| Delaware
Water Gap, PA |
edward
coyle |
| Dec
31, 2004 09:24 PST |
Hi All, Happy New Year!
I stopped at the part of the Appalachian Trail that goes through
the
Delaware Water Gap, Pa. on my way back from seeing a friend off
to Iraq. The
trees were mostly unimpressive for the short distance I traveled
with a few
exceptions, a (almost certain) Swamp White Oak 105.9' @ cbh
183.5", and a
Chestnut Oak 102.1' @ cbh 163.5". These, and a few others
in the immediate
vicinity, greatly outshone the other trees encountered.
I don't know the history of the area yet, but it appears that
there are many
old trees growing along this trail. They grow on thin soil over
rock. It
appears rich and fairly moist. The trees above are crowded and
appear
stable. The ones on the talus are younger and subject to
failure.
One oak (chestnut?), cut off the trail, had growth rings from
14-25 per inch.
The Hemlocks are infested and fading into see through canopies.
Sprouts down
to one foot tall are affected. Hemlock might make up 10% of the
tree cover
here.
Some random trees from the area.
Hemlock 93.1'@cbh 95.5"
Tulip 115.2'@ cbh 98.5"
Red Oak 103.1'@ cbh 93"
Sugar Maple 100.2@ cbh 82"
I will visit again, with more time, for a better look this
winter.
Ed |
| Delaware
Water Gap Image |
Edward
Frank |
| Jan
12, 2005 14:50 PST |
There is a nice satellite image of the Deleware Water Gap at
this address
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16785
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a National Park
on the
border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The park runs roughly 40
miles along
the Delaware River and the Appalachian Mountains, which are
immediately
adjacent to the river. At its southern end, the river cuts
through the
Appalachian Range to continue south and east to Philadelphia.
This natural
water gap cut by the river now also serves as a passage through
the
mountains for Interstate 80, which runs from New York City just
90 miles
away, across the U.S. to San Francisco.
This image shows the Delaware River running diagonally from
northeast (top
right) to southwest across the image, taking a sharp turn to
form the
actual water gap at the park’s southern end. The town of Port
Jervis lies
just above the northern end of the park. The southern end of the
park is
just beyond the gap through the Appalachians, where Interstate
80 runs
immediately beside the river.
The park was created in 1965, under the original name of Tocks
Island
National Recreation Area, to support recreational use of area.
The Army
Corp of Engineers was to place a dam across the river to create
a
37-mile-long lake holding nearly 250 billion gallons of water.
However, the
dam and many of the additional water-management contruction
projects were
ultimately abandoned in the face of public opposition and cost
overruns.
Congress de-authorized the project in 1992, though the National
Recreation
Area around the original reservoir site has been retained.
The park provides natural shelter for a wide variety of plant
and animal
life in the shade of its forested hills, and in the waters of
its glacial
lakes. This includes many beautiful song birds, eagles, and
turkey
vultures. The heavily cracked rocks provide shelter and
wintering quarters
for a variety of snakes. Other wildlife well-known in the area
includes
black bears and less welcome guests, such as the hemlock wooly
adelgid (a
pest which is destroying the park's hemlock tree stands) and
gypsy moths (a
foreign pest with no native biological controls that denudes
forests of
their leaf cover).
The park also includes a number of cultural resources such as
archaeological remains of Native American settlements in the
area from
prehistorical and colonial times, fortifications in the area
from the
French and Indian War (1753-1760), as well as evidence of the
area’s use as
farming and mining land in the 19th century. The Appalachian
Trail threads
through the length of the park, and the park’s proximity to
such major
cities of New York and Philadelphia makes it a popular getaway
nature
experience.
This natural-colour image was collected by the Landsat 7
satellite's
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument on September 23,
1999.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data
obtained
from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility.
GIS overlay
data was provided by Eric Brown de Colstoun, Landsat Project
Science Office. |
| Delaware
Water Gap |
Dale
J. Luthringer |
| May
05, 2005 22:37 PDT |
Bob,
On 4/29/05 I was to meet with a state park contact to explore
old growth
along the Delaware Water Gap drainage. Regretfully, our paths
did not
meet so I spent the day on part of a hogback on the Deleware
River
floodplain. I wasn't in old growth, but did find a nice example
of
floodplain trees.
This site is located along the first unnamed access road heading
east
from the main headquarters building. The road heads off to the
left
(north) at the base of a steep hill and sharp right hand curve
in the
road. The area was dominated by tuliptree, sycamore, silver
maple,
black walnut, hackberry, and slippery elm with some scattered
Eastern
red cedars. The cedars and hackberry really caught my attention.
It's
the first time I've measured naturally growing cedars in PA. The
day's
tally follows:
Species CBH Height Comments
Black walnut 6.2 109.3
E. red cedar 1.9 39.7
E. red cedar 4.9 50
E. red cedar 5 62.5 tallest
recorded in East? as per
web listing, we have very little data on this tree.
Will,
Bob, Lee, Jess,
John-what do you folks see for these trees?
Hackberry 4.6 87.9
Silver maple 9.4 110.1
Sycamore N/A 118.2
Tuliptree 8.3 120.8
Tuliptree N/A 125.1
Tuliptree N/A 132.7
Tuliptree N/A 138.4
White ash 11.8 105.4
It sure was nice to get into some Eastern PA floodplain species.
Those
cedars really made the trip. Some appeared to have some decent
age to
them.
Dale
|
| Re:
Delaware Water Gap (cedar) |
Jess
Riddle |
| May
06, 2005 06:52 PDT |
Eastern
red cedar may be a shorter lived but longer lived species in the
southeast. They grow well around the edges of piedmont
floodplains in SC
where I've measured them up to 4'9" x 80.7'. Rocky,
limestone slopes at
the edge of the Cumberland Plateau in the northwest corner of
Georgia also
produce good habitat for the species. On those sites, they still
associate with some typically floodplain species, such as green
ash and
shumard oak, and reach at least 6'0" x 84.3'.
Jess |
| RE:
Delaware Water Gap (cedar) |
Dale
J. Luthringer |
| May
09, 2005 19:03 PDT |
Thanks
Jess,
Most of the ones I saw where not in wetland soils. Most were on
a
slope, just above the "wet zone". Darned if I can't
remember the fancy
name for that zone. it's on the tip of my tongue, but just can't
spit it
out.
I suspect some of the cedar groves in New Jersey Pine Barrens
should go
to the 80ft class.
Dale
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