Tree Hugger!

[FarmerDave]

greenghost wrote:
jaybo,
I've fished Maple many times. I used to fish a big pool close to the mouth,...

The old swimming hole. The largest brown trout I ever hooked was in that hole. I thought I had hooked another sucker. Man was i surprised when I got it to the surface. I know I told you that before, just confirming what you said.

I've heard that much of the access to that land is posted these days. That would be a shame.

It was about 27 years ago, so it probably is now, too. Too many people trashed the area around the swimming hole. It was a sight.

 

[Fishidiot]

Thought I'd re-fresh an old thread dealing with giant trees. Like many of you, I'm intrigued by the history of the forests we fish in. What did they look like 200 or more years ago? Sometimes, when out hiking or fishing, we'll stumble into a real find such as the original pic I posted at the beginning of this thread.

The new photo below is of the ruin of an ancient white pine. I've fished this small creek for years and the tree fell before I can remember. For years, as I've passed this pool, I've looked at this old trunk and wondered how long it will stay standing. The tree must have been massive. The gnarly trunk is roughly three feet in diameter. Was it an old growth pine? Who knows? Not far from here was an iron furnace. Considering that white pines were usually the first trees cut back in the 1800s when loggers moved into virgin forest, this guy may have sprouted up after the first cutting(?). Whatever the case, it's an old relic still hanging on. One of these day, I'll probably return and find it crashed into the stream. Maybe it will outlast me.

(Of note: the Lafayette Sycamore on Valley Creek discussed further up this thread has, regrettably, collapsed since this thread was started)

 

[pcray1231]

You got two different situations between the northwoods and the SE.

In the SE, the land was settled slowly by farmers. I think every bit of it got cleared, there were no real "regions" which were "missed". Many farmers left a tree here and there, so "virgin" individual trees are relatively common, while "virgin" forests are pretty much non-existant.

In the rest of the state, including our "northwoods", the area was largely unsettled when the logging boom hit. They just started clearcutting, a huge advancing front, and they took pretty much every tree of reasonable size. They didn't miss a tree here and there in the areas logged. So you don't see these huge, old, but lonely trees around. But there were areas that were presettled and logged prior to the "boom", and there were other areas they actually missed or skipped.

So, you have huge expanses of second growth forest, all of it logged at a similar time. You have small pockets which were already logged and regrowing at that time, they are also second growth, but we commonly call them "old growth". And we have small pockets of "virgin" forest.

I'm sure there's literally dozens of virgin areas of PA. Cook Forest's 4 different stands being the most impressive. I'll add 3 more:

1. Heart's Content, Warren County. The virgin timber is around 20 acres. The family which owned the logging company active in the area had a hunting camp here and preserved it. White Pine, Hemlock, and Beech. The white pine is all exactly the same age, around 350 years old. It is assumed that it started during a fire or tornado. The beech and hemlock range from saplings to over 400 years old, so obviously some survived whatever the disturbance was. The site previously had the largest tree in PA, a white pine over 190 ft. But this tree died a decade or so back, and the top has fallen off, thus giving the title to the Longfellow Pine in Cook Forest.

2. Tionesta Natural area has some areas of virgin forest.

3. A smaller along Kitchen Creek in Rickett's Glen. Virgin white pine stand. Trees aren't anywhere near as tall as the ones in the western side, though, I think there's one around 140 ft.

 

[Lonewolve]

I really enjoyed this post, Thanks everyone for sharing.

 

[Fishidiot]

pcray1231 wrote:
In the SE, the land was settled slowly by farmers. I think every bit of it got cleared, there were no real "regions" which were "missed". Many farmers left a tree here and there, so "virgin" individual trees are relatively common, while "virgin" forests are pretty much non-existant.

Agreed - and not just individual trees but actual small tracts.
The trees I've posted here in this thread are both on state forest land in the south central and, I'd imagine, were in areas that were probably clear cut to feed iron furnaces. However, you're right about the selective cutting in this part of the state. That's how things are here on the Gettysburg Battlefield. The area was settled in the 1700s by small farmers who cleared forest but kept many tracts of timber, usually in rocky areas poorly suited for the plow. These tracts were managed with some selective cutting of individual trees and the removal of dead timber for winter fuel. The forests here on the park generally have never been clear cut and thus hold many (in some sections hundreds) of hard wood trees, mostly oaks, that are over 200 years old.

 

[Chaz]

It is very unusual for big trees to be on ridge tops.

 

[FiveWeight]

Nice post. I think about that kinda stuff all the time when I'm in the woods. Where bouts in Perry if you don't mind say'n. I spend time around New Germantown. Matter of fact, that is where I should be right now.....

 

[Fredrick]

I thought that the tree on valley was struck by lighting this year and is no longer there ? I guess not

 

[Maurice]

I think that was the lafayette sycamore on Valley.

Here is a biggie near me. Its 4+ ft across. Pic is blurry cuz I was in a canoe.

 

[bingsbaits]

As a logger I always feel a little pang of remorse when I have to put one of those old girls on the ground.
Often stand and try to contemplate what that tree has seen in it's life.

 

[troutbert]

Those in southern PA who want to see some big old trees without a real long drive may want to check out the Hemlocks Natural Area in Perry County.

http://tinyurl.com/hemlocks987

 

[Fishidiot]

Troutbert,
The wooly adelgid has hit the Hemlocks Natural Area pretty hard and, the last time I was there about two years ago many of the trees were dead, dying or already on the ground. It's still an impressive place. To see such a large stand of straight up pines much like the old growth forest over much of PA would have looked like is amazing.
The original photo of the giant oak at the beginning of this thread was taken not far from HNA.

 

[Fredrick]

Here you go tree huggers

http://www.pabigtrees.com

Turns out that the State champion black oak is ten minutes from my house in Ridley Creek State Park

 

[caveman]

I know of three oaks in Adams county that it takes a full grown man three + arm spans to go around them. They are 4-5 ft in diameter, I often wonder when I am out in the forest what it was like several hundred years ago. I was hunting in SA state game lands Saturday, Where out in the middle of now where there was a small tin sign that commemorated a Hessian Soldiers cemetery. Made me wonder about the history of Upper Horse Valley.

 

[TYoung]

Has any one here heard of the story of the Tiadaghton Elm. It was a really old elm tree that was located near Jersey Shore PA. A group of men called the Fair Play men signed their own version of the Declaration of Independence underneath the tree on July 4, 1776 with out knowing that the Continental Congress was signing the real Declaration of Independence on the same day. The tree remained standing until the 1970's. Here is more info about the tree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Play_Men