Every tree tells a story. Timber harvesting goes back hundreds of years in the state of Maine and those traditions continue today. On our daily romp in the woods yesterday, we came across this big boy which was cut last year.
We can learn a lot by looking at a cross-section of a tree that’s been cut. The rings in this red oak tell us that it sprouted from an acorn around 1890 (or a little earlier). The wider rings earlier on suggest that it grew fast with little competition for most of its life, consistent with its location adjacent to a stone wall that served as a boundary between two fields. About 60 years ago the fields were planted with fast-growing pines and, as they got taller, competing for the sun as well as moisture and nutrients in the soil, the growth of the oak slowed. Now that it’s been harvested, its branches will decompose and return their nutrients to the next generation of trees. The cycle continues.
