Forest Fridays: Forest Oddities | WeConservePA – Cyber Tech

By Ryan Reed

The forest is a straightforward place to be struck with surprise. I usually discover myself watching one thing, considering the how, what, why, or when whereas out within the woods. Beneath are a couple of forest oddities that will have, at one level in your forest travels, given you a motive to ponder.

Silver maple burls. (photograph by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Burls
A burl is a woody outgrowth on the trunk or essential stem of a tree. They appear like massive swellings that don’t belong. Burls might be extremely wanted by woodworkers who make attention-grabbing items like bowls or different hand-carved objects. A burl grows from a tree’s response to a pathogen (usually fungal), whereby the tree repeatedly grows layers of wooden and bark that encircle the affected space.

This marker tree reportedly helped Native Individuals navigate from the Highland Park/Chain of Lakes space of northern Illinois to the Lake Geneva space of southern Wisconsin.
(picture by Wikimedia Commons:

Native American Marker Bushes
Bushes with odd directionality or form are generally attributed to intentional horticultural practices that Native Individuals used to “prepare” a tree for navigation. Particularly, their odd shapes are reportedly attributable to bending, tying, or pruning to realize a desired progress sample, usually when a tree was younger and pliable. Some foresters might dispute these claims, reasoning that an oddly formed tree might be defined by pure disturbance. As an example, a windblown tree can fall over, taking the highest out of a youthful tree. The void, and extra importantly, sunnier space left by the windblown tree encourage progress away from youthful tree’s middle, producing some very odd tree shapes a few years later. If oddly-shaped timber are present in an obvious spatial sample, this may be proof they have been purposely altered.

Photograph courtesy of PA DCNR, Bureau of Forestry

Enormous Boundary Bushes
Maybe you’ve encountered a row of timber alongside a property border which might be a lot bigger than others within the space. These timber are boundary timber which have eluded the tooth of the chainsaw or crosscut noticed. It’s in all probability not as a result of inherent good nature of the timber harvesters that these behemoths stay, however extra probably, proof of a powerful aversion to boundary disputes and allegations of timber theft.

Uncovered Roots
Chances are you’ll sometimes discover timber with very bizarre wanting roots. These specimens usually consequence from the forces of abrasion by water or wind. Soil (and even rocks) can erode, leaving the basis community in place.

Photograph courtesy of PA DCNR, Bureau of Forestry.

Our forests are crammed with surprise. Have you ever seen these forest oddities (or others) in your treks?

Forest Fridays is a challenge of the Pennsylvania Division of Conservation and Pure Assets, Bureau of Forestry.  Content material and images shared courtesy of the creator.