Primal Forests - Ancient Trees
The Exploration, Preservation, Spirit, and Aesthetics of Nature
Exquisite Moments in Old New England Forests
This spring, after a challenging time of looking for good work in the worst economy imaginable, I was so very fortunate to obtain my dream job. Of all that I applied for, this was the one I wanted. I am an ecologist, and my heart and soul as well as my intellect are passionately involved in trying to save our forests in the face of endless threats. So now, I am employed as the one primarily responsible for managing the health of plants in Acadia National Park. How great is that??
The move to Maine forests is a BIG change. I've never lived in a boreal type ecosystem, nor a coastal one. The beauty of this place, Mount Desert Island, is almost unspeakable though. If you haven't been here, it IS worth a long pilgrimage. It is a different beauty, though, with dwarf wind twisted pitch pines, spruces covered in lichens, bare granite with exquisite small gardens of plants, moss and lichens, windswept vistas and tidal and salt soaked communities of life.
I fall in love with each forest, each community of non-human life I live in and with, and before I moved from my beloved southern New Hampshire area, I took time to dwell and meditate in the best, ancient forests near where I live. The photos I've posted recently are from those goodbye excursions. If you are in southern New Hampshire, just west of Concord are several preserves sporting some of the most fantastic trees of the northeast. If you want to know what the white pines must have looked like to the first Europeans (who then cut them down for shipmasts and sheep) or what primeval hemlocks look like, then visit the Bradford Pines (in the town of Bradford) and the nearby Fox Forest near Hillsborough. From the photos you'll get a sense. These are all friends I've left behind. The beech tree is a spectacular tree, the likes of which we may never see again due to the beech bark scale disease (I will share more on these plagues later).
The move to Maine forests is a BIG change. I've never lived in a boreal type ecosystem, nor a coastal one. The beauty of this place, Mount Desert Island, is almost unspeakable though. If you haven't been here, it IS worth a long pilgrimage. It is a different beauty, though, with dwarf wind twisted pitch pines, spruces covered in lichens, bare granite with exquisite small gardens of plants, moss and lichens, windswept vistas and tidal and salt soaked communities of life.
I fall in love with each forest, each community of non-human life I live in and with, and before I moved from my beloved southern New Hampshire area, I took time to dwell and meditate in the best, ancient forests near where I live. The photos I've posted recently are from those goodbye excursions. If you are in southern New Hampshire, just west of Concord are several preserves sporting some of the most fantastic trees of the northeast. If you want to know what the white pines must have looked like to the first Europeans (who then cut them down for shipmasts and sheep) or what primeval hemlocks look like, then visit the Bradford Pines (in the town of Bradford) and the nearby Fox Forest near Hillsborough. From the photos you'll get a sense. These are all friends I've left behind. The beech tree is a spectacular tree, the likes of which we may never see again due to the beech bark scale disease (I will share more on these plagues later).
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2 Comments
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Comment by Aleta M. on May 19, 2009 at 5:23pm - Yes! I just recently started exploring it. I will post photos and write about it here soon. There are the largest hemlocks I've seen thus far in northern New England on the island, in fact.
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Comment by Kouta Räsänen on May 19, 2009 at 7:06am -
Congratulations! Is there old-growth in Acadia N.P.?
Kouta
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