Stone Chambers: Myths and Mysteries
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WINTER ’13 A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THE FOREST Stone Chambers: Myths and Mysteries What Makes a Good Clearcut? Building a Log Cabin by Hand A Cordwood Calculator, Sumac-ade, A Dinner Party with Author Howard Norman, and much more $5.95 on the web WWW.NORTHERNWOODLANDS.ORG THE OUTSIDE STORY Each week we publish a new nature story on topics ranging from chipmunk game theory to how tadpoles decide when to turn into frogs. EDITOR’S BLOG He’d shoulder a backpack made out of wooden crates, attach a tin pail to his belt, and be up on the mountain by five in the morning. He’d hand pick berries until 3:30, then head home and decide whether to sell them to a berry buyer for 10 cents a quart, or sell them himself for 25 cents. Professional pickers averaged 100 quarts a day. (From “Huckleberry Picking.”) WHAT IN THE WOODS IS THAT? We show you a photo; if you guess what it is, you’ll be eligible to win a prize. This recent photo showed a nostoc algae community. Cover Photo by Chris Mazzarella Chris Mazzarella was photographing a river otter swimming in the partially frozen Connecticut Sign up on the website to get our bi-weekly River when this red squirrel showed up and voiced his displeasure with the whole affair. “It was newsletter delivered free to your inbox. scurrying about,” Mazzarella said, “in a way that suggested I find my way home.” He took a few For daily news and information, shots before leaving, including this one that captured the squirrel landing in a pile of snow. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK VOLUME 20 I NUMBER 4 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS CENTER FOR NORTHERN WOODLANDS EDUCATION, INC. WINTER 2013 Virginia Barlow Copyright 2013 Jim Block Northern Woodlands Magazine (ISSN 1525-7932) is published Elise Tillinghast Madeline Bodin quarterly by the Center for Northern Woodlands Education, Inc., magazine Executive Director/Publisher Marian Cawley Tovar Cerulli 1776 Center Road, P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 Dave Mance III Andrew Crosier Tel (802) 439-6292 Editor Carl Demrow Fax (802) 368-1053 Amy Peberdy Steve Faccio [email protected] Operations Manager Giom www.northernwoodlands.org Bernd Heinrich Emily Rowe Subscription rates are $21.50 for one year and $39 for two years. Canadian Robert Kimber Operations Coordinator/ and foreign subscriptions by surface mail are $26.50 US for one year. Stephen Long POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Northern Woodlands Magazine, Web Manager Todd McLeish P.O. Box 471, Corinth, VT 05039-0471 or to [email protected]. Jim Schley Susan C. Morse Periodical postage paid at Corinth, Vermont, and at additional mailing offices. Poetry Editor Bryan Pfeiffer Published on the first day of March, June, September, and December. Joe Rankin All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written Michael Snyder consent of the publisher is prohibited. The editors assume no responsibility Adelaide Tyrol for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Return postage should accompany all submissions. Printed in USA. Chuck Wooster For subscription information call (800) 290-5232. DESIGN Northern Woodlands is printed on paper with 10 percent post-consumer Liquid Studio / Lisa Cadieux recycled content. NorthernWoodlands / Winter 2013 1 Center for Northern from the enter Woodlands Education C BOARD OF DIRECTORS President A postcard arrived in the mail last week, encouraging me to “clean up” or Julia Emlen “sell out” my woodlot. There were people in my area waiting to assist me! I Julia S. Emlen Associates Seekonk, MA should act now, before my “mature trees rot.” To be fair, I don’t know the person who sent the postcard, and I’m in Vice President no position to judge intentions. However, it’s disconcerting when trees are Marcia McKeague Katahdin Timberlands described as if they’re old groceries lurking in the back of the refrigerator. Millinocket, ME This kind of solicitation makes me cringe for the unwary. There are too Treasurer/Secretary many sad stories of people cutting trees now and regretting it later because they neglected Tom Ciardelli to get disinterested advice on the actual value of their timber stands, or learn about local Biochemist, Outdoorsman habitats, or think through their own goals for the land. Hanover, NH If you examine the small print at the bottom of this page, you’ll see that Northern Si Balch Woodlands is published by a nonprofit, and the mission of that nonprofit is to promote forest Consulting Forester stewardship. What stewardship looks like is somewhat of a Rorschach test, but I think it’s Brooklin, ME fair to say, at minimum, that it involves people making thoughtful, well-informed decisions Sarah R. Bogdanovitch about how to care for forests in the long-term. It means people doing their best to leave land Paul Smith’s College in as good or better condition than they first encountered it. Paul Smiths, NY Starting with this issue, we’ll be running stewardship stories in our Knots and Bolts section Richard G. Carbonetti that explore different ways people manage their woods. Funding for these articles is made LandVest, Inc. possible by a grant from the Plum Creek Foundation. Newport, VT We are grateful for this support. And, since winter is the traditional season to give thanks: Starling Childs MFS we are grateful to everyone who has contributed to the work of the Center for Northern Ecological and Environmental Woodlands Education this year. In the back of this issue, you will see a roster of all of the Consulting Services individuals and institutions who made financial donations in our 2013 fiscal year. Not Norfolk, CT listed, but also greatly appreciated, are all of the writers, photographers, and illustrators who Esther Cowles contributed content, the experts who tolerated our incessant questions, and the many readers Fernwood Consulting, LLC who shared the magazine with friends. Hopkinton, NH I can’t emphasize enough how critical all this support is. So, thank you. Thank you for Dicken Crane caring about forests and for your enthusiasm for our small nonprofit’s work. Thanks for Holiday Brook Farm your letters, the photos of your chainsaws, and the funny emails we keep pinned to our staff Dalton, MA message board. Thanks for including our educational materials in your classrooms and for Timothy Fritzinger competing in our “What In The Woods Is That?” on-line guessing game. Thanks for the Alta Advisors many walks in the woods, the talks over coffee, and the sample home brew. London, UK And thanks, especially, for being good stewards. We hope this winter finds you outside Sydney Lea with the trees – mature, rotting, and otherwise – enjoying the beauty of the season. Writer, Vermont Poet Laureate Newbury, VT Elise Tillinghast, Executive Director, Publisher Bob Saul Wood Creek Capital Management Amherst, MA Peter Silberfarb Dartmouth Medical School Lebanon, NH Ed Wright W.J. Cox Associates Clarence, NY The Center for Northern Woodlands The mission of the Center for Northern Education, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) public Woodlands Education is to advance benefit educational organization. Programs include Northern Woodlands a culture of forest stewardship in the magazine, Northern Woodlands Goes Northeast and to increase understanding to School, The Outside Story, The of and appreciation for the natural Place You Call Home series, and wonders, economic productivity, and www.northernwoodlands.org. ecological integrity of the region’s forests. 2 Northern Woodlands / Winter 2013 in this ISSUE features 24 Lost Histories: The Story of New England’s Stone Chambers BENJAMIN LORD 32 Theology of Birds 32 HOWARD NORMAN 36 In Theory and in Practice: What Makes a Good Clearcut? MIKE FREEMAN 44 A Cabin in the Woods ROSS CARON 56 Linking a Landscape ANNE SCHWARTZ departments 2 From the Center 4 Calendar 5 Editor’s Note 6 Letters to the Editors 44 7 1,000 Words 24 9 Birds in Focus: The Winter Warbler BRYAN PFEIFFER 11 Woods Whys: What Determines How Tall a Tree Can Grow? MICHAEL SNYDER 13 Tracking Tips: Gray Squirrel Caching and Feeding Sign SUSAN C. MORSE 14 Knots and Bolts 52 Field Work: At Work Trucking Logs with Don Moore, Jr. STEPHEN LONG 62 The Overstory: Staghorn Sumac VIRGINIA BARLOW 66 Discoveries TODD MCLEISH 71 Tricks of the Trade: Coppicing Firewood BRETT R. MCLEOD 72 WoodLit 76 Donor Pages 79 Outdoor Palette ADELAIDE TYROL 80 A Place in Mind LAIRD CHRISTENSEN 56 Northern Woodlands / Winter 2013 3 CALENDAR A Look at the Season’s Main Events By Virginia Barlow December January February FIRST WEEK Adult insects have become scarce, but Jan. 2-3: The Quadrantids meteor shower Black bear cubs, weighing about 10-16 birds are very clever at gleaning the twigs, produces up to 40 meteors per hour at ounces, are born / Courting male red foxes trunks, and buds of trees for overwintering its peak. This year the moon sets early in are scent marking and their urine has eggs, larvae, and pupae / The seeds of the evening, leaving a dark sky / Pileated such a strong, musky odor that even hophornbeam that now litter the ground woodpeckers make large, oblong feeding people might notice it as they walk are enclosed in papery envelopes – puffed holes at all times of the year in their through the woods / Seeing a flock of up little sacs much like those of the hops search for carpenter ants, their primary snow buntings can make your day. They from which they take their name / Look food / Hibernating mammals warm and appear all white from below as they dip in wet areas or roadside ditches for the rouse themselves, usually every few days. and dive across fields, but their upper bright stems of red osier dogwood – This may be because they become sleep parts are adorned with browns and some much more colorful now than most other deprived, for sleep only occurs at normal black / Mink often use the fur of their prey vegetation body temperatures to line their winter nests SECOND WEEK Dec.