“Twenty-one trees”
The Catskill Geologists
Robert and Johanna Titus
We belong to and are active with a large number of local civic groups. Such memberships are rewarding things to do, and they involve us directly with our community in very special ways. We work actively with the Mountaintop Historical Society, the Green County Historical Society, Cedar Grove — the Thomas Cole National Historical Site, Olana, the Woodstock Land Conservancy, WIOX FM and numerous others. Each serves the needs of the broader community (mostly) on a volunteer basis, that’s something that makes the Catskills and the Hudson Valley great places to live. As active scientists, we bring something special to each of these groups; we plug them into their natural histories. It’s a privilege and even an honor to do so. These are interesting and fun endeavors. We urge you to join some of these groups yourself.
Let’s talk about one of the projects that we have been working on recently. That involves the Mountain Top Arboretum, the only public garden/arboretum in all of the Catskills Park. It’s been around since 1977 and has been dedicated to displaying and managing a forest ecology native to our portion of the Northeast. During this time the Arboretum grounds have grown from 7 to 178 acres of forest and meadow. As any arboretum does, it maintains a host of tree species, most of them are native but some are special exotics. We will describe some of these special ones in future columns.
Recently the Arboretum has built and opened a new Education Center. In association with that event, they have sponsored a general survey of the natural history of the Arboretum grounds. They enlisted a number of specialists to study the Arboretum landscapes’ forest history, animals, birds, insects, geology and much more. They approached us to do the geological part and we gladly agreed. It involved a fair amount of work and attendance at a number of planning sessions, but it was all for a good cause. One of the results was a voluminous natural resource inventory which came out last April. Currently, that isn’t for sale to the general public.
But, more recently, a second volume was issued and that is the one we would like to highlight today. It’s entitled “TWENTY-ONE TREES” and it is available for you, the general reader. It’s beautiful book with many fine photographs by Rob Cardillo. The book title refers to the 21 species of native trees that provided the lumber for the Education Center. We wrote an early chapter where we introduce our readers to the geological history of the Arboretum as it can be seen when walking around the grounds, we take people to some of the best bedrock exposures and from there we journey into the Devonian past. We visit the Catskill Delta and some of the streams that flowed by way back then. Then we skip through about 375 million years and visit the Arboretum during the Ice Age. Again, we walk the grounds again and point out the landscape features produced by the ice.
Forest historian Dr, Michel Kudish then takes over and leads readers through the area’s forest history. Mike describes a forest that is gradually recovering from a history of 19th Century damage done by the tanning industry and farming. Then he describes some of the Catskills oldest peat bogs, dating all the way back to the very end of the Ice Age.
The bulk of the book is devoted to well-illustrated descriptions of the mostly native species of trees found at the Arboretum. Ron Cardillo’s unforgettable year-round photography is the highlight of the book. We recommend it strongly for all of you fascinated by the natural history of our Catskills. Don’t forget, Christmas is coming up and you can only get the book at the Arboretum. It’s a good excuse for a visit. Bring the kids.
Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net. Join their facebook page “The Catskill Geologist.” Learn more about the Mountain Top arboretum at mtarboretum.org.
