The Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest is an 88-acre oak-hickory forest located in Orange County, Indiana, near Paoli. Identified as a surviving fragment of virgin Central Hardwood forest, a woodland type that largely vanished in the 1800s, it is a National Natural Landmark within the Hoosier National Forest. [1]
The old-growth woodlot is characterized by mature stands of white ash, white oak, tuliptree, and black walnut. The United States Forest Service (USFS) has measured several of these trees at 60 feet to the first limb and 50 inches in diameter at breast height. As many of these trees were harvested in pioneer times for firewood or construction timber, the Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest was a valuable relic by the time it was set aside for conservation in 1944. [1]
The Forest Service credits preservation of the mature woodlot to the Cox family. The land was patented in 1816 by Joseph Cox. Unlike most other timbered lands of southern Indiana, the Cox family never harvested the forest during the 124-year duration of family ownership. Upon the death of the last Cox owner in 1940, a preservation effort led to support for purchase of the land by the Forest Service. The USFS continues to manage the parcel for research and recreation purposes. Studies of the forest tract have uncovered a Native American bottomland village area with archeological remains dating to approximately 1380 CE. A 1.3-mile hiking trail is open to the public. [2]
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering 193 million acres (780,000 km2) of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's Office, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations, as well as Research and Development. The agency manages about 25% of federal lands and is the sole major national land management agency not part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
A woodland is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood, a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Some savannas may also be woodlands, such as savanna woodland, where trees and shrubs form a light canopy.
Quercus palustris, also called pin oak, swamp oak, or Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section of the genus Quercus. Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native range due to its ease of transplant, relatively fast growth, and pollution tolerance.
Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park runs for about 20 miles (32 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and covers 15,349 acres (6,212 ha). Along the lakefront, the eastern area is roughly the lake shore south to U.S. 12 or U.S. 20 between Michigan City, Indiana, on the east and the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant on the west. This area's conservation scheme is enhanced by the older Indiana Dunes State Park. To the west of the steel plant lies West Beach and a small extension south of the steel mill continues west along Salt Creek to Indiana 249. The western area is roughly the shoreline south to U.S. 12 between the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana. In addition, there are several outlying areas, including Pinhook Bog, in LaPorte County to the east; the Heron Rookery in Porter County, the center of the park; and the Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve and the Hobart Prairie Grove, both in Lake County, the western end of the park.
Betula nigra, the black birch, river birch or water birch, is a species of birch native to the Eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and west to Texas. It is one of the few heat-tolerant birches in a family of mostly cold-weather trees which do not thrive in USDA Zone 6 and up. B. nigra commonly occurs in floodplains and swamps.
The Hoosier National Forest is a property managed by the United States Forest Service in the hills of southern Indiana. Composed of four separate sections, it has a total area of 202,814 acres. Hoosier National Forest's headquarters are located in Bedford, with a regional office in Tell City. Prominent places within the Forest include the Lick Creek Settlement, Potts Creek Rockshelter Archeological Site, and Jacob Rickenbaugh House.
The Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest is a 1,530,647-acre (6,194.31 km2) U.S. National Forest in northern Wisconsin in the United States. Due to logging in the early part of the 20th century, very little old growth forest remains. Some of the trees there were planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The national forest land trees and vegetation are part of the North Woods Ecoregion that prevails throughout the upper Great Lakes region.
The Allegheny National Forest is a National Forest in Northwestern Pennsylvania, about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The forest covers 513,175 acres of land. Within the forest is Kinzua Dam, which impounds the Allegheny River to form Allegheny Reservoir. The administrative headquarters for the Allegheny National Forest is in Warren. The Allegheny National Forest has two ranger stations, one in Marienville, Forest County, and the other in Bradford, McKean County.
Quercus douglasii, known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominant species in the blue oak woodland ecosystem. It is occasionally known as mountain oak and iron oak.
Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of forest ecosystems and to promote select species that require an abundance of sunlight or grow in large, even-age stands. Logging companies and forest-worker unions in some countries support the practice for scientific, safety and economic reasons, while detractors consider it a form of deforestation that destroys natural habitats and contributes to climate change. Environmentalists, traditional owners, local residents and others have regularly campaigned against clearcutting, including through the use of blockades and nonviolent direct action.
Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park is a state park of Minnesota, US, northeast of Faribault just outside the small town of Nerstrand. The park derives its name from the Big Woods, a large, contiguous forested area covering much of southeast Minnesota prior to the 1840s, when European settlers began to establish farms in the territory, and from Nedstrand in Tysvær, Norway, of which Nerstrand is a namesake. The park and its forest were an outlying 'woods' typical of and similar to the Big Woods proper, which were historically found on the more recent glacier deposits located west of the Cannon River 10 miles (16 km) to the west. Aside from a small waterfall, the outstanding natural feature of the park is the forest itself.
Beall Woods State Park is an Illinois state park on 635 acres (257 ha) bordering the Wabash River and Keensburg in Wabash County, Illinois in the United States. 329 acres (133 ha) of the state park is an old-growth forest designated as a Natural Area by the state of Illinois. The trees within the forest consist overwhelmingly of hardwoods of the former Eastern Woodlands ecosystem. Portions of Beall Woods State Park have been designated a National Natural Landmark as the Forest of the Wabash. The state park was created in 1966. The nearest towns with any sizable commercial infrastructure, including hotels and grocery stores, are Grayville and Mount Carmel. The park does host a small primitive campground and maintains a visitor center which opened in April 2001. The park maintains 6+1⁄4 miles (10.1 km) of hiking trails, primarily through the Forest of the Wabash portion of the park.
A woodlot is a parcel of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower appreciation. The term woodlot is chiefly North American; in Britain, a woodlot would be called a wood, woodland, or copse.
Carya laciniosa, the shellbark hickory, in the Juglandaceae or walnut family is also called kingnut, big, bottom, thick, or western shellbark, attesting to some of its characteristics. It is a slow-growing, long-lived tree, hard to transplant because of its long taproot, and subject to insect damage. The nuts, largest of all hickory nuts, are sweet and edible. Wildlife and people harvest most of them; those remaining produce seedling trees readily. The wood is hard, heavy, strong, and very flexible, making it a favored wood for tool handles. A specimen tree has been reported in Missouri with 117 cm (46 in) diameter at breast height, 36.9 m tall, and a spread of 22.6 m.
Christmas tree cultivation is an agricultural, forestry, and horticultural occupation which involves growing pine, spruce, and fir trees specifically for use as Christmas trees.
Populus grandidentata, commonly called large-tooth aspen, big-tooth aspen, American aspen, Canadian poplar, or white poplar, is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America.
The Dukes Research Natural Area is a 233-acre (0.94 km2) tract of northern hardwood forest located within the 5,000-acre (20 km2) Upper Peninsula Experimental Forest, a unit of the Hiawatha National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The Dukes Research Natural Area was listed in 1974 as a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Toumey Woods, also called the Toumey Woodlot, is a 24-acre (9.7 ha) tract of beech-maple forest on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. 13.5 acres (5.5 ha) of the property are classified as old-growth woodland, and were listed as a United States National Natural Landmark in 1976.
Clemson Experimental Forest, a 17,500 acre forest surrounding Clemson University, is a natural resource laboratory. It is a product of a land reclamation project funded by Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration's New Deal programs. The forest is habitat for more than 195 species of birds and more than 90 species of trees. The forest is used for research, education, and recreation.
The Calvert and Porter Woods Nature Preserve is a 40-acre old-growth forest located in Montgomery County, Indiana, near Crawfordsville. Identified as a surviving fragment of virgin Central Hardwood forest, a woodland type that largely vanished in the 1800s, it was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1974.
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