Woods Whys - Archive
Does an Acre of Hilly Land Contain More Land Than an Acre of Flat Land?
June 01, 2008
Every acre contains the same measure of land regardless of whether it is steep, bowl-shaped, or the Great Plains. This is due to long-standing conventions of land surveying and accepted procedures for determining ownership boundaries. There is definitely a catch, however, in that not every measured acre contains the same amount of ground surface. In other words, you’d need a …
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What Is the Difference Between Red Knots and Black Knots?
March 01, 2008
Knots in trees occur where a branch has been surrounded by continued growth of the bole. When the bole is sawn into lumber, or peeled to make veneer, the branch sections included in the lumber or veneer show up as knots. Whether a knot is red or black was determined back when the tree was growing.
If a …
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What Do Tree Roots Do in Winter?
December 01, 2007
Tree roots are inscrutable. While their importance to the aboveground parts of trees and forests is well appreciated by forest scientists, tree roots have always been notoriously difficult to study, obscured as they are by duff, soil, rocks, and darkness. And that’s just in summer; the problem is only exacerbated by winter’s snow and frozen soil. Consequently, while researchers literally …
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What Is the Difference Between Sapwood and Heartwood?
September 01, 2007
Sapwood is the living, outermost portion of a woody stem or branch, while heartwood is the dead, inner wood, which often comprises the majority of a stem’s cross-section. You can usually distinguish sapwood from heartwood by its lighter color.
But, color in wood can be very misleading; not all heartwood is dark and not all dark-colored wood is …
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Is it Best to Stake and Tie Newly Planted Trees?
June 01, 2007
Trees are made to sway in the breeze. They need to, really. Trees and wind have been doing this dance for a long time, and the trees seem to have learned their steps. Just watch them: they move a lot and they do it well. And as it turns out, trees that are free to sway in the breeze grow …
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Why Do Leaves in Spring Sometimes Appear More Red Than Green?
March 01, 2007
We don’t want to shock the tourists, but the spring woods do bring some color beyond green. While spring displays of herbaceous plants flowering on the forest floor are a treat, there is much more to spring forest color than wildflowers alone. Yes, the trees produce color, too. Usually, you just have to look a little more carefully for it. …
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Sugaring with Vacuum Pumps
December 01, 2006
Does Sugaring with a Vacuum Pump Hurt the Trees?
Sap flows out of tap holes in sugar maples when the spring days are warm and the nights are freezing, because those conditions make the pressure on the sap inside the trees higher than the air pressure outside the trees. The bigger the difference between inside pressure and outside …
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What is a Climax Forest?
September 01, 2006
A climax forest is a good place to start an argument with an ecologist. To some, it is a nice name for forests that have escaped disturbance by outside forces like storms or diseases or logging long enough to have settled into a condition of relative stability. That is, the composition and structure of the forest don’t change much over …
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What is DBH?
June 01, 2006
DBH is shorthand for the diameter of a tree’s trunk measured at breast height. Setting aside the interesting and potentially delicate new questions the latter two words raise, let’s first consider diameter. My geometry teacher told me it’s a line segment passing through the center of a circle, the maximum distance from one point on the circle to another.
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Are All the Leaves On a Tree Pretty Much the Same?
March 01, 2006
Everybody knows that tree species vary in their ability to tolerate shade. It’s easy to find shady places in the woods where shade-tolerant species such as American beech and eastern hemlock outcompete shade-intolerant species such as quaking aspen and paper birch. Or picture an old field where pine trees still overtop maples. It’s a question of light. But what’s less …
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