I was planning to visit the forest in spring, but had to cancel, so I ended up visiting for three days in early June. I used the opportunity to explore a third, adjacent, 10 acre lot that I ended up purchasing end of June. This third lot starts at the stream which roughly traces the northern boundary of Lot B, then slopes uphill to the north, before sloping down again to another stream (which will be my third proper stream), and then up again before reaching its northern boundary. A completely overgrown logging road runs along its eastern boundary. The terrain is pretty rugged with thick rhododendron / mountain laurel thickets covering about two-thirds of it. Unlike the first two lots, this new one has a few pines in the furthest NW corner which sits at about 3,350 ft. On the first day of my visit, the temperature peaked at around 74 degrees F, but on the third day it was getting into the mid 80's and becoming quite uncomfortable to scramble around. Nevertheless, a few interesting discoveries.
A Second Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) At the NE corner of Lot C, at the edge of the old logging road that marks its eastern boundary, is a second medium-sized Eastern Hemlock (see picture below), also infested with woolly adelgid. I used Safari insecticide to spray the trunks of both Eastern Hemlocks. Both of them were looking pretty sickly with sparse leaves, so I hope it's not too late. Also, summer is apparently not the ideal time to spray as the trees are dormant - better times to spray are in spring and autumn. I also discovered two smaller hemlocks - one is upslope, across the stream to the south of the first hemlock which straddles Lots B and C, and another one in a small clearing above the stream which cuts across the eastern boundary of Lot C, just above where it trickles off a small overhang. These two smaller specimens looked very unhealthy.
Decent-Sized Eastern White Pines (Pinus strobus) At the highest point of the three 10 acre Lots, in the NW corner of Lot C, very close to the border with the Conservation Area, are three relatively large Eastern White Pines, and a few smaller ones. The biggest and furthest NW specimen has a trunk circumference at chest height of 5ft 3.5 inches. Unfortunately, this tree's upper trunk is covered with cascading white sap (see second picture below) - I am not sure what the root-cause is. Pictures of two of the larger pines are below. Note: during my visit in January 2022, I explored this area by foot and by drone - see Winter 2022 page for those pictures.
The five-needled bundle of the Eastern White Pine in shown below.
An Eastern White Pine cone is shown below.
Large Black Oaks (Quercus velutina) confirmed I can finally say that I have conclusively identified at least two large Black Oak trees. The blocky bark covering the whole trunk is a strong indication, but I could only fully confirm it when there were twigs with leaves at a reachable height which I could inspect. In this forest, the bark of a Black Oak can be quite similar to that of the more common White Oak, however, the bristle tips on the leaves easily distinguish Black Oaks from White Oaks. There are also several Northern Red Oaks that have blocky bark reaching quite far up the trunk - for those trees, the only way I can distinguish a Black Oak from a Northern Red Oak is to be able to pluck off a leaf and feel for the fuzzy texture on the underside of the leaf which is characteristic of the Black Oak. I was able to do this for one tree on Lot C (first two pictures below) and one tree on Lot A (third and fourth pictures below).
The topside of a leaf of the Black Oak is shown below.
Mature White Ash (Fraxinus americana) Although during a previous visit I found a tiny seedling on Lot A that looked like a White Ash, I had never found an actual White Ash tree. This time, during my exploration of Lot C, in the far NE corner, I found a large tree next to a dried stream, with compound leaves and a circumference of 5ft 2.3 inches at chest height, whose bark looked somewhat similar to that of a Mockernut Hickory (interwoven diamond patterns and tight, non-flaky bark). Underneath it lay multiple old hickory nuts which looked like those of a Pignut Hickory (which has somewhat flaky bark). As I puzzled over it that evening I suddenly realized it might be an ash tree - studying my photos of the canopy leaves I realized they were opposite instead of alternate. Only a few types of North American native trees have opposite leaves (ashes, dogwoods, buckeyes, and maples). So I went back the next day and confirmed it is indeed an ash (first two pictures below). The hickory nuts on the ground were obviously from a nearby upslope hickory tree. The lowest leaves were unreachable so I could not determine whether it was a White Ash or a Green Ash. However, I located another smaller specimen further south, just inside the NE border of Lot C, perched on a rock overhang over a small cascade (third picture below). Climbing up onto the overhang, I was able to pluck off a large compound leaf and identify it as a White Ash via the whiteish undersides and C-shaped leaf scars. Later on I discovered a White Ash sapling close to where I park my car on Lot A - surprisingly I had never noticed that one before. Once again, most significant tree finds are close to the borders of the lots.
The leaf of the White Ash is shown below.
The pictures below from the field show how the undersides of the leaves of White Ash are distinctly whiteish in color compared to the topsides of the leaves.
Serviceberries During a stroll through Lot A, I found a couple of small trees that at first looked a bit like basswoods, but the leaves were smaller and more symmetrical than those of a basswood. The leaves were singly-toothed which ruled out birches (doubly-toothed), and the bark did not have visible lenticels which ruled out cherries (and birches). I think the only species they could be is a serviceberry, likely Allegheny Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis), as opposed to Downy Serviceberry, as the undersides of the leaves were not downy at all.
The leaf of the Smooth Serviceberry is shown below.
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) Just next to the upper part of the stream that runs approximately along the boundary between Lots B and C, I noticed a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) - the only specimen of any decent size I have seen so far (I also saw a seedling in the pine grove of Lot C). This one seems to be quite old and has some decay on its trunk, and is leaning heavily, but the canopy of leaves looked very full and healthy.
The leaf of the Flowering Dogwood is shown below.
Mountain Silverbell (Halesia tetraptera var. monticola) I don't know how I missed it in my previous explorations of Lot A, but I found another medium-sized Mountain Silverbell. The trunk, with a circumference of 2 ft 9.3 inches, was not as broad as the other, broken-topped specimen which I found nearby in a previous visit, but it is taller and more healthy looking. The bark looks characteristically flaky and charred.
Larger Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) At the southern boundary of Lot A, I found a couple of Sassafras trees that are much larger than all other Sassafras trees I have seen so far in my forest. The larger one had a circumference at chest height of 3ft 1 inch, the smaller one is dead. In this area of Lot A, the position of the boundary is unclear, so it could be that these two trees are just outside the boundary.
Other Interesting Finds Emergent Black Locust. Most of the Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) trees in this forest are either dead or rotting, with only a few of them looking healthy. The picture below shows a nice healthy one via drone.
In the NW corner of Lot C, just downhill of the pines, is a very nice large White Oak (Quercus alba). The circumference at chest height is 6ft 1.75 inches. Unfortunately, there is a large hollow at the base with a pile of orange wood-dust on the ground below it, likely indicating ferocious borer activity.
The American Chestnuts (Castanea dentata) don't grow larger than sapling size. The largest I could find is shown in the pictures below.
Below is a picture of a flame azalea flower.
Lot B has some nice rock outcroppings in its northwestern reaches.
Below are two pictures of a large, magnificent Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica) tree that stands next to my southernmost stream that runs west-to-east across Lot B. It is fairly close to the border with the Conservation Area.
It was nice to see the large Yellow Buckeye (Aesculus flava) trees in Lot B fully leafed out. There are a few of them.