"10 acres of fine woodland"
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According to an 1887 newspaper article, this land was "10 acres of fine woodland" and, as we begin our way down the winding drive, we get a sense of what that might have looked and felt like.
Today, this is not technically a "forest", as true forests have understories with herbaceous plants on the forest floor. However, you can scan the area from the floor to the canopy to notice the diversity of the trees we have here today.
Here, we see trees in all stages of the life cycle, from conception (seed), to birth (sprout), to infancy (seedling), to juvenile (sapling), to adult (mature), to elderly (decline), and finally to death (snag/rotting log).
The majority of mature and declining trees you see likely began to grow after the land was originally logged and ploughed for farmland and are from the post-colonial era. There are a large number of these trees on this property. Many are considered "heritage trees" as they have unique value and are considered irreplaceable. The major criteria for heritage tree designation are age, rarity, and size, as well as aesthetic, botanical, ecological, and historical value.
Older trees with decay and cavities offer shelter for birds and mammals. Snags and dead trees, both standing and laying on the ground provide homes to wildlife. Fallen deadwood tends to be wetter wood because the ground is moist. Due to the different levels of moisture, standing deadwood and fallen deadwood host different types of fungi and insects.
Another benefit of these older trees is carbon sequestration. As trees age, they have more live tissue, thousands of pounds of wood. Their sheer volume allows them to more effectively sequester carbon than younger trees.
For more information about how trees store carbon, see this article.
For more information about old trees, read this article.
Specimens of Note
The trees you see are large, mature, native hardwood including the red oak, white oak, tulip, black gum and beech. Learn to identify these trees that are native to Pennsylvania:
Growth rates of different species vary. Red oaks grow much faster than white oaks and so larger red oaks are often younger than white oaks that are comparable in size. The tuliptree grows quickly in comparison to the beeches.
You can also observe regrowth. Notice the circles of saplings that form around the base of mature American beech trees. Beech trees begin putting up these shoots as they mature. If the tree breaks in a storm, the root system will survive and support these shoots as they begin to grow much larger. This hedging strategy ensures the survival of the individual tree.
Stump sprouts are another survival strategy for trees. If a tree breaks off or is cut down, the tree will grow shoots off of the remaining stump. These shoots grow in a ring from the edge of the stump and, over time, as they all grow, more successful stems push out others as they fight for canopy space. Look for a large two-stemmed ash tree. Over one hundred years ago, this tree either fell or was cut down. Because there were no stump grinders, the stump was left to its own devices and it began to resprout. The only two remaining stems are what you see now.
Please continue to where this road bends. Keep your eyes peeled for a pair of great-horned owls who have been sighted here.
Suggestions for Property management
One idea for this wooded area is to create a living classroom with participatory, ecological monitoring. The land could be divided into "deer exclusion" quadrants, as is done at many forest stations, to monitor how deer grazing affects soil composition and species over time.
