Saturday, July 25, 2020

July 25 2020 - Paradise Grove

How do I find the 200 year old trees in Paradise Grove in Niagara-on-the-Lake?  There are lots of small oaks - 1000 were planted in 2003 - Black Oak, Northern Pin Oak, American Hazelnut, Chinquapin Oak Savannah and Bur oak.  The site is a Black Oak Savannah and tall grass prairie ecosystem.  

"The main difference (of an oak forest) would be in the canopy," explains Gary Allen, species conservation specialist with Parks Canada. "So the canopy closure, if you were looking down on it from above, it would be closed in an oak forest. An oak savannah is widely spaced mature trees, 35-65 per cent open."

The canopy was very open - it was too open. I wondered who has been eating the leaves - every tree has signs of insects, so perhaps it is Gypsy moths.  

I looked at the document from  the nativetreesociety.org HERE. I understand that I likely won't be strolling around 500 year old trees.  They live along cliff edges and at the bottom of 40 foot drops in the Niagara Gorge.  The document describes record-sized trees in the Niagara Glen - a 56 foot Downy Serviceberry is one record.  This is normally a small ornamental for front lawns.  And then there are the Niagara Gorge Ancient Cedars - 691 of them along the Niagara Gorge. They grow within several hundred feet upstream of the Rainbow Bridge all along the Gorge to the cliffs overlooking Queenston. These are estimated to be 250 - 450 years old, with ages up to 650 years possible.

The landscape is so inaccessible that they discovered an old growth forest on the rim of the Niagara Gorge near Brock's Monument - Black Walnuts - it is one of the world's largest forest-grown Black Walnuts-  6 acres. It is right near the Locust Grove parking lot. So the champion Black Walnut is 44 feet around at the tree base.   Wouldn't that be Cercropia Moth country!

Here's the Paradise Grove section at John Street, an easy walking and biking path, right along the river.  I could hear a dog barking on the American side of the river.
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