trees – Black and White

pinus palustris

tree from above — long leaf pine

black dog road

black dog road — Road less traveled? The narrow road? The broad road? No no! Take the Black dog Road.

Castanea dentata

chestnut snag — This snag, or dead tree, has been standing since it was killed by the chestnut blight that moved through Pennsylvania by the early 1920’s.
Wildlife, such as turkey, bear, deer and squirrels depended on this tree for food. It was a very fast growing tree. The largest American chestnut tree ever recorded before felling was 54 feet in circumference (approximately 17 feet in diameter).

“You teach me, I forget. You show me, I remember. You involve me, I understand” ~E.O. “Ed” Wilson, 1929-2021

Crossing Toms Run

41.335336, -79.211131 — Cook Forest

root plate

big tree blown horizontal — Blowing down a big tree, the force required to break the grip of a root plate is immense. A tall tree’s stem is a huge lever with branches that offer commodious sail area. Come a powerful wind, the tree is laid down. In time, we all fall down.

walking in the woods

the girls — Matilda, Robin, Eva. Memory walk. If you turn over enough stones you will find something somewhere.
https://www.billemory.com/dillard/dillard.html

Anna and Eugene

bokeh — I am so pleased to be in the woods this time of year.

Europeans and their plants

smith lane gauntlet — English ivy, english privet, tree of heaven, japanese honeysuckle. Native plants displaced.

military woods — This is an artificial landscape, triangular planting of trees, 99% resident in the Tidewater. Waiting for the canopy to close then will work on understory…

Matilda and the Bur oak branch

dog and q macrocarpa — in the field of 100 oaks

differential emergence

bare bur oak — Microclimate, soil, genetics, on board afflictions. This Bur oak has yet to leaf out.

Fifty feet away is another individual who has had a flush of growth, producing new stems replete with leaves. Nature is an enduring mystery.