Study Trees of the Macoun Field Club>

The people who chose the trees are listed in alphabetical order. Click on the following letters to advance to the first names beginning with that letter:

A B C D E G H I J K L M N P R S T V W

Aaron Lynch's White Birch: Chosen Nov. 22, 1992, when it had great curls of loose bark hanging down one side. It was found to be dead in the summer of 2006. Only one roll of loose bark remained, just out of reach of destructive humans.
Adam Ryan's Basswood: A clump, chosen Oct. 17, 1992. In August, 2011, three of the trees are doing well and have grown to be 6, 14 and 16 inches in diameter. A fourth member of the clump has died and fallen down. (NE of the well pipe)
Adrian Courteau's log: Chosen Apr. 10, 1999, when it was rotted enough to be ripped apart with his fingers. It had fallen, already dead, in a storm in early November, 1994. The part beside Adrian in the picture below has rotted away, but the part in the background still lies on the ground, lightly covered with moss. (W side of SE Maple.)
Alex Murillo's Sugar Maple: Chosen Dec. 3, 1993. It was seen to be dead -- even its sprout -- by June 16, 1994. It had fallen S by May 29, 1998. In 2011, we are unable to be sure which of several mossy logs might have been Alex's.
Alex Stone's Eastern White Pine: Chosen Oct. 28, 2000, and measured at 21 inches diameter. In 2011, it remains a towering tree in vigorous health.
Alex Stone's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 30, 1999. This tree took part in the region-wide flowering events of 2002 and 2006. All three trunks remain healthy into the summer of 2011.

Alexander Wenzowski's White Ash: Chosen Sept. 14, 1996, when the fallen trunk still arched northward over the ground. On Sept. 25, 2000, a big mass of brilliant Sulfur Shelf Mushroom had grown out of the base of the fallen trunk. (Chal's)
Andrew Fournier's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when it was 15 inches in diameter. It has been growing steadily ever since, and in August 2011 is 17 inches in diameter. (NW of the well pipe; 150*43)
Angela Gamouras' Red Ash: Chosen Jan. 18, 1992. This tree was outside the Study Tree woods, but being well known to us as a giant (4 ft in diamter), it was accepted. It subsequently died and collapsed under its own weight.
Barbara Gaertner's "Deep-split" Ash: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, and named because 30 years earlier a lightning strike had split it open to the core. The lodged crown broke off from the trunk and fell to the ground shortly before Aug. 6, 1995. In 2011, fairly solid logs, some covered with Turkey Tail Fungus, remain.
Barbara Gaertner's little Ash: Chosen Oct. 8, 1992. It never got to be more than knee-high, and failed to leaf out in the spring of 2006.
Barbara Gaertner's NE Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 30, 1991, it participated in the mass flowering event of 2002, and has remained healthy into the summer of 2011.
Barbara Gaertner's SE Sugar Maple: Chosen Dec. 20, 1991. It has fought a long back-and-forth battle with a Porcupine that has repeatedly almost girdled the tree (by growing new cambium) and with fungi that have rotted out one side of the trunk. Yet it has remained vigorous into the summer of 2011. It did not participate in the mass flowering event of 2002, but joined in that of 2006.
Barbara Gaertner's Cradling Maple: Chosen Feb. 17, 1992, because it was cradling the toppling crown of her Deep-Split Ash. It was freed of that burden in 1995, and though it did not flower in the region-wide event in 2002, it did in 2006. It continued in good condition until the spring of 2011, when one of its two trunks leaned too far NE and cracked at the base. Now it is taking its turn being supported by its neighbour. With that support, its crown remains fairly healthy.
Basswood 18*18: The crown foliage was noted to be sparse on May 27, 1993. The trunk was starting to split at the big den opening on Feb. 3, 2000. And by Sept. 5, 2001, the crown was bare and presumed dead (a man-high sprout at the base still lived.)
Billy's American Elm pair: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when they were already dead. They fell down in opposite directions, and in 2011 persist as big, mossy logs.
Billy's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when it was 16 inches in diameter. (69*216)
Bruce Davidson's Bitternut Hickory: A tall, slender tree chosen Oct. 5, 1991. It flourishes still, in 2011.
Bruce Davidson's Shared Hickory: Between a seedling and a sapling; chosen with Michael Oda on June 7, 1992. It never got to be taller than a man, and finally failed to leaf it out in 2011. It is dead.
Bruce Davidson's Sugar Maple: Chosen in October 1992. The trunk of this big tree snapped off 40 ft. up during the ice-storm of January 1998. It fell to the NW in 2010. The log can still be identified by the big cobra canker near the base.
Cassia Dafoe's Sugar Maple: Chosen Sept. 14, 1996, with friend Elisa Weganast. (At base of leaning elm section in SE.)
Chantal Deguire's White Ash: Chosen June 29, 1993 -- only the newly broken-down trunk that fell north, arching as high as a man could reach. Its leaves stayed green for months.
Chris Murray's American Elm: Already dead and broken off when chosen on Nov. 1, 1997, about 30 ft. NE of the Triple Basswood. It can still be seen in 2011, a mossy log on the forest floor.
Colin Day's Sugar Maple: Chosen Jan. 18, 1992. It had long been a landmark tree, Maple "O" (Maple "Oh"), at the SE corner of the deer exclosure. It is alive to this day, but in declining health. Not only is the upper trunk, 50 feet up, riddled with huge woodpecker holes, but almost half the crown branches have shriveled u¹Êand died this year (2011).
Corey MacDonald's Sugar Maple: Chosen on Sept.17, 1994, when the trunk was 16 inches in diameter and lichen covered. It continues to do well, with a full crown of green leaves when checked on Aug. 11, 2011. (In angle of Hk 14*19 and fallen tree.)
Dan Ryan's Sugar Maple: Chosen Jan. 18, 1992. It is still in good health in August of 2011. (19*19g)
Diane Kitching's Trembling Aspen: Chosen in 1991, when it had already survived a serious Beaver attack. Although it flowered every year, it was not a good sign when we realized how sparse its foliage was on Aug. 20, 1999, with many dead limbs in the crown. Yet the final blow came suddenly, unexpectedly -- lightning struck in the summer of 2005, splitting the bark all the way down the trunk! The tree lost all its leaves and seemed dead. The buds seemed to swell in 2007, but no catkins were thrust out to flutter in the wind (it had flowered every April before this). By August, sawdust was spilling out of beetle holes, and the trunk, which had been leaning more and more, was splitting in a fatal spiral. Between our October and November visits in 2006, the trunk snapped 8 feet up and fell. Measuring both parts, we determined that Diane's tree had been 71 feet tall. The log broke into pieces, but remains sound in 2011.
Elisa Weganast's Sugar Maple: Chosen Sept. 14, 1996, with friend Cassia Dafoe.
Eliza Seaborn's Basswood: Chosen by Oct. 16, 1993, when it had already been leaning strongly for a long time, split wide open from top to bottom. It still lives, and still leans, the upper side wide open like a rain trough, in 2011.
Emilie Tibar's Sugar Maple: A "double-double in trouble-trouble," chosen on Oct. 16, 1993. That year, a Porcupine was peeling its bark for food. The Porcupine eventually went away, and the tree recovered. One of the four trunks has died, but the others are healthy and all remain standing.
Grant Savage's American Elm: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when its two trunks were already barkless logs lying on the ground. Small parts of both logs still remain, much rotted down and reduced in size, in 2011.
Guy Massey's Eastern White Pine ("Pine 2") Chosen in 1998. Right into 2011, this tree has a thick, full crown towering above the surrounding forest.
Hugo Kitching's Sugar Maple pair: Chosen Oct. 12, 1992. By May 27, 1993, the bigger, southern trunk was dying, its few leaves shriveling; it broke off and fell in 1996. The healthy trunk took no notice and joined in the region-wide flowering event of 2002. (Maple-at-the-Edge)
Hugo Kitching's "Holey Ash:" Chosen Nov. 23, 1991, when it was speckled with half-healed woodpecker holes. It did not flower in 2002, when other ash trees did, but it produced a heavy seed crop in 2006. It had a fairly full green crown on Aug. 11, 2011, but a big bracket fungus was growing on the side of the trunk about 20 feet up, where we have never seen one before.
Hugo Kitching's big White Ash: Chosen on Oct. 5, 1991. On Aug. 20, 1999, we noticed that the crown was half dead. It did not flower in 2002, when other ash trees in the forest did. On May 31, 2006, the tree was able to produce only a few tiny leaves on one small branch. By 2011, it was quite dead, with Turkey Tail Fungus covering a large part of the basal trunk.
Hugo Kitching's little White Ash: Chosen June 7, 1992. In 1996, a distant Sugar Maple toppled over and fell directly on this seedling tree, breaking it more than halfway down. By May 4, 2002, it was 3 feet tall again. But in 2011, we can find no trace of a small ash tree where Hugo left it. (4 m SW of Kim's Birch -- 151*255).

Jasmine Paton's Basswood: Chosen Mar. 2, 2002, when all three trunks still stood. In the fall of 2004, the left trunk snapped off and fell.The other two remain healthy to this day, in 2011.
Ian Montgomery's Sugar Maple: This has remained a big, healthy tree ever since it was chosen on Sept. 24, 1992. (18*20a)
Jasyn Rump's Spruce: Chosen Oct. 28, 2000, when it was 2 feet tall. No trace of it could be found on Aug. 11, 2011. (The nearest to the NE Maple, on the S side of the new path.)
Jenna Rak's American Beech: Chosen Nov. 9, 2002. This tree had been doing well, but in the decade since the top has broken out and only two branches remain alive in 2011.
Jennie Schueler's Hop Hornbeam: Chosen Apr. 10, 1999 -- a sapling with sprouts. It still lives in 2011. (50 ft W of Deep-split Ash.)
Jessica Prot's Basswood: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991 -- the first person to ever choose "Basswood 18*18. It was done eventually done in by the foolish Porcupines that lived inside the hollow trunk. They ate its branches until the tree was dead. It fell over.
Jiliane Courteau's Eastern White Pine: Chosen May 25, 1996, when it was a 9-inch tall seedling. On Apr. 10, 1999, we noted that a wintertime Snowshoe Hare had nipped off the top and the tips of the little branches. It soon after vanished forever. (SW of Ash-base, 5 ft S of big hollow.)
Jiliane Courteau's smaller Sugar Maple: Chosen May 25, 1996, when it was 3/4 inch in diameter. It was just far enough away from Katherine Lapointe's Basswood to avoid being uprooted when that huge tree blew over in 2006, and in 2011 is thriving.
Jiliane Courteau's larger Sugar Maple; Chosen with her friend Anna on Nov. 1, 1997, at which time this 15-inch-diameter tree had a double top, one part of which had cracked and half-broken in 1993. It fell E during the ice-storm of early January, 1998, nearly taking out Susan's Cedar. In 2011, the main tree is alive and doing well, but the fallen part is broken up and rotting.
John Foster's Sugar Maple: Chosen Nov. 30, 1991 -- the well known landmark, "the Sway-based Maple." Although it was severely attacked by a Porcupine at the very base later in the 1990s, it continues to heal over the extensive wounds and puts out a full crown of leaves every year, right into 2011. It flowered as part of the region-wide event of 2002.
John Foster's Rock Elm: Chosen Nov. 30, 1991. Its top broke in the ice storm of 1998, but it has carried on quite well ever since, as seen on Aug. 11, 2011.
Jon Hickman's American Elm logs: Two trunks, which fell west and south; chosen Nov. 30, 1991. They have so completely rotted away that no trace could be found of them on Aug. 11, 2011.
Jon Hickman's small Sugar Maple: A man-high tree soon to be known as "Home of Bugs;" chosen June 20, 1992.
Jon Hickman's Triple Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when the smallest trunk was already dead. Its crown was attacked by a Porcupine in later years, but the foliage filled out so thickly that by 2005, the tangle of bare limbs in the top that the Porcupine had killed were completely hidden from view. It participated in the coordinated flowering events of 2002 and 2006. in the summer of 2011, it was still flourishing.
Jonathan Swayze's American Basswood: Chosen on Nov. 30, 1991. "Basswood 18*18" has had many owners, but Jonathan has been the only person to write it up for the Little Bear. It eventually died and fell down. A hollow log remains, broken into sections.
Jordan Ludington's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when it was a slender (1-inch) sapling that had been bent over into an arch. (157*105)
Julian Potvin's Sugar Maple: Chosen Dec. 12, 1998, because there was a Pileated Woodpecker in it, close to a roosting hole. (Between Susan's leatherwoods and the Northern Beech, a little to the E.)
Julian Potvin's "Tombstone Rock:" Chosen Nov. 14, 1998. It seems unchanged in the summer of 2011. <
Karl Grenke's Leatherwoods: Chosen Mar. 10, 1993. Seven of them, in a line, right beside his Study oaks. The barely perceived beginning of the end came in the winter of 1996, when deer first browsed their delicate twigs. By the end of the winter of 2001, we could only find six, and one in the middle was in an enfeebled state, from browsing by the expanding deer population. On July 24, 2004, we saw that the middle three stems had been browsed until they were just bare sticks. In 2004, only 2 or 3 of the original 7 were left alive. In 2006, none of them showed any sign of life. Now, no trace of them remains.
Karl Grenke's American Elm: Already a bark-covered log when chosen on Nov. 30, 1991.
Karl Grenke's Red Oak pair: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991. Both died, and in 2011, the northern trunk is a barkless stub.
Karl Grenke's big Sugar Maple: The famous landmark tree, "Maple Cross." In August 1999, we noticed dead limbs raggedly poking up out of its crown. By May 21, 2001, it was dead except for some man-high sprouts off the root collar. It fell south in the late summer of 2003.
Karl Grenke's little Sugar Maple: This small tree, entwined with a much larger White Pine, had fallen down, dead, by Sept. 25, 2000.
Katherine Kitching's American Beech: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when it was 10 inches in diameter. It had already survived the lightning strike that killed the adjacent tree (an ash) just two feet away, and subsequently escaped being crushed when the dead top fell out of Nic's Aspen in September, 2008. Branches torn off in that event showed that the tree was producing nuts. It thrives to this day, in the summer of 2011.
Katherine Kitching's triple Basswood: Chosen in 1991, this trio did well until Oct. 24, 2004, when she discovered that the southern-most trunk had snapped off 15 feet up -- live -- and fell flat. It had been hollow for a long time. The other two trunks continue to do well in the summer of 2011.
Katherine Kitching's Red Oak: Chosen Oct. 12, 1992. It is still the very biggest living oak tree around in 2011.
Katherine Kitching's double Sugar Maple: Chosen Jan. 18, 1992, and seldom observed with certainty after that because of a look-alike pair close by. But in 2006 we sorted it out -- all to no avail. The tree had long been dead and stood barkless; one trunk was a short stub.
Katherine Kitching's White Ash: A half-uprooted tree when chosen on Nov. 23, 1991. It eventually sank to the ground, knocking over its long-time supporting tree in the process. It has just about rotted away as of 2011, but mossy green chunks are still visible, rotted red inside.
Katherine Lapointe's Basswood: Chosen Sept. 19, 1998. This perhaps too tall and too vigorous tree blew over before a very unusual easterly gale in late December, 2006, but, lying flat, leafed out in the spring of 2007 and 2008. It then died, but in 2011 remains a complete tree. An elderberry bush is growing out of the mass of earth still held by the upturned roots.
Katherine Lapointe's Butternut: Already in very poor health when chosen on Dec. 12, 1998, this tree died and fell over. In 2011 we can still see its log.
Kathleen Watt's Eastern White Spruce: Chosen Apr. 29, 2000 when it was about 8 years old and 15 inches high. Only 12 ft SSW of Diane's towering Aspen, it narrowly escaped being crushed when that tree crashed to the ground in November, 2006. On Aug. 11, 2011, we measured it height at 41 inches.
Kathleen Watt's second Spruce: Chosen Oct. 28, 2000. It was 30 inches high. In 2010 a Beaver cut it down and dragged it off. (8 ft E of her first.)
Katy van der Linden's Sugar Maple: Chosen Nov. 14, 1998, this tree remains a dominant member of the forest canopy. (The "Sway-based" maple.)
Kery Christove's Sugar Maple stub (known as "canker lump"): Chosen with Jordan Ludington on Oct. 5, 1991. Fallen over by Nov. 22, 1992. Soon no trace of it could be found.
Kery Christove's living Sugar Maple: A double (big and small together), also chosen with Jordan on Oct. 5, 1991. It is still vigorous in the summer of 2011. (5 ft N of Bruce's hickory)
Kevin van der Linden's Basswood: Chosen Nov. 14, 1998 -- a sway-based tree 14 inches diameter. It is still doing well in August, 2011. (30 ft W of gnarled Beech)
Kim Sayer's White Birch: Chosen in May of 1995. It was badly torn up in the ice-storm of January, 1998, being left with just two major limbs. On Sept. 5, 2001, we noted that the crown leaves were shriveled and brown, and the epicormic shoots were bare. Was it dead? By 2006, all the limbs had fallen. The whole trunk, tottering on an unstable base, stands yet in the summer of 2011.
Kristen Fairhead's Sugar Maple: Almost chosen -- closely examined, anyway -- on Feb. 27, 1993. A double with one part dead. (Next to the fallen elm that had hosted a Pileated Woodpecker nest.)
Kyle Bentley's Sugar Maple pair: Chosen Oct. 30, 1999, at which time it had a dead elm lodged between the two trunks. On Aug. 21, 2006, a big clump of Dryad Saddle bracket fungus sprouted out of one trunk; two years later (January, 2008) that trunk snapped off at that same point and fell down. The fungus continued to sprout from the break into late May, 2008. The other trunk remains healthy; although it did not flower in 2002, when almost every other Sugar Maple did, in 2006, it flowered as part of that year's widespread flowering event. It remains healthy, with the fallen trunk still being held up by its intact base in 2011.
Kyle May's Sugar Maple: Chosen with Jeffrey Pinck on May 12, 1995, when the trunk had snapped off 40 ft. up. It still stands in 2011, a gray, barkless trunk. (SE of the Slippery Elm log.)
Lana Embry's White Ash: Chosen on May 12, 1995, which had long before started to fall down and got stuck in another tree. It fell to the ground the following winter. (A long-time land-mark tree.)
Lauren van Ingen's Red Oak: A double-trunked tree in the N, chosen Sept. 19, 1998.
Leila's Red Oak: Three long-fallen logs spreading out from their common origin. Chosen Sept. 14, 1997. In April, 2002, thoughtless people kicked the rot-softened base apart. Those parts of the two logs farther away from the new, unauthorized trail, still exist. (By the formerly pointed rock.)
Lindsay Noel's American Beech: Chosen by her Feb. 1, 1997. This tree has been dying from the top down; in 2009, the lifeless top half fell to the ground. In 2010, only two low branches remained alive. But it is ringed by a crowd of healthy sapling-sized sprouts that have grown up from the roots. (The "Northern Beech.")
Lindsay Noel's Eastern White Spruce: Chosen Nov. 1, 1997, this 2-foot high spruce was 10 ft. SE of Susan's Cedar. Only a beaver-cut stump remains after the animal made off with it in 2010.
Liz Oakham's White Ash: Chosen Oct. 14, 1995, when it was just 4 feet tall. After a few years, it was smashed to the ground by a big maple, and put out a bunch of suckers from the root collar. But the trunk survived, tipped over at a low angle, and the basal shoots died. The new growth has curved up into the air; in 2011, the stem is 15 feet long, but only 10 feet high. The leaves seem small; it is still struggling.
Lorin Gaertner's White Ash: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991. Although it did not flower in 2002, when other ash trees were, it appeared to be doing well until late September, 2005, when a windstorm tore the tree apart. At the foot of a towering splinter of a trunk lay the rest of the tree, still green with leaves. It died.
Lucy Montgomery's Red Oak: A seedling with four leaves, chosen Sept. 26, 1992. Within a few years it disappeared.
Lysa Lapointe's White Elm: Already dead and barkless when chosen on October 5, 1991, this 14-inch diameter tree toppled to the SW in August, 1996. About 10 feet of the trunk persists as a mossy log in 2011; the rest has disappeared through rot.
Lysa Lapointe's Wild Leeks: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when they were just bulbs buried in the leaf litter. Leeks still come up there every year, but of course we have never been sure exactly which Leeks were Lysa's Leeks.
Margaret Burke's White Birch: Already a log, recently fallen into the swamp, when chosen in 1996 or 1997. In 2011, it persists as a white tube of bark with soft and sinking insides.
Mark Hickman's Red Oak pair. This tree is heavily pruned every September by Porcupines fattening up on acorns, but it vigorously puts out new foliage ever year, right into 2011.
Mark Hickman's Sugar Maple: Chosen as a pre-Junior on Apr 29, 1993, because a ravenous Porcupine was stripping the crown branches of buds. It survived that, and has been vigorous ever since, flowering in 2002 and 2006, and flourishing into the summer of 2011.
Mark Oudin's Red Oak: One part of the deeply split trunk fell on or before July 20, 1998 and lies on the ground, little changed. The rest of the tree remains vigorous, right into the summer of 2011.
Mark Woodley's Basswood: Chosen Oct. 14, 1995 -- the famous "Basswood 18*18." Years later it died and fell down. A hollow log remains.
Matthew Day's Sugar Maple: A triple, chosen Jan. 18, 1992. (117*270)
Matthew Godsoe's White Birch pair: Chosen Sept. 26, 1992, both trunks live pretty much normal lives, as far as we can see. It is doing well in the summer of 2011.
Matthieu Oudin's American Elm: A double tree, already long dead when he chose it on Mar. 14, 1998, because a Hairy Woodpecker was drilling holes into the side of this dead tree. By July 20, both trunks had fallen, one N past Lorin's Ash, one part S. Both logs are fairly intact on the forest floor in 2011.
Michael Berg's American Beech: Chosen Nov. 30, 1991. It developed some kind of disease in the trunk, resulting in the bark starting to fall off the south side, and woodpeckers to drill holes about 10 feet up in 2006. Nonetheless, it puts out good foliage every year, right into 2010.
Michael Oda's Bitternut Hickory: A famous landmark when chosen on Nov. 23, 1991, it seemed healthy but the hollow trunk buckled a year later. It was found fallen on Sept. 24, 1992. It lived for a time, flowered, and produced nuts. It was still green on Oct. 10, 1993, but soon died. Only a few uncertain traces of rotted wood remain in 2011.
Michael Oda's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, just 15 feet from his friend, Hugo's, big Ash tree. It took part in the species' mass flowering events of 2002 and 2006. To all appearances, it leads an uneventful life, right into 2011.
Michael Ryan's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991. It is healthy and green in the summer of 2011. (Behind (SE of) Katherine's Triple Basswood.)
Michelle Caputo's Basswood: Chosen in 1998 or 1999 as a companion to its neighbour, Katherine Lapointe's Basswood. Michelle's tree was the tastier of the two, at least to Porcupines. Its crown had been repeatedly pruned by these huge rodents, leaving it with a reduced capacity for growth. We do not know if it was the same age as Katherine's tree, but if so, Porcupines made it smaller. Ironically, it was being big that was the doom of Katherine's tree; Michelle's is still standing and alive in 2011.
Molly Currie's White Birch: Chosen Sept. 26, 1992. It continues to leaf out every year; we last looked at it Aug. 11, 2011. (189*87)
Morgan Rowe's Eastern White Pine ("Pine 1"): Chosen 10 months after it had fallen down, on Oct. 17, 1998. The tree had been weakened by Carpenter Ants that got in where a Porcupine had chewed away the bark about 8 feet up, and by a Pileated Woodpecker that drilled a big hole to remove them, but it took the ice-storm of January 1998 to bring it down. Both barkless stub and log remain as part of the forest scene in 2011.
Morgan Rowe's Spruce: Chosen Nov. 1, 1997, this 32-inch-high spruce was about 8 ft. SW of Susan's Cedar. It was cut down by a Beaver in 2010; in 2011 only a short little stump remains, with Beaver tooth-marks.
Nathan Jubb's spruce: Chosen Nov. 1, 1997, this 24-inch-tall Eastern White Spruce was 8 ft. S of Susan's Cedar - the most southerly of a group of four little spruces. All of them were cut down and taken away by a Beaver in 2010. Only the little stump remains.
Natasha Sim's Balsam Fir: Chosen on Sept. 15, 2001. This tree never got any taller than 2 inches! But it persevered, until a passing deer nibbled it bare in the winter of 2008. It never put out another needle after that. In 2011, not a trace of it can be found.
Nick Lapointe's Large-toothed Aspen: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991. Some dead branches were noted on May 8, 1999. Yet it flowered every April until 2006; the catkins waved in the wind one last time. Leaves came out on only part of the tree, life retreated to a single branch, and finally the last leaves shriveled and turned brown in August, 2006. At the same time, wood-boring beetles began spilling sawdust out of holes in the trunk. The crown of the tree fell to earth in September of 2008, leaving a tall snag. Since 2006 -- and it is now 2011 -- a neighbouring tree has been leaning hard against the upper trunk, but it is proving to be a sturdy tree.
Nick Lapointe's little aspen: A remote sucker off the roots of his big tree; chosen June 20, 1992. Like all the other root sprouts (Solange's, William's) it soon shriveled up and disappeared.
Norie Jephcott's Red Oak: Chosen on Jan. 28, 1995, when its hollow base sheltered a Porcupine. It eventually died and fell down. Almost the entire trunk persists, bare and dry, in 2011. (Sara Boni's)
Pascal Lussier's Basswoods: Chosen Oct. 23, 1992. Four trunks -- two upright, and two leaning far east and west. By 2006, only one trunk remained standing, and in 2011 it still stands straight up, bearing a healthy crown of leaves.
Pascal Lussier's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 17, 1992. Two double trunks, the NW member falling so as to lie between the others on or about Aug. 1, 1995; two others collapsing by Aug, 9, 1999. One trunk left alive.
Pascal Lussier's White Ash sapling: Chosen on Oct. 17, 1992, when it was as tall as a man. On May 10, 1993, we noticed that its lead shoot was dead; side branches from one year back would have to become the new trunk. They began that process, but on July 23, 1993 we found that someone had reached up and broken off the top 2 1/2 feet; the tree would have to start over. It did, and its first flowers, seen May 8, 1999, showed it to be a female tree. The branches were laden with seeds in 2007, 2009 and 2011. It gets bigger every year.
Peter Gray's lodged Sugar Maple clump: Chosen in the fall of 1998. It slowly rotted and settled to the ground.
Peter Gray's lone lodged Sugar Maple: Chosen Nov. 14, 1998, 10 ft. N of the clump.
Philippe Belley's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 30, 1999, this tree flowered in 2002 and 2006, and it has remained healthy into the summer of 2011.
Rebecca Armstrong's Sugar Maple: A sapling, chosen Sept. 19, 1998. It is alive and slowly growing bigger, last being checked on Aug. 11, 2011. (Jiliane's)
Rebecca Danard's Basswood pair: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991. The N member of the pair, a dead stub, had fallen as of Sept. 25, 2000. The other fell in November, 2006, leaving a fairly tall stub.
Rebecca Danard's Basswood sprout: Chosen June 7, 1992. It was in declining health by 2003; on July 18th it had only 24 big leaves, vs. 40 ten years earlier. (8 ft NW of her pair.)
Rebecca Danard's Striped Maples: Chosen Oct. 23, 1992. They were measured and studied, and one by one died of some fungal disease affecting the trunks. We think the species no longer exists in the Study Area.
Rebecca Danard's Study Pool: Chosen by June 11, 1993, it filled the hollow left when Solange's big Ash tree was uprooted. It will probably last for hundreds of years.
Rob Lee's leaning Hop Hornbeam: Chosen Oct. 28, 1991. Though leafless, he thought it was alive because it had buds. But they never leafed out the following spring. It toppled on Sept. 23, or 24, 1992. Rob counted the exposed annual rings and got 80 years. By 2002, the bottom 10 feet of the log had rotted away.
Rob Lee's Hop Hornbeam sapling: Chosen Oct. 30, 1991, because it had a paper-wasp nest on one slender branch. It is an elusive tree, easily blending in with the background of other Hop Hornbeam saplings, so we know little about it.
Rob Lee's resprouting Hop Hornbeam: First noted in 1988, when a deer raked its antlers up and down the trunk so vigorously that it killed the upper part of the tree, which had been as tall as a man could reach. A bud at the base sprouted and by 2010 had grown to be taller than the original. But a new buck has also grown up, and the side of the new sapling has been scarred again. The wounds were minor, however, so the tree continues to thrive and grow well into 2011.
Rob Lee's tallest Hop Hornbeam: Chosen Oct. 19, 1991. He made a measurement suggesting it was 62 feet tall. It continues to live an unremarkable life, right into the summer of 2011.
Rob Lee's 19 Sugar Maple seedlings: All within 1 square foot, chosen July 23, 1993, when just a few months old. They did well through the rest of the 1990s, but by then the expanding deer population was scouring the woods for food and ate their leaves. In 2001, only 4 were left alive; in 2005, three. Only one remained alive in 2006, with a single leaf no bigger than a thumbnail. By August, this last survivor was dead.
Robin Keeley's Hop Hornbeam: Chosen Oct. 14, 1995, when it was 4 feet tall. We presume it was browsed to death by deer, for no trace of it could be found in August, 2011. (Just W of Susan's Leatherwoods.)
Rosie Burke's Red Oak pair: Chosen Oct. 30, 1999, this tree is still thriving in 2011. (Mark's)
Sarah Boni's big Red Oak: Chosen Jan. 18, 1992. By Sept. 6, 1993, the big western limb was dead. It was sagging, but still up on Sept. 25, 2000. In 2011, the trunk lies bare and dry and solid beside a new, unauthorized trail that developed.
Sarah Boni's White Pine seedling: Chosen May 2, 1992. On Aug. 20, 1999, we noticed that it's foliage must have been completely browsed because there was just one clump of needles on a new sprout halfway up the tiny stem. The sprout flourished that year, but it has never been seen again.
Sara Potvin's Butternut: Chosen on Sept. 21, 2002, this tree is dying of Butternut Canker Disease. The fungus had killed all but three thin threads of life-sustaining bark at the root collar by 2009, but in August 2011, two of the three divisions of the crown are still living.
Sara Potvin's White Ash: Chosen May 25, 1996, when it was knee-high. No trace of it could be found in the summer of 2011. (20 ft E of Kim's Birch, 2 ft SE of a 7" Hornbeam.)
Sarah McManus' Yellow Birch: Chosen Oct. 30, 1999. We observed that it looks as if it lost half of its limbs in the ice-storm of 1998. Otherwise, it has remained in good health right into the summer of 2011.
Scott Nelm's Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991. Nine limbs -- half the crown -- were torn out by the ice-storm of January 1998. Yet it joined in the mass flowering event of 2002, and remains a vigorous part of the forest canopy in 2011.
Severn Day's Eastern White Spruce: Chosen Sept. 26, 1992, when it was a mossy, well-rotted nurse log with baby cedars sprouting out of it. It was rich reddish brown inside and in a delicate state of decay when passing humans discovered it and kicked it all to pieces for fun.
Severn Day's Sugar Maple: Defiantly chosen Oct. 5, 1991. (120*215)
Severn Day's second Sugar Maple, 5 inches in diameter: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991. (101*197)
Shawn Henry's American Elm pair: Dead when chosen on Sept. 26, 1992, these trees both soon fell down. They remain as fairly solid logs on the forest floor. (19*19e-f)
Shawn Kiselius' Sugar Maple: Chosen Sept. 17, 1994 -- a tree whose top had recently broken off 40 feet up and, falling, knocked the Two-faced Maple askew. Both the fallen top and the 40-foot snag (which fell in the other direction) can still be seen in 2011.
Simon Richards' Basswood: Chosen from a picture he was shown, and introduced to his tree on Apr. 29, 2000. It died a year later and subsequently fell down. (Basswood 18*18)
Simon Wenzowski's Hop Hornbeam: Chosen Sept. 14, 1996, when it was a sapling. It got bent over in the ice storm of 1998 and the top died, but it sprang back up somewhat. By 2011, one of the lower branches had become the new trunk, not very big yet, but climbing fast. (10 ft SE of Henry's elm.)
Solange Courteau's big Trembling Aspen: Chosen Jan. 18, 1992, when (already dead from a beaver attack) it fell eastward, taking another aspen with it. Both got hung up for years in still other trees. The dead top had started to fall down by Dec. 3, 1993. In 2011, the trunk is red with rot and green with moss; the stump is hidden by sedges growing over the top.
Solange Courteau's little aspen: Chosen June 20, 1992, it died back to a basal sprout by July 23, 1993. The sprout's leaves were still green on Oct. 10th of that year. It was completely dead by Sept. 5, 1994.
Solange Courteau's White Ash: Chosen Jan. 18, 1992; a big tree that had been uprooted in 1988 and fallen into the Woodland Pond's floodplain. It died and after many years, the upturned roots rotted away. In 2011 the soil lifted by those roots forms a tree-throw mound, and the log is much rotted.
Stefan Gingras' Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when it was 14 inches in diameter. It was in good health, except that every years since 1989 a Porcupine had chewed away another section of bark at the base. By 1992 it had gone all the way around, and the tree had been girdled. For several years it continued to put out leaves, but more weakly every time. It was still alive in June 1995, but dead before autumn. Fallen by Oct. 7, 2003.
Steph (Estafania) Ayala's Eastern White Spruce: Chosen May 2, 1992. It is thriving to this day, in 2011.
Stephanie Johnson's first Sugar Maple: Chosen Sept. 14, 1997, when she climbed up and found a hole filled with water. A few years ago the big side limb that made it look like the tree was lurching northward died and crumpled to the ground. The main trunk, past the water-fille hole, is growing vigorously straight upward in 2011. (The landmark known as "the deranged maple.")
Stephanie Johnson's Sugar Maple sapling: Chosen Nov. 1, 1997, this small double tree was immediately east of Jiliane's. We could not find any trace of it on Aug. 11, 2011.
Steven Giacomelli's Sugar Maple: Chosen shortly before being knocked flat (KO'd) on Sept. 24, 1992. It maintained some root connections and was still green on Oct. 10, 1993, and was even leafing out again on May 20, 1994. But the leaves were limp and drooping by June 3, 1994. In 2011, the main indication that it ever existed is the small mound of earth heaved up when it got pushed over.
Steven Giacomelli's White Ash: Chosen Nov. 30, 1991, when it was a barkless log suspended two feet off the ground.
Steven Watt's Eastern White Spruce: Chosen Apr. 29, 2000, when it was 39 years old (by counting branch whorls). Though its growth is suppressed by the shade it lives in, it is maintaining its thick foliage in 2011.
Susan Oda's Eastern White Cedar: This tree narrowly escaped getting crushed in 1998, when the top of Jiliane's maple fell across it. Being an evergreen, we can always see that it is alive, right into 2011.
Sudan Oda's Leatherwood pair: Suffering from wintertime deer browsing, the E member of the pair was literally falling apart on Sept. 25, 2000. By May 21, 2001, the old stems Susan had originally chosen were dead, but new sprouts were coming up from the ground. On Sept. 22, 2004, the sprouts, now 30 inches tall, had been browsed so severely they were just sticks with tufts of leaves at the top. They continued to sprout right into 2006. No trace of them remains in 2011.
Terri Oda's Basswood clump: She says she "met up with" this set of trees in 1996, when one of the three trunks had already fallen to the south. On Apr. 26, 1997, she found that the second had also tipped over, being supported for a further year or two by a neighbour. The last trunk fell NW in the summer of 2003. In 2011, the two fairly intact logs are gradually breaking down, sagging into the low places in the ground. They are still covered with bark.
Terri Oda's Leatherwood: Chosen in 1991, the several stems all "committed slow suicide" and progressively shed their limbs. Sprouts kept coming up until 2006. For several years now, no trace of them has been seen.
Terri Oda's Hop Hornbeam: Chosen Oct. 5, 1991, when she measured it at 121 cm tall By the spring of 1996, it was 221 centimetres! It grows ever taller, right into 2011. Rob measured it again on Aug. 11, 2011: it was 587 cm tall.
Terri Oda's Sugar Maple: Already "dead on its feet" when she chose it Oct. 5, 1991, the rot-softened trunk had toppled by the end of the month. The trunk split spirally and was sagging to the ground by Sept. 5, 1994; on Apr. 27, 2002 only the upper part of the tree remained. The main trunk had completely rotted away, and the stump was gone, leaving a star-shaped hole in the ground.
Thomas Montgomery's Eastern White Pine: Chosen Jan. 17, 1998. This has always been a healthy tree, right into 2011. ("Pine2")
Tyler Park's Sugar Maple: A long-dead stub chosen Oct. 14, 1995, upon seeing a Deer Mouse looking out of a hole at him. Within a few years it fell over.
Tyler Rump's Red Oak: A 14-inch diamter tree chosen Oct. 28, 2000. It is a tall, vigorous tree now, in 2011. (40 ft W of NE Maple.)
Virginia Woodley's double Sugar Maple: Chosen Oct. 14, 1995. One trunk died and stands as a barkless stub, but the other remains healthy in 2011. (30 ft. S of Basswood 18*18.)
William Godsoe's Large-Toothed Aspen: Chosen Sept. 26, 1992. It turned out to be a remote sprout off the root of Nic Lapointe's tree. It died in 1996 without ever getting much bigger.