Vegetation

Species found in our plot:

There were ten different tree species that were found in our hectare were:



1) Eastern White Pine, Pinus strobus

Eastern White Pine
Photo Credit: http://plants.usda.g
ov/java/profile?symbol=pist

2) Sugar Maple, Acer saccharum
3) Green Ash, Fraxinus pennsylvanica
4) American Elm, Ulmus americana
5) White Ash,  Fraxinus americana
6) Shagbark Hickory, Carya ovata
7) Paper Birch, Betula papyrifera
8) Eastern Cottonwood, Populus deltoides
9) Northern Red Oak, Quercus rubra
10) one unknown species

 Although there was more Sugar Maple individuals found within the six plots in our hectare, the majority of the old growth trees were Eastern White Pine, and the most of the Sugar Maples found were under 25 Diameter at Breast Height (DBH).  There were three distinct natural communities in our hectare; in the northern most (between points 4 and 3) section of our plot the dominant species was a mix of old growth Eastern White Pine and mixed ages of Sugar Maples. The next natural community was in the middle of our plot and consisted of mostly old growth Eastern White Pine. The last natural community was the smallest (around point 2), consisting of a variety of deciduous trees, and more ground cover. Other non-woody plants found in our hectare were Dolls eye, found near point one, Maple-leaf viburnum, found around point 2, and Bittersweet vines which were noticed on trees in-between point 4 and 3.

When looking at the recorded cover types of Niquette Bay State park, our section of the park was within the parameter of the cover type Mesic Maple- Ash- Hickory- Oak forest. When looking closer at our plots tree stands, we saw that the dominate stand was most like the White pine/Northern red oak/Red maple cover type, as seen to be a common cover type in this region (New England Wildlife, 2001). Although the majority of the old growth seen in out plot was White pine, there were a significant amount of early successional Red maple,  and a few Northern red oak individual's were seen on our plot.

Eastern Cottonwood
Photo Credit: http://www.ibiblio.org
/pic/Tree_pages
/Populus_deltoides_var_deltoides.htm

The species found in our plot was some what representative of the rest of the forest. It is obvious that the tree stand that has a variety of deciduous trees continued outside of our plot. The stand on the other side of our plot, the Eastern White Pine and Sugar Maple, does seem to continue past our plot. The last stand made up of mostly old growth Eastern White Pine seemed only to continue a short ways into the forest; after that, the forest seemed to have more Sugar Maples, turning it into a stand of Eastern White Pine and Sugar Maple.

There were three non- woody herbaceous species found within the plot:

1) Dolls eye, Actaea pachypoda
2) Maple-leaf Viburmun, Viburnum acerifolium
3) Bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara

The Density for each Species:

The density of the most common tree species were found. This was done by counting how many individual trees were found per area. For example, there were 7 Eastern white pines found on a 235.5 square feet space, so there were 0.02972 stems per square feet of Eastern white pine found on our plot. Next, the square feet  were converted to hectares:

The density of Eastern white pine was 3198.09 stems per hectare.
The density of Sugar maple was 4568.71 stems per hectare.
The density of Green Ash was 2055.92 stems per hectare.

Board Feet:

Finding the board feet of each species in a plot of land is helpful when assessing a forests. The end result of the board feet formula is the number of board feet that species will yield. A board foot is a piece of wood that is 1'x1'x1''. To find board feet, one must multiply the area of a tree by its height, and then the product of that must then be multiplied by 12.  In order to clarify: the board feet posted here are just the amount of board feet that could be produced by the tree's assessed in each of the six 78.5 square feet plots within the hectare:

1) Eastern white pine: 1,740,920 board feet
2) American elm: 19,725.84 board feet
3) Green ash: 66,504.83 board feet
4) Paper birch: 39,905.45 board feet
5) Eastern cottonwood: 284,729.1 board feet
6) Unknown: 2,183.545 board feet
7) Northern red oak: 964,401.5 board feet
8) Sugar maple: 19,480.7 board feet
9) Shagbark hickory: 337.82 board feet
10) White ash: 2046.715 board feet

This picture is of the tree that was thought to be the biggest in the plot
Photo Credit:Kristen Wade 

The DBH of one trunk of this tree was 21.309 inches, the  merchantable height of one of the trunks was 79.2 meters. We figure this was our biggest tree because one of the trunks ( of 4) had a DBH of 21.309 inches. We figured that the combination of all of the trunks would be much bigger than any tree in the plot

Tree Growth:

Species	White Pine	White Elm	White Ash	Shagbark Hickory	Green Ash	Unknown	Red Oak	Sugar Maples
Older Growth	7 trees	1 tree	0 trees	0 trees	3 trees	0 trees	1 tree	1 tree
Younger Growth	0 trees	2 trees	1 tree	1 tree	3 trees	1 tree	0 trees	9 trees

        This Table shows growth in the trees found in plot #3           

Old growth is greater or equal to .5 meters in circumference. 

 

Sources:

DeGraaf, Richard M., and Mariko Yamasaki. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History and       Distubution. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 2001. Print.