Baldcypress at Lake's Edge

Three little trees I take an interest in

I've been watching these three young baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) trees for several years. They grow on the shore of Kentucky Lake near the Eggner's Ferry Bridge in Land Between the Lakes*. Turn off the road at the Fenton campgrounds, follow the road to the boat docks, and you can see them too.

When our daughter was attending college at Murray, KY, I passed through Land Between the Lakes whenever I went to visit her. I first noticed these little baldcypresses when I stopped to take some photos of Kentucky Lake on a windy day in 2007. Now our son is attending Murray State University, and I stopped to see how the little baldcypresses were doing when I drove home from Murray last week.

I was happy that the little trees are much larger than the last time I last saw them. I'm a little worried about the two smaller ones, though. I don't think their needles should be changing color and getting ready to fall off already. Certainly they are deciduous trees, but it's only the middle of August. I suppose they might have some kind of blight.

I suppose this will sound crazy. After all, these are baldcypresses, and they're supposed to be able to live in water. Still, I can't help wondering if constant submersion might be affecting the health of these young trees. When I first saw them, they were growing in wet soil at the water's edge. I think they are now standing in at least two feet of water. Kentucky Lake is full this year because we've had a wet summer.

I haven't found any information that I consider reputable about the tolerance of young baldcypress for growing in water most of the time. I did learn that baldcypress seeds will sprout in contact with wet soil, but not in water. As soon as they sprout, they start growing upward at a rapid rate; they elevate their photosynthesis organs (their leaves) as quickly as possible.

I read in Floridata's article about baldcypress that it grows faster, larger, and healthier when it doesn't have to tolerate floods. However, because baldcypress seedlings can't survive in heavy shade, they are usually  out-competed in moist upland forests. Thus, baldcypress is most often found at water's edge where it gets plenty of sunshine and a lot less competition, even if it doesn't thrive quite as well.

Baldcypress is famous for the knees that develop when it is grown in or near water. One theory is that the knees are pneumatophores (air roots that help the main roots with gas exchange when the tree is standing in water).  Another theory is that they function as anchors to keep the tree stable in ooze and muck. Whatever the knees do, I'm sure these babies are growing some.

*Kentucky Lake (created by a dam on the Tennessee River) and Lake Barkeley (created by a dam on the Cumberland River) are two nearly parallel bodies of water. Land Between the Lakes (LBL) is the 170,000-acre, mostly wooded, inland peninsula that lies between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkeley. LBL is managed by the National Forest Service, and the dams produce TVA electricity.

Big Oak Tree State Park

An important place for me to visit

I'll be 58 next month, and I've been thinking about some things I'd like to see and do during my 58th year. I must admit that some of these things could/should have been done long ago -- but better late than never, no?

One of my goals is to visit Big Oak Tree State Park, in extreme southeastern Missouri. I've crossed the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois, dozens of times. However, I've never taken the time to turn off the main road and drive 25 miles south to the park. I'm always in a hurry, on a trip to visit my family.

The park has a very interesting history. This area, already a flood-plains forest, sank up to 50 feet in some places during the great New Madrid Earthquake of 1811. Swamps became swampier. As settlers populated the area, they recognized the agricultural potential of the rich, alleuvial soil, and a century of reclamation began, with the goal of creating as much farmland as possible.

By the 1930s, nearly all of the swamps had been drained and nearly all of the forest had been cleared. One tract in Mississippi County, soon to be logged, contained the largest bur oak tree that has ever been known. Public sentiment was aroused, and a statewide effort began to save the big bur oak and to preserve a remnant of Missouri's great forest of the Mississippi floodplain.

Because of the Great Depression, the state of Missouri did not have enough funds to purchase the acreage where the tree grew. With a combination of state funds, private donations, and the generosity of concerned citizens who gave what they could, enough money was raised to buy 1007 acres of virgin hardwood forest in Mississippi County. This purchase included the tract of land with the giant bur oak tree. In 1938, the Big Oak Tree Park was dedicated.

The bur oak fell in the 1950s. Its death at the advanced age of 396 was attributed to lightning strikes and rot. The tract of land where it grew is now a National Natural Landmark. The National Park Service describes the area as "the only sizable tract of essentially virgin wet-mesic bottomland habitat."

In addition to the champion bur oak, the park has been a home to other state and national champion trees as well.  Missouri State Parks information says that "...trees in the park are unsurpassed in the state for their size, with a canopy averaging 120 feet and with several trees more than 130 feet tall. Five trees qualify as state champions in their species; two others rank as national champions."

The park is attractive to bird-watchers as well as tree-lovers. Around 150 species of birds have been observed there, including some very rare species that have not recently been seen -- and that brings me to a sad ending for this story.

It seems that the park's forest is not in good health. According to an article in American Forests, the old trees are dying and seedlings are not growing. The cane brake is also dying.

Part of the problem is a lake that was built in the park in 1959, destroying the natural swamp that had been there. Drainage systems within the park, designed to prevent flooding of nearby farmland in wet weather, have deprived the ecosystem of the water it needs to sustain itself. Beaver dams were dynamited, also increasing the drainage. Foresters are trying to correct these mistakes now, but it may be too late for the forest to recover.

So I must visit Big Oak Tree State Park sometime soon -- as soon as possible. 

Images in this post are from Wikipedia. The map is from the article "Big Oak Tree State Park" and the photo is from an upload page titled "Big Oak Tree State Park Boardwalk". I highly recommend viewing the full-resolution version (3.96 MB ) of the photo above. Thank you to Knowledgeum, the photographer.

The forest claims one of its own

Mysterious disappearance of a Kentucky frontiersman

Here is a brief biography of one of Kentucky's earliest settlers, James Harrod, who founded the first permanent settlement in Kentucky:

JAMES Harrod, born in Virginia in 1746; reared and educated in his native state, immigrated to Kentucky in 1774, and built the first log cabin on the present site of Harrodsburg; he was a successful agriculturist, an expert with the rifle, and a brave and intrepid soldier, ranking as one of the leaders in military affairs, distinguishing himself at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774; subsequently he represented Harrodsburg (which was named in his honor) in the Transylvania Assembly; he was in the habit of making solitary excursions into the forest, and from one of these trips, which was undertaken about the year 1825, when he was about eighty years of age, he never returned, nor was any trace of him ever discovered.

Source: History of Kentucky (p. 628) by Charles Kerr, William Elsey Connelley, Ellis Merton Coulter. Published in 1922 by the American Historical Society, Chicago and New York.

Unfortunately, the authors were mistaken about the date of Harrod's disappearance. Dozens of other sources say that Harrod disappeared in 1792. He would have been less than fifty years of age at the time.

Coincidentally or not, Harrod prepared a will shortly before his disappearance. The settlers searched the woodlands surrounding Harrodsburg, but no trace of him was ever found.

To this day, no one knows what became of Harrod, but there are three lines of speculation: 1) He suffered an accident in the woods and died. 2) His wife had been unfaithful and he decided to leave. Rumors circulated to this effect. 3) He was murdered. Various rumors were spread about this as well.

James Harrod was a skilled and experienced woodsman and hunter, strong, brave, and resourceful. One writer of the mid-19th century considered him a "hunter-naturalist" of note, a man who met the challenge of the wild land in which he lived.

One thing that can be said with certainty is that Kentucky was virtually untouched by European settlers when James Harrod build a log house at Harrodsburg in 1774. The forests were in their perfect primeval state. Chestnut, American elm, and ash trees were untouched by disease and exotic insects. Elk, wolves, bears, and passenger pigeons were as familiar as blackbirds, deer, and rabbits. What dramatic changes the next two centuries brought!