| Smith
Brook, Monroe State Forest, MA |
Robert
Leverett |
| Jun
27, 2005 06:21 PDT |
ENTS:
On Saturday, Howard Stoner, Susan Scott,
and I began exploring the
Smith Brook drainage in Monroe State Forest, located in the
northcentral
Berkshires. Monroe State Forest consists of about 4,500 acres of
both
upland and gorge/valley forests. From what I've seen in the
past, the
upland forests on MSF aren't all that great. However, the gorge
forests
are another story.
There are two brooks that create the
main water drainages in the
river gorge section of Monroe State Forest. They are Dunbar
Brook and
Smith Brook. Most of my time in MSF has been spent combing the
Dunbar
Brook watershed and its tributaries, Haley and Parsonage Brooks.
However, in the mid-1980s my son Rob and I had walked up the
Smith Brook
drainage from River Road in search of old growth and were
thoroughly
unimpressed by what we considered as juvenile, utterly boring
second-growth forests. I stuck my nose up in the air, marched
out, and
stayed away for 20 years. Well, what a difference 20 years has
made.
The Smith Brook drainage contains around
510 acres that spans and
elevation range of 1,750 feet. The average grade over 1.662
miles from
near the summit of Spruce Mountain to the Deerfield River is a
modest
20%. But this slope is highly misleading. The upper areas of the
drainage are where most of the gentle terrain is found and
lesser
productive forests. The focus of our attention was on the lower
areas of
the drainage and much steeper terrain, the middle and lower
elevations
of Smith Brook's contribution to the Deerfield River gorge.
Across the whole drainage of Smith
Brook, old and second growth
forests can be placed in what appears at this point to be 3
distinct age
classes. At the upper end of the age spectrum, a small amount of
old
growth grows in the drainage, perhaps 5 or 10 acres. Hemlock is
a
constituent. The aspect is northeast. The old growth consists of
a few
scattered clusters high on the steep slopes of Hunt Hill, slopes
with
average grades of 60 to 70% and one 1230-foot stretch with an
average
grade of 80%. At the other end of the age scale, the forests are
40 or
less years old and are visually undistinguished. These young
forests are
near River Road and they contain a lot of red maple and
exemplify what
academic studies complained about a number of years ago - the
veritable
invasion of red maple. As a side note, the principal authors of
those
studies were exceedingly timid about identifying the sources of
at least
much of the red maple regeneration in the latitude of southern
New
England and Pernnsylvania - but that's another story.
If red maple is prevalent in the
youngest areas, it is virtually
absent from the more mature second growth section. Trees in the
mature
zone vary from 65 to maybe 130 years in age. The age increases
with
increasing elevation at right angles to the stream course. This
is
because there is a corridor of accessible forest close to the
stream.
The ridge sides become increasingly rocky.
Folks, this older second growth forest
is absolutely beautiful. It
is as visually handsome in every detail as any forest should be.
As we
climber higher, my mouth constantly dropped open. I must have
swallowed
half the insect population that swarmed around my head, causing
me to
utter expletives and question the parenthood of thoe swarming
devils.
But apart from my discomfort, my companions will attest to how
the
visual aspects of this forest impressed me. A few trees in this
older
second growth region probably exceed 150 years in age and are
noticeably
larger. They add spice to the forest by giving it a "big
woods" look.
A list of trees measured on Saturday in
the order we measured them
follows.
Species Hgt Cir
White ash 118.4 4.5
White ash 114.4 8.1
A. basswood 96.3 6.0
N. red oak 106.5 9.0
White ash 132.0 6.8
(gorgeous)
N. red oak 111.1 7.8
N. red oak 100.3 10.1
( quite a beauty)
A. beech 115.3 5.8
A. beech 116.1 7.2
(won the beauty contest)
S. maple 111.2 8.5
B. birch 94.5 4.6
W. birch 93.3 6.2
N. red oak 114.7 7.7
White ash 115.6 6.8
Red maple 95.2 5.6
The Rucker index through 8 species
is a modest 106.7 and that would
have dropped lower had we collected the full 10 species. Based
on what
we saw, we're going to have to work to get the index up above
108 for a
10 species index; 108 is the level of Monica's Woods in Florence
MA.
Given what grows elsewhere in the
Deerfield River gorge, 106-108
seems surprisingly low, if not remarkably low. What's the story?
Well,
much of the second growth is two species - northern red oak and
white
ash. There are spots with sugar maple and beech make their
presence
known, but most of the other species are subordinate and in the
understory, bowing to the lordly white ash that towers above all
else
and the strong, broad-crowned oaks that leave few holds in the
canopy.
However, in fairness to the potential of Smith Brook, we hardly
scratched the area. We covered no more than 25 acres.
The splendid 116.1-foot absolutely
healthy American beech we
measured in the Smith Brook drainage raises MSF's Rucker index
to an
impressive 122.1. I should point out that there were 3
undiseased
beeches lined up in a row. Measuring them is one heck of a
challenge or
it is a challenge on any of the trees because the canopy and
understory
is so dense. It's like a jungle.
With respect to all of MSF, I have
little doubt that we'll
eventually raise the index to 123 or higher. The American.
basswood,
sugar maple, and red maple will likely be the species that add
the most
to increases within the index. There's a chance of a stray red
spruce or
two surpassing 110 feet in MSF.
The 132-foot white ash we measured
is one sweet tree, but there are
a lot of incredibly beautiful ash trees in Smith Brook. We
measured one
ash that had blown over was measured on the ground to 121.5 feet
in
length. Howard Stoner was at one end of the tree and Susan Scott
and I
were at the other. Both Howard and I shot 40.5 yards to the
other. There
are any number of ash trees in the vicinity of the downed one
that are
between 110 and 120 feet tall. As a group, they are impressive,
but are
still too young to be in the height range of the taller ashes in
MTSF.
Give them 20 more years at look out.
The day would have been
easier on us had it been cooler. Between
stinging nettle, mosquitos, and hoards of gnats, we got pretty
uncomfortable at times - at least I did. Putting in a
point-centered
plot was out of the question. However, over the next year, there
will be
repeated trips to the Smith Brook area, but in cooler weather
and we
won't be out there just to raise the Rucker index. We need lots
of data
on the forests in the Smith Brook watershed for an important
reason.
First, the forests in Smith Brook span a fairly wide range of
ages, with
a large acreage of 60 to 100 year old trees. The growth rates
along
Smith Brook are very high and the rates remain fairly high on
the
adjacent slopes. The range of rates may illustrate how well
areas with
rich soils can bounce back after logging, and consequently, what
kind of
forests can be expected after 70 to 120 years of uninterrupted
growth.
Smith Brook may be one of our best test locations to demonstrate
what
forests in the under 50-year age range look like relative to
older ones
in rich, well watered and protected areas. The relatively
straight path
of Smith Brook points due southeast. So information from Smith
Brook
could be useful to DCR's plans to develop some long rotation
forests -
as local timber people squawk about the timber going to waste
and beat
the drums for more cutting and overall shorter rotations.
I think that the better DCR
foresters have long recognized that
state forests serve the Commonwealth best as demonstrations of
what good
foresrty is all about versus the mindset that develops when
timber
quotas are advocated and a get out the cut mentality develops.
I've no
doubt that the good, experienced foresters in DCR want the kinds
of
high-value trees that come when a forest is left to grow for a
sufficient time period to produce high quality saw logs.
However, going
beyond the talking and planning stage, convincing the other
players
within the timber community may prove a difficult task unless
the
doubters can be shown what outstanding regeneration looks like.
Smith
Brook may serve us best as a demonstration site to reflect what
natural
regeneration achieves from 50 to 100 years and in some cases up
to 150
years. I remember an outing I conducted for the Forest Stewards
Guild a
few years ago in a that had been growing back for 100 years in
MTSF. The
foresters who accompanied me were mightily impressed. One said
it was
the best oak regeneration that he had ever seen in
Massachusetts. That
was quite a testamonial.
The point of just how
important Smith Brook might prove came home
to me on the last white ash that Howard and I measured (115.6,
6.8). It
is a real beauty. It branches at 66.7 feet above its base and
its full,
healthy crown suggests that it has a lot of growth left in it.
This ash
will be the kind of tree that I will use my dendrometer on to
calculate
volume when the instrument arrives. The cirumference at 2 feet
above
base is probably between 7.5 and 8.0 feet, which brings up a
point.
The mentality of the average
logger in western Massachusetts is
that an ash such as I've just described should be cut when no
more than
14 to 18 inches dbh. As a group, loggers have convinced one
another that
forests degenerate economically if left to grow to larger size.
But as
rapidly as species like white ash and white pine grow, cutting
so soon
would be an insult to the productivity of these noble species.
It is my
observation that forest-grown ash on good sites in the
Berkshire-Taconic
region of western Massachusetts maintain rapid growth until
reaching
circumferences of 7.5 to 8.0 feet and heights of 115 to 130
feet. A
small percentage of trees sustain rapid growth up to 9 feet in
circumference and 140 feet in height. A few super sites have a
number
of white ash that maintain good growth in the upper ranges. A
managed
forest with trees of the great height and girth would appear far
differenly from the often scrubby, spindly woodlands that are
passed off
as examples of well-managed woodlots. I've had to bite my tongue
more
than once when such places were shown to me by proud owners who
seemed
not to have a clue as to what the trees in their woods were
capable of
reaching. This often was a consequence of them listening to the
dubious
adviced of loggers. For a time, the lack of understanding of
landowner
about the potential of their woods and their reliance on advice
from
loggers, as opposed to experienced foresters, caused me to enter
into an
informal, but complicated, partnership with several private
consulting
foresters who weren't at all timid about placing blame where it
belonged
for the lousy condition of most private forests. However, two of
the
most vocal consultants had personal axes to grind to the
detriment of
the legitimate causes they pursued. They constantly weakened
their case
by personalizing their criticisms. This forced me to have to
separate
myself from their message. What I saw Saturday caused me to
think about
legitimate roles for the oak-ash forests in Smith Brook to the
mutual
benefit of several causes.
The tall white ash and
broad-crowned oaks trees of Smith Brook may
provide us with one of the best control groups to illustrate
what we can
expect of natural regeneration over a span of 60 to 100 years.
Folks,
Smith Brook harbors one gorgeous forest and I hope to make it
the
destination of a field trip in mid-October, more specifically,
Oct 15th
or 16th.
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
|
| Re:
Smith Brook |
John
Eichholz |
|
Jul
05, 2005 07:04 PDT |
Bob:
I don't want to wait until I wade through the gazillion ENTS
email that
have arrived since I last checked to answer this one. This is an
amazing
discovery. Your hypothesis about the exemplary growing
conditions in the
Deerfield Valley is certainly proving itself. It is bugging me,
though,
whether the more accessible regions to the south and east could
have
produced such growth without the constant hammering they seem to
be
subject to. It seems that only old growth control studies are
capable of
demonstrating the effects of many short term rotations on forest
growth
rate, soil structure and the genetic pool.
The story of the white ash is particularly telling. Certainly it
should
be obvious that a 14" white ash is going to be less
valuable than a 40"
white ash, which also has another 16' log at the top. It is also
likely
that some (not all) landowners are in a financial position to
survive
the delay in harvest. We need to get the story out to those
landowners,
and perhaps the popular media and projects like the ENTS book
are the
way to do it. I have my own idea about the mechanism to assure
short and
medium term landowners of a reasonable return on their
investment
without liquidating the forest. The idea is simply to quantify
the
existing stock and the growth potential of that stock, using
ENTS
research and methods, and to allow that analysis to increase the
resale
value of the land as it matures. I am sure I am missing several
important facets of the story, but that is not the point. We
need to
develop the story in such a way that we can capture the
imagination of
the concerned landowner, and give them a new insight into the
processes
occurring in their forests. We may have to sow a few ideas as
seeds, but
with enlightenment will come the vast calculating power of the
economic
markets, and perhaps a few unthought of but brilliant strategies
for
preserving our forest legacies through longer rotations.
I have the October 15-16 weekend on my calendar. Your
description of
summer measuring conditions reminded me of why I stick to
gardening in
the summer.
John
p.s. I hope you tell the story of the red maple invasion soon.
|
| RE:
Smith Brook |
Robert
Leverett |
| Jul
05, 2005 09:42 PDT |
John:
I now believe that excellent growing conditions exist over large
areas
of the Deerfield River Valley to include not just the gorge
portions
that we stufy, but the wider flood plain areas such as on the
outskirts
of Charlemont. Over-cutting is pervasive on private lands and
has been
for years. When you see the n. red oak forest on the
south-facing slopes
of lower Smith Brook and the slopes that face directly to the
Deerfield
between Smith Brook and the Bear Swamp Nature Center, I think
you are
going to be most pleased. There is definitely a story to be told
to at
least some land owners and it looks like we are presently in the
best
position to tell it, albeit with help from a few outsiders.
...
Bob
|
| Another
Smith Brook Foray |
Robert
Leverett |
| Jul
11, 2005 11:47 PDT |
ENTS:
Sunday saw John Knuerr and me in the northern
Berkshires. We climbed
a steep, southwest-facing slope from near the mouth of Smith
Brook in
Monroe State Forest. We climbed up into a gently sloping area
that was
an old field in the 1800 and early 1900s and maybe up into the
1930s.
Frequent rock piles signal past stone clearing efforts - a
monumental
task. A 1980s clear cut is located at the lower eastern end of
the field
and dips to the edge of the steep slope zone that drops to
either Smith
Brook to the southwest or the Deerfield River directly to the
south. My
son Rob and I visited the clear cut in the late 1980s when it
was still
head-high shrubs. It is now an unsightly tangle of red, sugar
maple, and
stripped maple and birch saplings and holds little of the memory
of a
once handsome forest dominated by N. red oak, A. beech, sugar
maple, and
hemlock with clusters of white ash in the drainages.
John and I were on a mission. We are working
in a volunteer capacity
with DCR on the state's proposed system of new forest reserves
and
management areas. We are presently in an extensive data
gathering phase.
On Sunday, we established a transect running approximately 1900
linear
feet, gaining 850 feet elevation, and crossing four forest
zones. The
lowest zone starts at 950 feet elevation and runs to about 1100.
It is
populated with 20 to 40-year old regeneration dominated by red
maple and
black and yellow birch. A small number of black cherry can be
found and
some white ash. Beyond tree age, the scattering of pioneer
species
signals that this zone is at a very early succesional stage. The
canopy
is around 90 feet. The rich, well-watered growing conditions has
facilitated rapid regeneration, but overall the forest is
unimpressive
compared to what is around it. Plant communities are very young
and
poorly established.
At around 1100 feet elevation you reach a zone
of white ash, red oak,
and sugar maple that is truly impressive and holds potential for
becoming one of the bands of super forests that the Deerfield
River
gorge has shown itself capable of producing. At about 1150 feet
elevation, John and I encountered a cluster of very tall ash
trees. The
canopy within the confines of the grove is so dense that
accurate
measurement for all but a handful of trees is impossible. On our
return
trip from the upper elevations, we did succeed in measuring an
ash at
8.0 feet in circumference and 134.8 feet in height. The tree has
a lot
of growing left to do as does its neighbors that are probably in
the low
to mid-120s. The tree is the new ash champion of Monroe State
Forest and
becomes the 5th 130-footer in Monroe. There are two in the
Dunbar Brook
drainage (neither of which have I been able to relocate), two in
the
Smith Brook drainage, and one in the Fife Brook drainage. I'm
sure there
are others and am hopeful that Will Blozan's eagle eye will spot
some
in October.
Our return trip also netted us a gorgeous
bigtooth aspen at (103.7,
7.4). There are a few promising yellow birches that need to be
measured,
but none that will add to the list of 100-footers.
Most of the time we spent taking fixes on
basal area, slope %,
species composition, and altitude along the 1900-foot transect.
This and
the two previous trips to Smith Brook confirm that a zone exists
from
1,250 feet to 1,675 that is dominated by N. red oak and Amercian
beech
occassional clusters of sugar maple and white ash. The forest is
between
120 and 170 years old. The aspect is southwest to south.
The upper 500 linear feet of our transect
penetrates what was an old
field. An adjacent clear cut zone to the south is very apparent.
Diseased beech and abundant red maple regeneration dominate the
old
field zone. Seeing the decrepit forest reminded me of the
comments of a
past consulting forester member of this list when he talked
about Monroe
State Forest as though the entire forest was in sad shape and in
need of
intervention by the state, presumably with management contracts
awarded
to consultants such as himself. I suppose he was looking at the
upland
areas of MSF which are almost all areas of over-cutting. Those
areas
have a story to tell.
One need only look at the slopes to see
a far superior forest and I
do mean far superior. There are lessons that I doubt will ever
be
particularly obvious to the school that believes all forests are
made
better by frequent cutting. Fast growing conifer forests on
relatively
level land may fit the model sufficiently well, but slow-growing
upland
forests and forests on steep slopes are different animals. They
take
longer to recover and need to retain a good component of large
seed
trees to both hold soil and maintain the good genetic stock.
It is no small observation to make
that the 120 - 170-year old
forests above Smith Brook far surpass any of the heavily managed
forests
that I've seen regardless of who the forester was/is. Bear in
mind that
the Smith Brook N. red oak forests aren't primary old growth. So
this is
not a comparison of original growth to regrowth. The Smith Brook
forests
are very mature second growth with small patches of original
growth at
the base of ledges. However, I feel confident that these
handsome
mid-slope forests grew back from old growth. The absence of
coppicing
confirms that young regrowth oaks were not the source of the
first
cutting, however extensive or limited, i.e. there is not a
history of
repeated cutting. By contrast, the upland forests are another
story.
They've suffered mightly at human hands, which raises an
important
question - fundamentally important.
It isn't clear to me how often the
Berkshire forests can be cut or
how much volume can be periodically removed and still be
productive and
attractive. On rare occasion I see a landowner that seems to be
doing it
right. But what is painfully clear is that most of the junk
forests I
see in the Berkshires are woodlands that have been hammered
repeatedly
by the local landowners and timber producers as opposed to
forests that
have been left alone for 120 or more years. Both groups,
landowners and
timber producers, are slow learners.
Smith Brook's oak-dominated slopes are
in no danger of future
logging provided exceptions are not made. In a renewed interest
in
income to local communities from timber harvesting, there would
be
plenty of financial incentives to extract stands of especially
valuable
timber on steep slopes. The path of Smith Brook from source to
confluence with the Deerfield River is a gentle 22% grade. An
old
logging road runs from River Road up to South Road and though in
disrepair could be repaired- specially the upper 2/3rd. The
swath of
oak, ash, and sugar maple timber that the road would provide
access to
far exceeds in volume and quality the managed oak forests that I
typically see. Consequently, a timber constituency could arise
that
would claim the Smith Brook forests along the stream corridor is
just
going to waste and at least part of it could be made accessible.
If cut,
the constituency would argue, new forests would return healthier
than
those cut. In other words, it would be typical timber community
hype,
but in the low inccome Monroe area, financial arguments can
quickly win
converts among the financially needy and the abundantly
uninformed.
Consequently, I am determined to
see that the Smith Brook slope and
toe-slope forests that will likely be included in forest
reserves, and
thus protected from logging, at least be available to yield good
silvicultural data that will help us understand the lengths of
"recuperation" that upland forests need and to what
slope % that cutting
at a light level can be done. You would imagine that forestry
would have
answered these questions in great detail and maybe forestry has
in some
regions - but not in the Berkshires. Not to my knowledge. At
least, if
the knowledge is there it isn't receiving wide circulation and
isn't
being promoted by DCR in silvicultural prescriptions to
landowners.
In terms of logging on slopes, my
feeling is to cut it off at 25% or
maybe 30%, but not the 40% that is being used to identify
automatic
reserve inclusions. BTW, the slope that John and I climbed
varies from
40% to over 80% with an average of 67%. There are some giddy
ledges to
negotiate around.
On another subject, My RD1000 came on
Friday, but Laser Tech left
out the user manual and there is nothing obvious about the
unit's
operation. I can say that the unit has a delightful feel to it -
well
designed ergonomically. I can't wait to operate it. Needless to
say I
was disappointed at the delay and will have to wait until Laser
Tech
sends me the manual or I get an electronic version- then it is
Katie bar
the door.
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
|
| Re:
Another Smith Brook Foray |
Don
Bertolette |
| Jul
11, 2005 19:27 PDT |
Bob-
From a ecological restorationist's perspective, your transect
crossed the
threshold of resilience that the original old-growth stand could
bring to
bear against the impact of man's increasing technology (and
decreasing
restraint)...
-Don
|
| Re:
Another Smith Brook Foray |
Fores-@aol.com |
| Jul
11, 2005 22:55 PDT |
Bob:
In looking at your mentions on the steepness of slopes for
logging, it is a
little tough here in WV were there entire counties with average
slopes that
exceed 50% and a few where over half the land is 70% or steeper.
I think steepness is often a function of the size of the
landscape that is
being considered and I think that in New England where
everything has been
glaciated there are practical considerations associated with
hard smooth bedrock
close to the surface on such steep slopes and the combination of
erosion and
water problems that can occur.
Oh how I hate walking on slopes so steep that you get the
willies if you
pause for a while and forget you are standing on ground so steep
that any
equipment you drop will bounce hundreds of feet before it
stops...these are the
conditions where you really appreciate the value of an ancient
tip up mound.
Russ Richardson |
|