Between the date of the founding of New Orleans and the day that Benjamin Franklin ran away from Boston, an acorn dropped from a White Oak tree on a forested west-facing hill in the Connecticut River valley, rolled, then stopped. Amazingly, it wasn't eaten by any one: squirrel, turkey, bear, deer, or human. The next year it sprouted.
By the time John Adams was born and Jonathan Edwards was capturing the attention of the people of Northampton with fire and brimstone sermons, the acorn had grown into a sapling, reaching up for light in the forest. While the Strong House and the Porter Phelps Huntington House were being built, the tree, now established in its forest, kept growing toward the sun.
When the worthies of the Town of Amherst founded a college for the education of their young men to the ministry, the tree was already a century old. Four decades later, when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decided to start a state-sponsored college for the useful education of its youth, and picked land in the rural mid-state town of Amherst for the college, the tree continued to thrive, despite the changes around it.
It is still alive and well. It is now over 281 years old. It is on the University of Massachusetts campus, on a hillside of marvelous trees.
And it's not alone. There are other old trees near it, especially on the steep parts of the slope. How old? Is the area "old growth?" I can't answer those questions because I simply don't have the information. I do know that at least two other trees are old enough to pre-date the founding of the University. A Black Birch near the road is 145 years old, and a Hemlock is 192.
These trees were picked out for sampling by the totally unscientific process of walking around and picking a few trees that "looked old." While the White Oak and the Hemlock are probably among the oldest trees in this woods, there is no reason to assume they are the oldest.
Somehow they and other trees have survived 143 years of University growth, building, changing academic interests, and, possibly, wood burning for fuel. I'm told that a few decades ago students in the School of Education had natural history projects that included each student having a plot in these woods. More recently, the woods have been used as part of a cross-country course for equestrians and for mountain bikers, and for parties around campfires by students from nearby dorms. A portion of the woods was proposed to be used for the construction of new residence halls last spring; that plan is now either on hold or dropped – hard to tell which.
I am truly hoping that, inspired by this preliminary information, researchers and administrators at the University will seize the opportunity to learn more about this treasure we have inherited without knowing its worth. Given the use of the forest by the School of Education, all over Massachusetts there are teachers who knew a lot about this area and who would probably like to see it preserved.
Wouldn't you like to see it?
You can. On Saturday, October 29, I'm leading a walk for the local Sierra Club; non-members are welcome to join us. We'll meet at 10 am at parking lot #43, next to the Totman gymnasium on the corner of North Pleasant Street and Eastman Lane. For a preview, take a look at my website:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~campbell/prexys_ridge/index.html
Wear sturdy boots - the slope is steep! – and dress for the weather. We'll have a great time exploring and learning.