CFA NEWS FALL 2019 VOL 37, No. 4 A PUBLICATION OF THE CATSKILL FOREST ASSOCIATION, INC. Mushroom Woods Walk w/ Catskill Fungi September 28, 10 am - 12 pm | Rider Hollow Road Trailhead, Rider Hollow Rd, Arkville, NY 12406 CFA’s Annual Membership Meeting October 12th, 10 am - 2 pm | Pine Hill Community Center, 287 Main St, Pine Hill, NY 12465 Deer Processing Workshop December 7th, 10 am - 12 pm | CFA Office, 43469 NY-28, Arkville, NY 12406 Wreath-Making Workshop December 7th, 1 pm - 3 pm | CFA Office, 43469 NY-28, Arkville, NY 12406 Call (845) 586-3054 to register or sign up online at catskillforest.org CFAFALL NEWS2019 Vol 37, No. 4 EDITOR Daria Chadwick BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mike Porter President, Margaretville Robert Bishop II Vice Pres., DeLancey Stephen Miller Vice Pres., Margaretville John Lynch Secretary Treasurer, Delhi Sue Doig, Andes From the Paul Krickhahn, Roxbury Mark Kugler, Halcott Center Director of Norm Maender, Margaretville David Northcutt, Margaretville Forest Services Bonnie Seegmiller, Downsville ryan trapani Frank Winkler, Andes DEC LIASON FALL PLANTING Mike Callan, Region 3, New Paltz You’ve heard the saying before: “The glass is either half-empty or STAFF RESOURCES Ryan Trapani half-full.” In any case, it’s about being Director of Forest Services optimistic or pessimistic. Labor Day John MacNaught weekend is kind of like that. For Forest Program Manager some, it marks the regretful end to a Patrick Dolan Education Forester summer’s vacation and re-awakening Daria Chadwick of old man winter from his sleep. Marketing & Outreach Manager To others, it marks the beginning of Kathy Fox Office Administrator fall; the harvest season of both fruit (apples, pears, etc.), big game hunting, CONTACT and reprieve from summer’s tropical Catskill Forest Association, Inc. brutality. While fall demarcates the 43469 State Highway 28 beginning of leaf senescence or die-off PO Box 336, Arkville, NY 12406 Phone: (845) 586-3054 before winter’s dormancy, it can also Fax: (845) 586-4071 mark the beginning of future life. For [email protected] instance, I’ve come to prefer fall for tree www.catskillforest.org planting and here’s why. First, summer can be used to plan Welcome, places for fall planting. If you have a few trees you want to install, kill New the grass during the summer. Grass competes heavily with young and Members! tender tree roots, especially locations that have been a hay-field or lawn for Hanne Ghijsen decades. You can use chemicals for Harriet Irgang larger areas, or if it’s just for a few Adam Pollock trees, I place a heavy rubber mat or Lauren Cohn tarp over the area to be planted. When Claudia Slovinsky fall arrives, I simply plant the tree and William Scullion mulch afterwards. If you’ve failed to John Petrera plan ahead, then cut the grass on the Michael Shay lowest setting and mulch the area on Annina Lavee the day you plant; Mulch about four inches deep but leave some space Andrew Fritsch surrounding the stem or trunk for air- Michael Kinsley space. You can also add a metal screen Harriet Tamen around the tree’s base to ward away Christian Turek hungry voles which can eat the bark Chelsea Culp under winter’s snowy cover. As you Jim Moss might imagine, a fence to ward off deer Peter Politi is a necessity. Dale Burcalow Second, fall normally represents Kathleen Standard a return to more moist soils. Since trees are transpiring less due to leaf- Bob Hart drop, more moisture is available in Arkville Bread & Breakfast the ground to keep roots adequately Alessandro Rafanelli quenched. The soil should be tested George Fleszar periodically to ensure adequate soil Nachshon Peleg moisture, but mulching helps to Mike Lacika moderate moisture levels. Joshua King Third, there are plenty of “deals and Keith Bloomgarden steals” from local nurseries seeking to David Johnson off-load their tree and shrub inventory from summer. Of course, some of these Bill Siegrist trees weren’t sold because they are Jorge Rodriguez “ugly”, but some are still good. Check Ann Sparanese each tree’s roots, stem and branch- John Maelia pattern for adequate root mass, vigor Bjorn Boyer and form. It’s not unusual to find trees Eva Figueroa more than 30% off during the fall. CFA’s ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING Saturday, October 12th | 10:00 am - 2:30 pm Pine Hill Community Center 287 Main St, Pine Hill NY 12465 Refreshments & Lunch will be served Door Prizes / New Program Introduction RSVP: By returned invitiation Visit www.catskillforest.org Call (845) 586-3054 Andrew Avery Fourth, it seems less is growing or Michael Augenbraun competing with your newly planted Peter Neumann tree at this time of year. For instance, Ryan Staake grass isn’t growing as vigorously due to cooler nights and shorter days; That Peggy Chapman much less to for your roots to fight with Mina Mauerstein for water and nutrients. Carl Merena Fifth, is about familiarizing your Lydia Rosa roots to their new home. I don’t have Richard Tokatyan much data on this, but read awhile Christine Johnson ago in the International Society of Guy Smit Arboriculture’s – Arborist News – that Eleanor Rago tree roots continue to grow into late Joan McCoy fall/early winter or as long as the soil isn’t frozen, despite the lack of Karen Saminski leaves. In this way, perhaps fall gives Michael Morgenfruh young roots a better chance to “make Andrea De Vos themselves a home” in its new spot Luke Sanders before the leaves come out and begin Linda & Bill Sposito making demands? Maybe. Montine Jordan In any case, I recently bought two Mary Ann Maurer more pear trees for the back orchard. Ellen Rosenthal While searching for the two best in Sara Finch the bunch a guy came up to me and warned me not to buy any. “Don’t even Michelle Spark bother,” he said. “Unless you have a Michael Collison fence or something. I had a pear tree Marilyn LaMonica that was recently ripped apart by a Lisa Scalf bear just when it began bearing.” I told Mark Bertin him I fortunately had a fence, but am Silas Riener skeptical it can hold back bears. And I Susan Taylorson Ziff thought deer browse was bad. Bears are T. Leo Schmitt another story for another time. Jeff Lebir In any case, now is the time to locate Maryallison Farley cheaper trees for planting. Elliot Gitler May The Forest Be With You, Kevin Pfeiffer Andy Consuegra Ryan Trapani Lori McCarthy Director of Forest Services ADIRONDACKS – Red Pine and In the Adirondacks, the two species OFTEN grow in areas that have been Wintergreen: repeatedly burned over historically by Native Americans for centuries Two Unlikely or millennia; these areas are within several miles of Lake George and Lake Species To Champlain. But the key word here is Combine OFTEN. The two species occur also commonly in the Adirondacks interior by mike kudish where repeated burns have not been part of the history. Red pine – native red pine that is, A single article on red pine and not reforestation plantations – is most wintergreen? What an unlikely abundant along the shores of lakes combination! One (Pinus resinosa) is and ponds where it can tolerate the a native coniferous tree, and the other dehydrating effects of especially winter (Gaultheria procumbens) is a native winds better than most other species; evergreen subshrub in a completely it is most abundant along the windiest unrelated family – the Heath Family, or eastern shores. Here, with minimal Ericaceae (wintergreen is also known competition from other trees, this as teaberry or checkerberry). In some shade-intolerant pine can form nearly places, wintergreen grows under red pure stands, sometimes mixed in with pine, but in other places each grows its cousin eastern white pine (Pinus without the other. strobus) on sites a little farther from the What have they in common? The water and therefore a little less exposed. answer lies in the reasons for their Red pine stands are notoriously open distribution – different reasons for the - with sunlight reaching the forest Catskills than those for the Adirondacks. floor - enough to supply a diversity of only moderately shade-tolerant shrubs New Jersey and Pennsylvania on the and ground cover species such as south. The East Branch Delaware Valley wintergreen. Under the dense shade of was also the scene of multiple burns northern hardwoods (sugar maple and over hundreds, more likely thousands, beech), hemlock, red spruce and/or of years especially farther south from balsam fir, wintergreen cannot survive. Jump Hill in the basin now occupied by the Pepacton Reservoir. CATSKILLS - Wintergreen, because of its shade- In the Catskills, red pine and midtolerance, must follow forests wintergreen are almost always that cast only moderate shade – i.e. indicators of a history of repeated southern hardwood forests. Therefore, Native American fires, followed in many its distribution in the Catskills is places by a century or two of burns set concentrated in areas where northern by European settlers. Red pine can mix hardwoods (sugar maple and beech), in with eastern white and pitch pines, hemlock, red spruce and/or balsam fir and with hardwoods that are shade- had been replaced millennia ago by the intolerant or shade mid-tolerant such as southern hardwoods. In addition, there oaks, hickories, American chestnut, red is a small number of widely-scattered maple, serviceberry, black and paper small populations outside of the burns birches, and mountain laurel. (see map). Therefore red pine populations So do not expect to find wintergreen follow the burned Escarpment from in the interior of the high peaks – such near the base of Shokan High Point as in the Slide Mountain, Hunter- on the south to the Stork’s Nest Road West Kill Mountain, and Big Indian area (near the hamlet of Round Top, Wilderness areas - where northern southwest of Cairo) on the north.