Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - 53
The Naturalist’s Eye
By Marcia Bonta
Old trees in an old forest have other uses, too. They often
provide cavities for a variety of birds and animals to use
for nesting and shelter.
Elder Trees
O
N A HOT July day, I sit beneath
a large red oak, nestled into a
deep buttress, one of several that flare
out from this 200-yearold tree. The ground
beneath the tree is littered with old acorn
remnants, as are the
bases of the other elders
in this stand of deciduous trees.
Protected as a picnic spot by the previous
owners, the trees were
allowed to prosper even
as other portions of our
property were cut over in
the nineteenth and even
the twentieth centuries. Instead of fencing a young forest, such as that last 120-acre
cutover piece we acquired back
in the 1990s, we put up our three-acre
deer exclosure in March 2001 around
these mature trees.
Now, as I gaze around, I see dozens of
oak seedlings and saplings filling in the
forest floor. Most are red oaks, but some
are offspring of the enormous white oak
JULY 2013
beside the exclosure gate.
Technically, this is not an oldgrowth forest but one that is becoming old-growth. Still, it and much of
the rest of our property is an aging
forest. Not long ago,
old trees were seen
as useless and were
harvested so that
young trees would
grow in their place.
But in the last few
decades scientists have
been discovering that
old trees in an old forest
are incredible absorbers of carbon dioxide.
And red oaks, with
their dense wood, are
particularly good at absorbing
impressive amounts of carbon.
One study, in Massachusetts’ Harvard Forest, found that at 50 years of
age, their trees, both oak and maple,
were absorbing 0.8 tons of carbon per
acre every year. After 15 years, the rate
of carbon uptake had doubled. Researchers studying old-growth forests in
the West discovered that those forests,
53
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - 1
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - 2
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Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - 64a
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - 64b
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2013 - Cover4
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