tree list. The yellow birch is actually up the northwest feeder (near first bridge you cross adjacent to RT346). The older section of hemlocks is in the southwest feeder ( upstream from second bridge you cross). That's the section where the new bike trail is going through. The largest hemlock in here I found was 10ft CBH x 107.3ft high. Well, I guess while I'm at it, I did find time to do a little reporting, so I might as well give the rest of the tree stats from that day: Species       CBH   Height   Comments Am. beech     6.2   100.9 black cherry 5.7   95.7 black cherry 7.1   113.9 E. hemlock    8.7   98 E. hemlock    N/A   102.3 E. hemlock    10    107.3 E. hemlock    8.9   107.4 E. hemlock    N/A   111.8 E. hemlock    8.5   113.4 E. hemlock    7.8   113.9 Norway spruce 3.6   108.6 Norway spruce N/A   117.5 red maple     8.4   92 red maple     10.2 96.1 red maple     7.5   101.9 sugar maple    8.1 101.8 white ash      7.8 112.1+ yellow birch 11.3 84.6+    41 57.362N x 78 44.695W Dale   Quoting Kirk Johnson: Dale, I have seen what appear to be naturally occurring Virginia pine growing at the Rimrock Overlook site (and I seem to recall Jake's Rocks too), and also a few on the west side of the Allegheny Reservoir toward the southern end. Not far north of the Kinzua Dam. The way I got there was to drive all the way to the end of Coal Bed Road from Scandia, then park my car and walk in a southerly direction toward the dam, mainly following the remnants of old logging roads. There weren't many up there, so I'm not certain I could find them again because this was several years ago. I was actually over in Bradford on Saturday and visited the Marilla Reservoir too to see if I could find the big trees that are being talked about. I walked the trail all the way around the reservoir, as well as the spur trail they are carving through the woods off to the west. I must not have walked far enough though, I didn't find those hemlocks. They were careless putting that trail in, weren't they? Lots of seriously scarred trunks and ripped up roots. They should have been more careful in my opinion. I prefer a nice quiet footpath through the woods anyway, rather than essentially an engineered crushed gravel road like that. Kirk   Home