Successional Forests

    Our forests are one of Lutherlyn's most important resources.  The Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program would certainly be much different if we didn't have such a great forest resource.  Lutherlyn contains somewhere in neighborhood of 300 acres of forest and, as you hike the trails, it feels like that forest has been here for centuries.  For the most part, that is not actually the case.
     Three hundred years ago, the area that would become Lutherlyn, like most of Pennsylvania, was almost entirely forested.  Much of Pennsylvania was covered in White Pine and Eastern Hemlock forests, although there were also plenty of oak and chestnut trees, too.  By 1920, the lumber industry had finished devastating Pennsylvania and moved on to other states.  In the last 100 years, much of this land has returned to forest through a process called succession.
     Succession is a natural ecological process whereby disturbed areas naturally return to climax communities.  In our region, the climax community is a forest ecosystem, but oaks and hemlocks do not spring up from large areas of bare ground.  Succession is a process.

Chapel Hill from Main Camp ~ 1952

     One area at Lutherlyn particularly intrigues me when thinking about succession.  The forest between main camp and Terra Dei Homestead has changed a great deal over the past 60 years.  Here is a picture taken from main camp shortly after Chapel Hill was constructed; its probably from the summer of 1952.  Notice that there are very few trees between the craft cabin and Chapel Hill.  If the camp staff had stopped mowing that area, small trees would have moved in within 3 years, but they would have been hawthorns, crab apples, sumac, and locust - not what most people at that time considered "good" trees.

    Evidently, though, a forest was desired because the picture below, from 1954, shows that rows and rows of Scots Pines have been planted in the area.  Pines were planted in many camps at that time.  They were fast growing, so it didn't take long to get a forest and they could be thinned periodically and used to build cabins or sold for lumber.  This area was never thinned, however, and the Scots Pines have continued to grow for the last sixty years. 

      Sixty years ends up being the natural life expectancy of most Scots Pines, but during the last six decades those pines have sheltered many young trees that have grown up to take their place.  So this process of succession continues with Red Maple trees now taking over the forest that was planted to be pines.  Some Norway Spruce trees have also made their way into this forest from those planted nearby.  The picture below was taken early this fall.  Notice the Scots Pines falling over, while the Red Maples and Norway Spruce rise up to take their place.

     This forest is not done changing.  The process of succession is on-going.  As the maples mature, they will shelter oaks and hickories that could become the climax forest community.  Alternatively,  in a hundred years or so, these trees could be out-competed by White Pines and Eastern Hemlocks, but there aren't many of those close by to provide seed for that future forest.  If we are looking 100 years down the road, we also have to wonder what our forests will look like once our climate has warmed.  Whether Lutherlyn's forest is going to reach a climax community may have more to do with what you and I do as stewards of this planet than what trees start to grow.

100% American Chestnuts!

    The American Chestnut tree is now a thing of legend.  At one time, it is said, the tree made up nearly 1/3 of the Appalachian forest.  Some chestnut trees were said to live 500 to 600 years, grow 100 feet tall and up to 8 feet in diameter!  That is a legendary tree.
     The American Chestnut tree also provided food for humans and animals in the form of nuts; they were a favorite food of the (now extinct) passenger pigeon.  Many nuts were sold to provide income to sustain families.  The wood of the chestnut was used for constructing homes, furniture, tool handles, and fence posts.
     The whole chestnut "economy" came crashing down a hundred years ago.  In the 1880s, some folks brought Japanese and Chinese chestnuts to the United States in the hopes of creating hybrids with the American Chestnut.  Unfortunately, they also brought a fungus along, too.  The asian chestnuts had a resistance to the blight caused by the fungus, but not the American Chestnut.  In 1904, the blight was discovered on a tree in the Bronx Zoo and by 1908 it was in Pennsylvania.  By 1930 nearly all of Pennsylvania's chestnuts had the blight and by 1950 the American Chestnut was gone.  Still today, old stumps may still produce some growth, but it soon succombs to the blight, too.

American Chestnut leaves

     This is the point where the complex genetic code of organisms allows for light at the end of the dark tunnel.  Genetic variation in individuals provides a possibility that a few individuals may be resistant to a disease that harms the rest of a population.  It is also possible to breed individuals to possess this resistance.  Currently, there are two different strategies for bringing back the American Chestnut.
     The American Chestnut Foundation has crossed the American Chestnut with the Chinese Chestnut and then back-crossed all of the descendents for 5 generations to end up with a tree that is 99% American Chestnut and 1% Chinese Chestnut.
     The American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation searched out American Chestnut survivors and has been breeding them for 40 years.  These are 100% American Chestnuts and are descendents of trees that have natural resistance to the blight.  These trees are not immune to the blight, but a majority of their offspring can survive with the blight.  The ACCF works in conjunction with the public and distributes chestnut seeds to be planted throughout the region.

Lutherlyn's American Chestnuts

     At Lutherlyn, we planted two crops of chestnut seeds from ACCF, one in 1999 and another in 2001.  From those crops, we currently have 11 flourishing American Chestnut trees at Terra Dei Homestead.  Two of these trees are over 20 feet tall and over 4 inches in diameter.  This year, for the first time, three of the trees produced nuts!
     It is extremely gratifying to see these chestnuts reproducing.  It allows us to imagine a day when American Chestnuts will again become part of our forest ecosystems.  The American Chestnut's return means that the tree that the Iroquois once used to build longhouses and settlers once used to build log cabins and split rail fences will again be a part of our forest.  It will once again support wildlife and people and may, one day, regain its legendary place in Appalachia.

    For more information on these two organizations, please click on the links below.
         American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation
              American Chestnut Foundation