Two large hemlocks on the author’s property. (Photo courtesy Mary Throckmorton)
Thanks to the generosity of the Quimby Foundation and the foresight of President Obama, Maine has a new national monument: Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
I have often found myself wondering what Maine woods looked like before they were logged. Here on my property I have enormous stumps scattered throughout the woods. I have been here nearly 20 years and the stumps haven’t changed. I estimate the age of the standing trees at over 40 years, although I have a half-dozen hemlocks and one beech whose girths are at least 2 feet in diameter.
Considering the slow growth of those two species, they must be well over 100 years old, probably remnants of the original forest. When the other large trees were cut years ago, many trees grew in the open spaces. Now it is a struggle for survival of the fittest – the smaller trees getting choked out and dying, the survivors jostling for a piece of the canopy.
The author with a large beech tree on her property. (Photo courtesy Mary Throckmorton)
My place is about a half-mile down a dirt road with a house at the end, and nothing but woods between us. When I first moved here, the woods flanking the road were old. A couple of years later, they were logged fairly heavily. Then we had a microburst come through the area. The remaining trees were snapped like toothpicks. They just weren’t strong enough without the support of their neighbors.
That stretch of road turned into a clearcut.
The next spring I was sitting at my desk looking out the window, which faced in that direction. Large, puffy clouds were sailing over the house – it was a beautiful, bright and sunny day. As I watched the clouds drift by, to my astonishment they disappeared – they just evaporated.
What was going on?
The sun was heating the ground at the site of the clearcut, creating an updraft of hot, dry air. There were no trees to hold the moisture or shade the ground. When the passing clouds reached the clearcut, they disintegrated in the updraft.
This year we are experiencing a fairly severe drought. Every night I watch the news and hope the weatherman has rain in the forecast. I watch the satellite feed, and here comes a frontline of clouds from the west – but after they go over the western mountains they evaporate.
Just like the clouds that sailed over my house.
