Big Trees

The other highlight of the Bruce Trail property that I'm the Land Steward for is the big trees, some VERY big trees.  It's just a small area, but I really like getting in to the far corner of the property where I see these big trees.

This group of big trees is actually the line of trees along the edge of old fields; it's just a short line, but there are about a dozen big trees.

 On the other side of that line today is this pine plantation.  They must have reforested the field about 40 years ago.  Unfortunately they planted Red Pine, which does poorly on these calcareous soils, and never thinned them.  The overly tall and thin trees are actually a disaster today!

But the deciduous forest is beautiful, mostly Sugar Maple, but now only the Beech trees still have their leaves.  There's a large cluster of Beech saplings, which may well hold their leaves all winter.

Beech saplins usually grow from the roots of a giant older Beech tree, and here's the parent of all these small trees - crashed to the ground years ago, but now creating a whole new generation through its roots.

There are several other big Beech along the trail, though we're suffering from the Beech Scale disease here, and may lose many of these.

There's also a huge old fallen Sugar Maple that I revisit every year.  With three huge trunks, it crashed to the ground in three directions.

And there's been a whole series of big bracket fungi that have grown on the 8 foot stump, with new ones showing up every year..

There's other evidence of the farm that this property used to be, like this old fencerow and cedar rails, now buried in the forest.

The Bruce Trail Conservancy both raises funds to purchase land, and receives donations of land from private landowners.  Part of this land was purchased, and part was donated by the Harshman family several years ago.

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Another incredibly beautiful November day, warm enough to be outside without a jacket.  I successfully 'graduated' from the cardiac rehab program held at the Y in Owen Sound.  I've been going up there twice a week for 3 months, and learned how to match my target heart rate to my exercise effort.  Now the challenge is to keep it up here at home.  Hope it makes me healthier than ever!