Adirondack Forests Changing

[aft paddle]

https://www.esf.edu/communications/n...ronforests.pdf

I found this interesting article on Adirondack forests posted in the Hunting and Fishing section by Bioguide. I thought it may reach more members by reposting in the General Discussion.

[JohnnyVirgil]

Originally Posted by aft paddle

https://www.esf.edu/communications/n...ronforests.pdf

I found this interesting article on Adirondack forests posted in the Hunting and Fishing section by Bioguide. I thought it may reach more members by reposting in the General Discussion.

The article is from 2002. I wonder if 16 years is enough to see if the prediction was true.

[Loopin for the Lama]

Really great read for this city-boy transplanted to Vermont. Thanks for posting.

[attrail]

Seems to me that the Beech Brush Theory is coming to pass. I have not taken enough of an interest to document this kind of thing, but I recall seeing large dense swaths of beech thicket in the Whitney Wilderness, the Ha-De-Ron-Dah and in the High Peaks around Noonmark. In Western New York, the DEC has used herbicides to control beech explosions in several forests, including: Boutwell Hill State Forest, Hill Higher State Forest and North Harmony State Forest.

[TCD]

Around Noonmark the Beech may have been helped along by the 1999 fire, which created a large area of newly available habitat for whatever was ready to colonize it the most quickly.

[attrail]

Originally Posted by TCD

Around Noonmark the Beech may have been helped along by the 1999 fire, which created a large area of newly available habitat for whatever was ready to colonize it the most quickly.

Yup -- that was my surmise, but it has been nearly 20 years and just about the only things growing in that area are small beech trees. Seems like they have choked out all but the most hardy conifers.

[TCD]

I know, that's a might thick thicket. I used to like to bushwhack out the west ridge of Noonmark over to the Bear Den trail and then back down Gravestone, but that thicket is kind of in the way now.

At the same time, 20 years is not really a long time for forests. I think forest succession takes a lot longer than that, and will happen after we are all no longer bushwhacking...

[rickhart]

I was last on the burn side of Noonmark several years ago, but I remember the thickets as being aspen or poplar, not beech. I'm not sure, but I have one photo (not focused on the thicket but the view) and it looks more like aspen to me. I'll try to attach it, probably w/o luck. Aspen or birch would be much more likely early-succession after fire species.

But yes, the beech situation is very sad. Interesting article.

(I give up on the photo. I've cropped it 4 times, until it's a tiny part of the original and hardly useful, and the forum still says it's too big.)