Station 9: A Changing Forest

For more than a hundred years the area in front of you was alternately a cultivated field and a mowing.

• In 1926, it was planted to a mixed species plantation of red pine and white spruce.
• Over time many pines died and hardwoods began to invade.
• To hasten the natural succession process, the stand was clearcut in 1990.
• All trees were harvested, including the young hardwoods, and an opening was created in our forest.

The hardwoods that had grown in under the plantation sprouted vigorously and grew back quickly to form the mixed hardwood stand you now see, more than a decade later.

Because red pines, and most of our native conifers, do not sprout their cut stumps can be seen slowly decaying amidst the regrowing hardwoods. Any conifers growing here now established themselves from seed.