Today we hiked through the woods to the ravine at the bottom of Greendale Cemetery in hopes of learning more about the trees of Pennsylvania! Mark Lewis lead us through the woods covered in Beech Trees, White Ash Trees, Hemlocks, and countless others. We learned about how this ravine merely escaped being glaciated thousands of years ago and now has trees that are said to be almost 300 years old! As you can guess, they were huge - some reaching heights of more than 100ft!
If seeing the trees didn't prove it already, reaching the stream at the bottom was definitely well worth the trek. The water was so clear and the water running over the slippery, algae covered rocks were beautiful. Mark Lewis knew so much about all the trees and the environment that it was basically impossible for us to leave without absorbing some information. Specifically, we learned about the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and how this bug is destroying Hemlocks throughout the East by introducing its deadly pathogens to the tree and killing it. And even though we left the trails kind of exhausted and definitely in need of some water from all the walking, we really appreciated being able to see all the old trees and to learn about so many new things!
No comments:
Post a Comment