Tom Wessels: Reading the Forested Landscape, Part 2
760,708
Published 2018-07-03
Tom Wessels is a terrestrial ecologist and Antioch University New England professor emeritus. He has authored a number of books. If you've read "Reading the Forested Landscape" and "Forest Forensics", you know how skilled he is at interpreting the past land use history clues abounding in central New England's changing forests. Learning to apply the knowledge you gained from those books can be time consuming, however, and you probably find yourself returning to the books often.
In this 3-part series, you'll go into the woods with Tom as he covers many of the topics in detail, providing another opportunity for you to enhance your own "forest forensics" skills.
Some of the topics covered in the three parts: New England's stone walls; pillows and cradles; merino sheep craze ("sheep fever"); forests arising on abandoned agricultural land (past hay field vs crop field vs pasture); signs of past wind, logging and fire damage; reading tree stumps; white pine weevils and multi-trunked pines .
Here in Part 2, Tom teaches us how to understand past logging evidence; he discusses the American chestnut blight; and reveals what a rotting old tree stump can tell us.
Part 1 is at • Tom Wessels: Reading the Forested Lan...
Part 3 is at • Tom Wessels: Reading the Forested Lan...
Also, see this story and others at our blog, www.neforests.com
And be sure to watch "The Ecology of Coevolved Species", featuring Tom, at
• Tom Wessels: The Ecology of Coevolved...
=======================================================================
A note to users of closed-captions: the captions (subtitles) can be moved to different locations on the screen if they are blocking your view. To move a closed caption, place your cursor on it and drag it. Also, when captions are turned on, there are a number of caption features you can change by clicking on the settings "gear wheel" and selecting "Subtitles/CC", and then "Options".
All Comments (21)
-
Please note: you are encouraged to comment and welcome to ask questions, but Tom does not monitor these posts and probably will not personally respond. -Ray
-
Spending a day wandering the woods with this dude would be surreal!
-
I have a friend who lives in southern Pa.and she has a full-grown American chestnut tree growing in her backyard. It has been estimated to be close to 400 years old and still produces nuts. She lets some of the nuts sprout in the soil around the mother tree and grow into 12" high seedlings which she then pots up and gives to her friends and visitors to take home and plant them where they live. It is an absolutely amazing tree and hopefully will be the progenitor for hundreds of other chestnuts to follow in her giant footsteps.
-
I remember old men in Appalachia weeping at the recollection of Chestnut trees.
-
I have hunted and trapped my entire life. I thought I had an appreciation and basic understanding of the woods... I was wrong. You sir had my full attention for the entirety of this video and I was amazed at how ignorant I have been while walking the woods. Thank you so very much.
-
I'm very happy to hear the American Chestnut will recover. I wish I could live long enough to see them come back full force. I remember hearing about roasted chestnuts as a child and not knowing what they were.
-
I have been hiking in the woods of PA my entire life observing old logging roads, stone walls, old stumps, etc. I thought I knew quite a bit about the history of the woods, but I have learned way more in the last hour watching these videos than I have in the last 40 years. Tom’s knowledge is really amazing. Great videos!
-
This is fascinating. The pre contact eastern forest must've been a truly wondrous sight to see. It's weird having this nostalgic longing for a place I haven't any hope of ever experiencing as I was obviously born a bit late. 🙂 And too far west.
-
I am speechless in front of the knowledge of this man, and the amount of informations a woodland area retains.
-
Thank you, what a pleasant surprise to listen to somebody who actually knows what he's talking about..
-
Georgia man here. When I was a kid, I used to come up with ideas about trees like this. I haven't played like that in the woods for decades. I still enjoy seeing moss and disfigured trees. Now, with this series, I will understand a little more of what I'm seeing. Thanks for posting.
-
Amazing I’ll never walk thru the forest the same again
-
That last tree he spoke about was hella resilient. It took a second for me to even understand what happened before he finished speaking about it. Very cool.
-
What an amazing discovery. An accidental click of a mouse and I have found answers to questions I wonder about everyday when I walk in my local woods here in Wales. I'm 68 and still learning. Better than school . Thank you Sir. Looking forward to learning more .
-
So simple, so genius. Take time, observe, contemplate, understand. 10 stars out of 10.
-
We need more teachers like tom ! 👍👍
-
I very much appreciate pure knowledge, no bs, no subscribe, no "today we speak about.... sponsors...". Bless you man, you read the forest like a druid.
-
As a New Englander, I just love and appreciate the information shared here. It's so clearly and well explained. Just enjoyable. Would love to walk the woods with Tom. With much gratitude.
-
I honestly think this "Reading the Forested Landscape" series is the most interesting video I have ever watched regarding our Northeast forests. ALL your videos are great actually. Thanks for putting all the time and effort into this, it's much appreciated by this fellow forest fan in Cattaraugus Country NY.
-
Your videos are the closest thing I have right now to being in the woods. Due to coronavirus I'm in my small city apartment dreaming of hiking. You've saved me. And I'm learning so much!
