Signs of Summer 2: Whites’ Woods

Photo by D. Sillman

Last Monday Deborah and I went over to Indiana, Pennsylvania and went for a hike in a small, recreational area called Whites’ Woods. We read about the trails on a blog site (http://whiteswoodsindianapa.blogspot.com/) and were excited to go and see some new trails and scenery.

Whites’ Wood is a 250 acre recreational park situated in White Township just north of Indiana, PA. The land was once owned by a railroad company (Pennsylvania Railroad?) and then in the 1950’s was sold to a real estate company (that was owned by someone named “White,” I think). Finally, in the 1960’s this 250 acre piece of land was donated by the White heirs to the township for use as a recreational park.

Whites’ Woods is a publicly owned land resource that has been beset over its 50 plus years of existence by many of the problems facing much larger, more resource rich sites throughout the United States. Competing and often conflicting interests and goals (quiet, wooded trails for hiking vs. income from timber harvesting or natural gas development, areas set aside for wildlife vs. areas opened up for hunting, etc.) openly contend with each other for the use and fate of Whites’ Woods. Township supervisors proposed as recently as 2007 to open significant areas of White’s Woods up for logging. This proposal was resisted by a “Friends of Whites’ Woods” (FWW) organization. The initial timber removal plan was recognized as flawed by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) for both environmental and also possible legal reasons (based on the terms of the original land donation), but several areas within the woods were logged anyway

Photo by D. Sillman

The trails were broad and clear but not well marked. Blazes were few and far between and often the colors of the trail markers did not match up with the trail color code of the maps. There was, though, very little chance of getting lost in this small area (even for us!).

The trees were primarily yellow poplar, red maple, yellow birch and black cherry. The black cherry trees were in states of some age-related decay (and extensive woodpecker damage). This forest is, then, a predictable mix of sun-loving, fast growing trees that quickly grow in a site after clear cutting. Many of the poplars, strictly based on size, were between 60 and 80 years old (which would fit the recent history of the site). This could be a secondary growth forest but it is more likely to be tertiary. Heavy use of timber for building construction and for the railroad (fuel and track ties) in the early to mid Nineteenth Century probably took down first the virgin forest and then the secondary re-growth 60 or 70 years later. What we see is the probably the next re-growth stage. Interestingly, there were also some relatively large big-toothed aspens (probably 40 or 50 years old) planted in fairly regular intervals along one side of the trail. Big-toothed aspens are often planted on reclaimed or intentionally re-forested sites. They may represent some human involvement in the reforestation of Whites’ Woods..

Photo by D. Sillman

As we walked up the curving trail we came across an increasing number of red oaks growing in the “double trunk” configuration suggestive of stump sprouting following logging. I estimated that the largest red oaks, based on size, were between 80 and 100 years old.  There was also a great deal of downed wood throughout the surrounding forests. Fallen trees, broken trunks, and scattered limbs littered the spaces between the standing trees and suggested an actively re-sculpting forest that was thinning and pruning itself.

In the under-story New York fern, hay-scented fern, Christmas fern, garlic mustard and wild geranium (also called “crane’s bill”) were abundant. Along the edge of the trail were milkweed plants and small patches of multifloral rose.

Photo by D. Sillman

Off of the trail were several areas with thick stands of yellow birch and sugar maple saplings. These dense copses suggest relatively recent removal of the older, established trees and may be the sites of the 2007 logging referred to above. Throughout the poplar/birch/red maple forest there were also abundant sugar maple saplings growing. There had been some discussion on the Whites’ Woods blog about tree damage caused by excessive numbers of white-tailed deer, but our observations were that these woods are a robustly regenerating forest with a rich population of potentially long-lived sugar maples steadily growing up into the canopy.

We saw large numbers of robins noisily digging through the leaf litter, we heard (but did not see) wood thrushes all along our hike. We also heard northern flickers and saw abundant evidence of pileated woodpecker activity (large, rectangular holes in the black cherry trunks). I also saw a pair of flycatchers vigorously interacting up in the branches of some middle canopy trees.

We walked around the “Old Quarry” and then took a trail that led down a shallow, wooded ravine. The multifora rose was very abundant along the small stream that the trail followed. Maidenhair fern and interrupted fern were also along this part of the trail.

Photo by D. Sillman

Laying on the trail were several, golf ball sized, green balls that were incredibly, almost insubstantially light in weight. We opened one of them and saw that it was filled with an array of white fibers that converged on its center. These were “empty oak apple galls” made by the parasitic wasp Amphibolips quercusinanis.  The female wasp lays her eggs in the leaf buds of oak trees (usually scarlet or red oaks) and hormones associated with the eggs drive the growing tissues of the emerging leaf to make this spherical chamber for the wasp larva. Deborah put one of the galls in her pocket, but by the time we got home it had dried out and collapsed.

Photo by D. Sillman

We also saw squawroot (Conopholis americana) (also called “cancer root” or “bear cone” growing in both large and relatively small clusters all over White’s Woods. Squawroot is more common in older forests, and its presence and relative abundance in a site may be significant indicators of forest age and stability. In areas where oak forests are being replaced by secondary forests that are dominated by maples or other non-oak tree species, squawroot is an increasingly uncommon and possibly threatened plant. Here is Whites’ Woods, though, the density of red oaks seems adequate for its sustained existence.

It is not clear in the literature if squawroot seriously compromises the health of its host tree. It is likely that it, by itself, may exist in a very stable parasite host symbiosis with its much larger and longer lived host oak or beech tree. But, if other stresses combine with squawroot’s presence, the health and vitality of the host tree may be reduced.

Photo by D. Sillman

Up on the top of the Whites’ Woods hill we came across a stunning flower blooming at the top of a spindly, eight foot tall, woody trunk. Based on the extreme length of the flower stamens, we tentatively identified it as pink azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides). It is supposed to have very little fragrance, but it was too high up to check!

Photo by D. Sillman

And finally, we found a plant that we have been looking for over the past few weeks: fire pink (Silene virginica). Fire pink has a stunningly intense, five petalled, red flower and almost always grows in the crumbling soil of an eroding soil bank.  It blooms in late spring/early summer. We followed its blooming season very closely on our northward hike on the Baker Trail back in the spring of 2010. Fire pink’s flowers are long and tubular with nectaries and ova housed deep inside. Only organisms with long tongues (like hummingbirds and large butterflies) are able to reach its sweet nectar and, thus, deliver pollen to the ova. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are the principle pollinators of fire pink. June is very near if fire pink is blooming!