First Day at Cathedral Park

Today is the first day of our Forestry and Rail Project.  It is exciting to work with this group of teachers, and project members. We went to Cathedral Park.  Cathedral Park is a virgin (unharvested) hemlock forest. It has spongy acidic (3.55) soil.

The main tree found in the forest is the hemlock.  There is also a number of oak trees maple trees and magnolia bushes. One of the interesting things was that there was not much foliage on the ground. This was because the taller trees were blocking the sun and were taking the nutrients out of the ground. When it rained it was almost like being in the shelter because not much of the rain reached us on the ground. 

                                                                                                                                                                                              

Trees that had fallen,died and rotted supplied the nutrients for new plant growth.
Finally we measured the board length of a hemlock located at N39*19.593 W32.213.It had a circumference of 129 inches, 52 feet tall. The board feet was 1441.  A board feet value for a hemlock is $3.20, so this tree harvested would be worth $4610! Is it any wonder that forestry is a big business.