Age is subjective; what may seem terrifically old to one person can be relatively youthful to another.
Such is the case with Prince Edward Island forests.
In an upcoming presentation, Old Growth Forest on P.E.I. — Is there any left?, Island Nature Trust executive director Jackie Waddell will focus on some of the oldest and least damaged forest remaining on the Island.
"When you start talking about old growth, to me it's talking about forest that's virtually untouched by human activity, whether it's fire or clear cutting or slash-and-burn, which was definitely the technology of 200 or 300 years ago, and we basically don't have any truly pristine forest left on P.E.I.," says Waddell, who will be speaking at the Confederation Centre Public Library on Wednesday, Sept. 19 starting at 7 p.m. as part of Island Nature Trust's fall series.
Using maps and photos, Waddell will illustrate what exists today on P.E.I. in terms of forest, for example, the Townshend Woodlot in the Souris area, provincial forests and Macphail Woods in Orwell.
"The oldest section of forest we have is considered to be about 12 acres at Townshend Woodlot on the Souris Line Road and it's about 300 to 350 year old. But there are records of a human-started fire that went through the whole region at that time (in the early 1700s) and it just burnt the whole area. And so it's no longer really truly virgin forest. . . ," she says.
PE.I. belongs to the Acadian Forest Region, which encompasses all of the Maritime provinces, areas of southern Quebec, as well as into the northern New England states.
Waddell will explain what Acadian Forest is and provide a number of examples that people can easily visit on the Island to see some of the Acadian Forest species, for example, the mixed forests at Strathgartney Provincial Park in Churchhill and Royalty Oaks in Charlottetown
"(Royalty Oaks) is a very small patch of 12 acres that has beautiful straight sugar maples, some nice beech, not a lot but some, striped maple, it has very little of the softwoods through, so it doesn't have any hemlock or anything like that. And it has some of the biggest red oak in the province," she adds.
Waddell will tap into the large stockpile of aerial photos that are available online, starting in 1935 on through to 2010, to show the Island's ever-changing forest landscape.
"P.E.I. is now more forested than in 1935 but the forest is completely different. In about 1900 about three-quarters of the Island was cleared. So about 28 per cent of the island was forested and I would say that even part of that was coming back from being clear-cut," she says.
"And so between then and now a huge number of old fields that have been abandoned and forests that had just been cut have returned to forest. But especially in the case of abandoned fields those came back as old-field white spruce in many cases, so almost a monoculture."
These particular stands of trees have a finite lifespan of 60 to 80 years.
"And because they all came up at the same time they're all going to die (about) the same time," Waddell says.
Some of that has been harvested and then replanted with a better mixture of trees or longer-lived trees to grow a better quality forest that will also produce better timber.
Part of what Island Nature Trust does is plant today for the old growth of the future.
"In any areas that we've acquired that are buffers to a really nice forest stand we are planting the Acadian Forest species, so we're planting things like American beech, if we can, red oak, white pine, eastern hemlock and sugar maple. So in areas that are still really open we will plant the precursors, the pioneer species to that but not usually white spruce because we know there's (already) so much white spruce," Waddell says.
"We are not recreating an Acadian Forest because it's so complicated it's impossible to do. You have to let nature take its course over the next thousand years to do that for you. But you can introduce the components early. So we can plant things like hobble bush and beaked hazelnut and all sorts of shrubs as well, and generally the ground cover, the herbaceous plants, come in on their own."
Island Nature Trust Series, Fall 2012
Old Growth Forest on PEI - Is there any left?
Confederation Centre Public Library, Wednesday, Sept. 19, starting at 7 p.m.
Island Nature Trust executive director Jackie Waddell will use maps and photos to illustrate her presentation on some of the oldest and least damaged forest remaining on the Island.
Sites such as Townshend Woodlot, Provincial Forests, Macphail Woods and more will be discussed. What makes up a forest, its complexity, diversity and layers, species, communities and associations will also be covered.