April 02, 1992 - Woods Renewal by Mother NatureApril" 2, 1992. The Suffolk Times • 5A
Woods Renewal by Mother Nature
By Paul Stoutenburah
It's pretty hard to cut wood when the
signs of spring are all about you but cut
I must for the wood I'm cutting is the
remains of an old barn that a farmer
friend of mine dropped off in my drive-
way. The barn stood for many years be-
hind his house but time and weather
took its toll. It would take more money
than it was worth to repair it and so
down it came. What lay before me was
a pile of weathered siding and hand -cut
beams.
As I worked my way through the pile
of tangled and broken wood I wondered
who had originally built the barn and
when. Much of the wood had been used
two or three times before, showing the
true Yankee spirit of thrift. I'm afraid
today's generation would have diffi-
culty comprehending that concept.
The square nails and rusty remains of
hidden nails marked the old boards and
I had to watch carefully not to hit any as
I sawed away. The ancient wood will
make find kindling and its flames will
start many a new fire in our woodstove
and fireplace.
Much of what I was cutting was pine,
that wonderful soft wood that is easy to
cut and nail. Pine was widely used by
our early settlers and is still used today
for finishing in our homes. The oak
beams were probably the oldest part of
the barn. I could see the adze marks that
went into them to keep them straight
and true. No wonder timber was recy-
cled in those days. Nothing came easy.
The forest that greeted the early set-
tlers was something to be conquered.
The Indians did this much as the natives
still do in the world today by slash and
burn. Yet their clearings did little to
open the forest when the first settlers ar-
rived. To them, land was for farming
not trees and so the clearing of the land
was the main occupation of anyone who
wanted to get ahead. By the turn of the
century most of the land had been
cleared in New York State. Much of it
was land that was unfit for farming. But
then, who could stop a man from trying.
Subsistence Farming
Thousands of small farms sprang up
throughout the northeast They were ba-
Focus on
Nature
sically subsistence farms where the
farmer raised most of his needs on the
land plus a small cash crop in some
form or other to pay for his basic farm-
ing needs.
As the years rolled on this subsistence
farming started to show the strain of
poor and oftentimes rocky soils. The
lure of a better life on more productive
flat land to the west soon found its fol-
lowing after the boys returned home
from the Civil War. They brought glow-
ing reports of a much easier life to the
west and soon farms were up for sale or
just plain abandoned. Today, most of
the old farms are gone and only the out-
lines with their stone walls remain. A
few of those old farms survive for they
were built on the backbone of good and
prosperous soils. Some of these are right
here on our East End, with others sprin-
kled throughout the state. But the major-
ity of those early subsistence farms have
been taken over by nature's neverending
fight to reforest her land. Today, we see
our state covered with more woodland
than in those early days of farming.
Reforestation is a subtle process, one
that is hardly noticed by most. First
weeds move in and the hard- fought cul-
tivated land turns into a conglomerate of
plants that are born survivors. Those
that cannot compete are crowded out by
the more aggressive. Now that there is
no cultivation, mice, voles and shrews
move in to a new habitat followed by
their predators, the hawks and owls.
Within a relatively short period of time
small shrubs and bushes start to branch
out above the weeds, blocking out the
life - giving sun that all plants need to
survive. Years go by and what once was
open farm land is now covered with a
wide array of greenery.
How could this transformation hap-
pen? Who brought in the seeds? Who
planted them? Where did they come
from? Seeds can lay dormant in the soil
for years, each awaiting that special
time when soil, moisture and tempera-
i w &Vw * ae,wV owwL
78 Years Ago
April 4, 1914
North Fork Baseball Team: The East End Base-
ball League, which created so much interest on the East
End last season, promises to stir up more enthusiasm than
ever this year. To be represented are Greenport, Orient,
Shelter Island, Cutchogue, Mattituck, Riverhead and Sag
Harbor. There will be a 28 -game schedule opening May 2.
All players on the North Fork division will have to live
between Riverhead and Orient Point. An option has been
secured on the old baseball grounds, at Moores Lane and
Front Street in Greenport, where the games will probably
be played.
Fearless Honeymoon: Ralph Isham and his bride,
daughter of the late Mayor Gaynor, are in Mexico for a 10-
day hunting trip. They are accompanied by several guides,
all heavily armed. The bridal pair refused to listen to warn-
ings that the Mexican war made the trip dangerous. Gov.
Juan Lajoro of Lower California has promised military aid
in case of an attack by bandits. The party left in Isham's
machine, which he drove himself. Isham is a son of Mrs.
Juliet Isham of Shelter Island Heights.
Letter to the Editor. We walk down street on good
sidewalks with our shoes all blacked and polished, but get
them dashed with mud when we cross the streets. Where are
the crosswalks of yesterday? I think we ought to have cross-
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
GREY SQUIRREL —Most of the nuts the squirrel buries for later use are
retrieved. The ones that are missed help reforest our world by growing into
new trees.
ture are just right. Then their internal
clock is triggered and the miracle of re-
generation is put into action. Add this to
the birds and animals that eat berries
and seeds of plants from near and far
and then fly or roam over the land. The
berries have seeds which are not di-
gested but pass through the animal or
bird, leaving a new trail of anxious
growth.
Now the sun - loving, fast - growing
walks and have them swept clean. Yours truly, An Old Grunt.
50 Years Ago
April 2, 1942
Dim the Lights: For the duration of the war, owners
and proprietors of stores in the Village of Greenport are
requested to reduce the lights in their store windows in
stores which have awnings that can be lowered. In stores
with no awnings window lights must be turned off or
screened from the street. Householders whose residence
windows are visible from the water must draw the shades.
In all other residences light is requested to be reduced and
curtains pulled down. All motorists driving after dark must
use parking lights only and not exceed a speed limit of 15
mph in the village.
25 Years Ago
April 7, 1967
Referendum on Town Hail: The referendum on
the proposition to purchase land at Southold for a future
town hall will be held Friday, April 14, between noon and 8
p.m. Supervisor Albertson has stated many persons are
fearful that if purchase of the land is approved by the voters
that the town board will proceed with the construction of a
town hall on the site without first submitting the project to
the people for their approval.
trees move in, such as locust, cedar,
birch, sumac and others crowding and
the once - dominant shrubs. This new and
tender browse entices the deer and rab-
bit and others to move in and be part of
the expanding woodland. More time
passes. Woodpeckers carry and store
acorns and hickory nuts in the new
woods. Squirrels and chipmunks do
their part in burying nuts and hoarding
them for winter. A hawk swoops in and
takes a chipmunk, leaving his hoard of
nuts unused. Later they'll sprout and
one will dominate and grow and the
process goes on and on.
Soon the forest is full fledged with
newer trees that now crowd out and
shade out the earlier fast - growing trees.
A climax forest starts to be established.
Now these trees, whether they be oak,
maple, hickory or pine, all will mature
and succumb to none but their own.
Each has its own particular needs as far
as soil and moisture go and so some of
our forest will be pine, others will be
hard woods but each will remain domi-
nant.
This succession of plants from the
weeds to the forest that takes over to the
climax forest is exactly what we have
here on the East End. We can see this
starting on some of the farms that have
gone out of business and are now in
stubble and weeds. Left long enough
they will eventually mature into a forest.
Many of the oak and hickory woods we
see about us were once farm fields some
60 -100 years ago and have worked
themselves through this succession of
plants to their present status. This all
goes to show that if given a chance, na-
ture can usually heal the scars of man,
provided they are not too deep.