Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The forest ecosystem is never static, however. Eventually disease,
insects, high winds or fire will fell the giants, allowing sunlight the pene-
trate to the forest floor and begin the process anew. The dead or dying
giants make good homes and food sources for birds and small mammals.
INTERESTING FACT:
Some species, particularly
the low, gnarled Jack pine, actually use the heat gen-
erated by a forest fire to help free seeds from its tough,
wood cone.
Woods - Uses & Growth
While the term softwoods is used as a synonym for conifers (needle-
bearing), remember that not all conifer wood is soft. Hemlock, for
instance, is tougher than poplar, also known as aspen, even though the
latter is classified as a hardwood. Hardwoods, a term generally used for
deciduous or leaf-bearing trees that shed their leaves in fall, even though
some species bear soft wood. And, all conifers are not necessarily “ever-
green.” Conifers lose about 30% of their needles every year. The needles
of larch, which is also known as tamarack and hackmatack, turn orange-
yellow each fall and drop just like their leaf-bearing neighbors. In Maine,
softwoods are the primary raw material used for making paper and con-
struction lumber. Hardwoods such as maple and oak are used for pallets,
furniture and wood products such as toothpicks. Popsicle sticks and tro-
phy parts are made from odorless white birch, a tight-grained wood,
made so by its distinctive bark which grows at a right angle to the stem.
Balsam fir is the tree with the traditional “Christmas tree” smell,
although its flat needles make it a rare choice for a full, decorative tree.
The dried needles are used in fragrant balsam pillows and in incense.
DID YOU KNOW?
Maine cuts and ships more than
350,000 Christmas trees each year. In addition, soft-
woods, including fir and spruce, are “tipped” to gather
enough brush to create 2.5 million wreaths.
Treeline, the elevation above which trees no longer grow, is much lower in
Maine and New England due to the strong weather patterns that con-
verge here. This is especially true in Western Maine and on Katahdin. At
higher elevations, balsam fir and spruce, buffeted and shaped by fierce
winds, struggle to maintain a tenuous hold in the shallow soil. Nature
has created her own bonsai trees here. Despite their small, shrub-like
appearance, these dwarf trees, called krummholz, are often very old.
Studies have shown that the bitter cold temperatures at higher eleva-
tions in the winter is not the key factor in determining where the treeline
