Wyalusing, Wisconsin   Miles Lowry   Sep 18, 2003 11:04 PDT  Paul, Lee et al, Just got back from Wyalusing where the Wisconsin joins the Mississippi near Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin. Can you guys give me any insight into the significance of that site regarding walnuts...I have no idea if what I consider to be monsters have any regional or national significance. Am I correct to assume that that species flourishes in bottomland and that they "move" with soil moisture up the ravines and gradients? I would be happy to give any of you locations for what I consider to be the biggest and baddest, without any hard numbers to quantify my impressions ...remember, I'm just a photographer into the visual and expressive rather than quantitative. Ready for the next revelation? I'm ready to explore a reasonably priced measuring device - not the kick-ass types you all enjoy, but something that will get within 5-10 feet...I'll let you guys do the final measuring. What I want to do is get a quick sense of the trees' significance, log it's/their location, make a sensitive photo of the location and move on. Weight is an issue...I'm already carrying about 40 lbs of gear. Glass is heavy!. Finally, one question: are there numbers associated with stand density of a given species which help identify OG? On steep slopes, pit mound indicators seem less telling. Thanks for reviewing the musings of a this visual vagrant. Miles Lowry Re: Wyalusing   Lee E. Frelich   Sep 18, 2003 11:40 PDT  Miles: Walnuts do like moist soil and follow bottomlands and seepages, but not areas that are flooded. They are usually found a few feet higher than cottonwood and silver maple. I would like to have the locations of the trees you have found, since I intend to visit Wyalusing, not having been there since college. The Wyalusing forest has always been considered one of the best hardwood forests in WI, but no accurate tree measuring has been done there. Regarding stand density, it varies so much that I can't really give you any guidelines for old growth densities. The problem is that when you look at variability among old growth stands, almost all of the trees may be large (for old even-aged stands), or only a few may be large (in all-aged stands), and there can be almost no small trees or thousands of small trees. Most stands have at least several large, 20-30" dbh or more trees per acre that have a forest grown form in a place like southern WI. Someone else on the list will have to fill you in on cheap moderately accurate instruments for tree measuring--I haven't studied the available instruments for quite a while. Lee Re: Wyalusing   Miles Lowry   Sep 19, 2003 15:06 PDT  Lee, There are three trails which parallel the ridge line at Wyalusing. Between the middle (Flint Ledge) and lower (Immigrant) trails lie many big guys which seem to be concentrated around the northwest end - from about twenty feet above the floodplain to almost the top of the ridge. Joining the three trails on the northwest is a series of switchbacks called "Indian Trail". At the very top of Indian Trail, just east of its junction with Sentinel Ridge trail is what I think is the oldest walnut...a huge crown and bark so fissured and burled beyond the other cohorts. Further below, just east of where Indian Trail joins the Immigrant Trail along the Wisconsin River I found many other big ones with less extreme bark fissures in amongst the boulder fields. The University of Wisconsin seems to have a research presence there. Can't help you with that one. Finally, there are some really tall (like my characterization without numbers?) along the "Old Wagon" Trail north of the ridge-top campground. The trail slowly ascends a valley to the ridge top...much different forms there. Long and leggy ones with much less dbh's. I'd vote for the individuals on the northern slopes of the ridge (Immigrant and Indian Trails). It's just another hour drive south and east from Wyalusing to a little 1830's Welsh community called Mineral Point...my recent work is hanging there in the Green Lantern Gallery. I'm very interested in your tour site in the Boundary Waters that you recently described...care to share its location? Miles Re: Wyalusing   lef   Sep 21, 2003 16:29 PDT  Miles: Sorry, but the island with the 300 year old pines is private. You can go to the Hegman Lake portage, however, which is only a few miles to the south, and it has a large stand of old growth red and white pine in and near the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Lee   Home