| 13. Goosepen Tree | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
 Photo by Ted Schmalz Interpretive Stops
1. Along Aptos Creek Additional Information
|
Fire Makes Large Openings in Redwood TreesGoosepens are the wide, open scars seen on some coast redwoods. Although the goosepen on the redwood at this stop is not the largest in Marcel's Forest, it is a prime example of a goosepen that allows you to look inside a tree! Goosepen scars are caused by fires that have burned into the tree's heartwood. Fires inside the trunk can smolder for months, sometimes hollowing out a large tree up to 100 feet inside. The scars don't kill the tree as long as enough of the cambium layer, the growing part of the tree, is left intact. Given time, redwoods heal these scars, and the goosepens close up. Look at the trunk of the redwood at the northeast end of the Ravine Bridge, Stop 15, to see a goosepen that is slowly healing. How did the fires start?It's uncertain how the fires which caused these goosepens started. Lightning is one possibility. While lightning is less common along the central California than the northern coast, strikes do occur. It's possible that lightning could have sparked any one of the many fires that have burned through this forest. Several old-growth redwoods in the area show crown damage possibly caused by wind or lightning. (See Fairy-Ring in the Making.) We also know that the Ohlone were skilled fire managers and frequently used fires, usually before the rainy season, to clear the underbrush so that new plants could grow. The plant shoots that grew from the burned land the following spring provided food or basket-making material. A Spaniard's journal entry made from an observation near Aptos says, "Along these hills and in their vicinity we saw groves of hazelnuts, although it had been recently burned and not grown up again.". Fire in Marcel's Forest could have also started a third but less likely way. Loggers sometimes set fires to burn the debris left after felling a redwood. The debris, called "slash," was composed of branches, limbs, and bark peeled from the redwood trunk. "Slash" was usually burned to clear the path for removing logs from the forest. But since most trees cut in Marcel's Forest were probably selectively logged for split-stuff, and not for trees headed for the mill, it's less likely that loggers set fires in the area. "Split-stuff" is a logging term used to describe redwood that was split into stakes, shakes, posts, pickets, and railroad ties. Redwoods logged for split-stuff were hand cut on the spot, and then loaded onto pack animals to be hauled out of the forest. Fires Help the ForestContrary to what many people think, fire is a natural forest disturbance that helps renew and enhance forest growth. Fire clears the understory of litter and vegetation so that tree seedlings, like the redwood, can grow without competition from other plants. In addition, fires that start and burn at regular intervals reduce fuel available for successive fires. Reducing fuel load prevents the eruption of a hot fire, which often kills more trees and vegetation than "cool" fires created from reduced fuel loads. Cool fires burn but don't decimate a forest. For millions of years, redwoods have evolved with fire and, therefore, have adapted ways to live with this natural disturbance. They have developed thick bark that resists igniting during fires as well as the ability to sprout from the base of the tree. Drive-thru Trees A Popular California Tourist AttractionThe Shrine Drive-thru tree in Myers Flat, California (see above right photo), started out as a goosepen tree. Humans continued what the fire started, hollowing out the tree even more, making it big enough so that cars could drive through. Why are these openings called a "goosepen"?Settlers built gates across the goosepen opening and kept their chickens and geese in the hollowed-out tree trunks.
|
|
||||||||||
Back to 
Forward to 
| © 2002 "A Walk Along Old-Growth Loop." All Rights Reserved. |