old growth yellow birch   NR, Cook Forest
  Jun 28, 2002 15:02 PDT 
Bob:

MTSF must be something else. I think when all is said and done, we'll probably have very close heights when it comes to beech, red maple, and red oak. That 147.4ft white ash still boggles the mind. How far is it from Ft. Devens or 'Leominister'? I spent some time there for half a year while I was going through the army's intelligence school there. Army intelligence... now that's a contradiction in terms.

On one of my training outings to the Carlisle/Harrisburg area last week, I took some time to look for some hawks on a nearby ridgetop. This particular gap is an Audobon nature area and is great for catching a view of migrating hawks. It also has some pretty old yellow birch on the top. The tops on some of what I believe were the oldest yellow birch were quite knarled with bumps and knobs going up the trunk... kind of like some of our very old hemlock. The bark at the trunk had some very deep splits... maybed deep ridges and furrows like the old white pine. I don't get to see many old growth yellow birch. Any definite patterns to look for that may tell me what old growth yellow birch looks like? The tree heights of these birch weren't remarkable, maybe in the 50ft range tops. All were growing on the ridge top on very shallow rocky/boulder substrate.

Any ideas on age of yellow birch and their expression of old growth characteristics? Some of the tops even reminded me of Lee's cedar pictures.

Dale
RE: old growth yellow birch   Leverett, Robert
  Jul 01, 2002 09:35 PDT 
Dale:

  

With respect to ageing characteristics of yellow birch, ages of old growth specimens in the range of 250 to 350 years are not uncommon. The bark tends to be platty and bleached; i.e. the peeling, yellow bark is gone. Crowns are stagheaded. The upper limbs of very old yellow birches reflect many re-sprouts from crown breakage. However, rather than saying more, I'd prefer to turn the podium over to the real guru of old growth tree forms - Dr. Lee Frelich.

Bob
RE: old growth yellow birch   lef
  Jul 01, 2002 16:30 PDT 
Dale:

To answer your question about the plates on old yellow birch: no they don't
look like the rectangular plates on black birch. They are longer, and are
more irregular in shape.

It is hard to specify an age at which fissures reach a certain depth. The
real reason that old trees have thick bark is that the growth rate of the
trunk is slow so the bark is not sloughed of very fast. Sometimes an old
tree will be released from suppression and lose its platy bark and return
to smooth bark, although this is unlikely to happen on a rocky ridge top,
where soil also limits growth. That said as a very general rule yellow
birch begin to develop plates when between 150 and 200 years old. The
plates are generally very prominent by age 250.

The best overall way to describe old yellow birch is they look like trees
you would expect to find in a haunted forest from medieval England. It is
easy to imagine characters like Merlin and Mordred stepping out from behind
an ancient yellow birch.
I also call them candelabra trees, and ridgetop forests with many such
trees candelabra forests.

Lee
Re: old growth yellow birch   Dennis E Hayman
  Jul 02, 2002 04:48 PDT 
There are some wonderful old yellow birches in the Adirondack Park in NY
also. Two special places that I can think of off hand are Moss Lake and
Piseco Lake. Bob - remember the pair of 350 year olds that shared one
boulder at Moss Lake? One has let go and fallen down, but the other still
stands - right next to a trail and constantly amazing people with it's
root system. The great combination of mountains and boulder fields
produces some great energy and marvelous trees.
Dennis