What Does A Mature Forest Look Like?

[Music] greetings everyone I'm Adam heritton welcome to the beautiful Woods of Pennsylvania today I'm spending time in a really special place and I'm excited to share it with you so I'm hanging out in a small patch of what's considered to be a mature Forest now maybe you're thinking what is a mature Forest how is a mature Forest any different than an old growth forest is it different or is it the same thing these are all good questions and I like these kinds of questions because when we ask these questions we begin to think about the landscape on a more intimate level now I understand that spending time in a forest just for the heck of it is a wonderful thing to do and there is a time in place for zoning out and being lost in our thoughts and not really thinking too hard about what's going on around us but it's probably no surprise for you to hear this I am a bigger fan of being engaged with our surroundings paying attention to what's going on around us being incredibly curious I and asking lots of questions about what we are seeing and hearing that's why I think it is important to understand what a mature Forest looks like because when we understand we increase our knowledge of the land which subsequently strengthens our connection to Nature so the forest that I'm currently spending time in is what's known as a beach Maple Forest Beach and maple are dominant canopy trees in this ecosystem but they are not the only trees in this ecosystem and in a few minutes I will talk about another dominant tree growing here mature is the key word that I used to describe this Forest as you take a look around you can already start to get a sense of what a mature Forest looks like now it's not quite old growth instead it's the transitional stage between a young forest and an old growth forest most of the oldest trees in this Forest are about 100 to 150 years old Which is less than half of the maximum lifespan of many of the trees now if the trees in this Forest were at least 200 to 250 300 350 years old then we could start to entertain the notion that this ecosystem might be an old growth forest so even though this mature Beach Maple Forest isn't quite old growth it shares many features with an old growth forest like an old growth forest this Forest has lots of living trees that are large both in height and in girth it has large standing snags and large Fallen trees on the forest floor and it has multiple canopy layers all of these features are more like those of an old growth forest than they are like those of a young forest in a classically defined Beach Maple Forest American Beach is usually the most abundant dominant canopy tree and as I take a look around here that's certainly true in this particular patch of woods but as you get further out that way Beach becomes less and less common and it's almost non-existent a couple acres that way but around here looks like American Beach is doing pretty well now American Beach is a slow growing shade tolerant tree and it takes a long time for American Beach to reach a size like this and most of the saplings and younger trees that you see around me like this one right here is American Beach and it's growing very slowly in the understory but if a gap opens up in the canopy and light comes through and hits this tree this tree will start to grow much more rapidly now it wouldn't be a beach Maple Forest without Maple but we're not talking about any old Maple we're not talking about Silver Maple or Mountain Maple or striped maple or even box elder we're talking about this Maple right here you know which Maple this is well this is sugar maple Acer sacrum and it's pretty common in the canopy of this particular patch of land but American Beach is probably a bit more prolific like American Beach sugar maple is a slow growing shade to holler in the tree so this tree took a long time in order to reach this size and a lot of the younger trees and saplings right around here belong to sugar maple but unlike American Beach sugar maple and this is a difference between the two trees sugar maple can grow more rapidly than American Beach when sunlight is able to reach the forest floor so if a tree falls down and a gap has opened up in the canopy and sunlight is able to come through there's a sapling of American Beach and a sapling of sugar maple sugar maple can grow more rapidly than American Beach a few moments ago I mentioned that there was another tree that shares the canopy with American Beach and sugar maple this is the tree that I was referring to so which tree is this well in my opinion the bark of this tree is fairly distinctive so this is one of the easier trees to positively identify the bark has this burnt potato chip flaky look to it it's quite dark in color this is black cherry now black cherry grows more quickly than American beach in sugar maple but it's less shade tolerant so it can do okay in the under story but it really likes a lot of light in order to thrive and I can tell that that's the case in this particular patch of land because most of the understory trees if not nearly every single one they belong to Sugar Maple and American Beach I've seen very very very few black cherry saplings or young trees in this particular patch of land but that all changes when we go that way I mentioned a few moments ago that as we go that way a couple acres that way fewer and fewer American beach trees exist but black cherry is very common over there and that tells me that perhaps there was some large scale disturbance event whether that would be logging or blowdowns caused by strong winds that took place over there that opened up the forest and allowed a lot of light to come through giving black cherry a chance to thrive now before we wrap up I want to mention two more trees including this one right here this is one of the biggest trees in the beach Maple Forest now there aren't a lot of them in the street RCT Beach Maple mature Forest around here that's another one over there smaller size but I wanted to stand next to the big one so which tree is this well this is tulip tree or tulip popler and it's a fast growing tree again not a lot of them around here but over there where the forest had been cleared decades ago due to some kind of disturbance event where the black cherries are thriving no surprise tulip trees are thriving over there as well because they like a lot of sunlight okay so this is the tree we will end with it's probably the largest tree I've seen all day it's so large that I have to kneel down in order to get it in the shot so this tree is not as common as American Beach and sugar maple and black cherry in this beach Maple Forest but it's not uncommon there's quite a few not necessarily this big but there are quite a few of them this is not as common as tulip tree though in this particular ecosystem so which tree is this well this is Northern red oak and Northern red oak really likes to grow in mezic Woodlands and this beach Maple Forest is a mesic woodland meaning the soil contains a moderate amount of moisture it's not very dry like you would find on a dry ridget toop where Chestnut Oak and Pitch Pine would be growing and the soil doesn't get flooded or saturated like you might find in a bottomland forest where Eastern Cottonwood and American Sycamore would be growing instead there's a moderate amount of moisture it's well drained in trees like northern red oak and American Beach and sugar maple and black cherry and tulip tree they all like to grow in these particular habitats now of course we don't necessarily need to know any of that information in order to enjoy ourselves in a forest some days it's fine to think about none of that at all but today is not that day today I think it is important to ask questions questions like what is a mature Forest what kind of mature Forest is this what trees are we likely to find here what trees are we not likely to find here what tree is this and why is this tree here when we ask those kinds of questions we might not always receive answers or the right answers but at least our questioning Keeps Us alert and connected to a particular place like this place right here in a very special way and the next time you visit a forest whether that's a young mature older or old growth forest I strongly encourage you to remain engaged by being curious and asking lots of questions thank you so much for watching this video I truly appreciate it if you enjoyed it I encourage you to subscribe to the learn yourland YouTube channel and to head on over to learny your land.com and sign up for the email newsletter so that we can stay in touch thank you again for watching I will see you on the next [Music] [Applause] [Music] video

Channel: Learn Your Land

Views: 27,909

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Id: a_IVRQ8NlUU

Length: 8min 56sec (536 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2024