Wub-e-ke-niew with trees in sugarbush on Bear Dodem land at Red Lake
Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
|
August, 1995
REMNANTS OF WHAT
WAS HERE
In
1913, botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and Addison Brown
of the New York Botanical Garden published An Illustrated Flora of
the
Northern United States and Canada, a three-volume set which aimed
to
“illustrate and describe every species, from the Ferns upward,
recognized as
distinct by botanists and growing wild [sic] within the area
adopted.” By 1913, the forests of
Northern Minnesota had already been subject to full-scale assault by
commercial
loggers for more than forty years, and the biggest and best trees were
gone;
Britton and Brown described only the tattered remains of the
magnificent
forests which had flourished for millennia as a part of Ahnishinahbæótjibway permaculture.
This is a summary of some species of the trees which were
growing in the
Northwoods in 1913:
White
Pine (Pinus Strobus), height over 225 feet, trunk diameter of
10½ feet.
Canadian Pine (Pinus resinosa), height about 150 feet, trunk
diameter of
5 feet.
White Spruce (Picea canadensis), height of about 110 feet, trunk
diameter
of 3 feet.
Red Spruce (Picea rubens), height of 100 feet and drunk diameter
of 4
feet.
Black Spruce (Picea mariana), height of 90 feet, trunk diameter
2-3
feet.
Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), height of 110 feet, trunk diameter 4
feet.
Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea), height 90 feet, trunk diameter 3
feet.
White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis), height about 70 feet, trunk
diameter 5
feet.
Red Cedar (Juniperius virginiana), height about 100 feet, trunk
diameter
5 feet.
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra), height about 150 feet, trunk
diameter 8
feet.
Butternut (Juglans cinerea), height 100 feet, trunk diameter 3
feet.
Hickory-Nut (Hicoria ovata), height 120 feet, trunk diameter 4
feet.
Balm of Giliad (Populus candicans), height 100 feet, trunk
diameter up
to 6½ feet.
Hop-hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), height about 50 feet, trunk
diameter 2
feet.
Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera), height about 80 feet, trunk
diameter 3
feet.
Yellow Birch (Betula leutea), height about 100 feet, trunk
diameter 4
feet.
American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), height about 120 feet, trunk
diameter about 4½ feet.
American Chestnut (Castanea dentata), height about 100 feet,
trunk
diameter 14 feet.
Red Oak (Quercus rubra), height about 140 feet, trunk diameter 7
feet.
White Oak (Quercus alba), height about 150 feet, trunk diameter
8 feet.
Swamp Oak (Quercus bicolor), height about 110 feet, trunk
diameter 9
feet.
Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa), height about 160 feet, trunk
diameter 8
feet.
American Elm (Ulmus americana), height about 120 feet, trunk
diameter 11
feet.
Slippery Elm (Ulmus fulva), height 70 feet, trunk diameter 2
½ feet.
Sugar-berry (Celtis occidentalis), height about 90 feet, trunk
diameter
3 feet.
Plane-Tree (Platanus occidentalis), height about 130 feet, trunk
diameter 14 feet.
Mountain Ash (Sorbus americana), height 30 feet, trunk diameter
18
inches
American Crab Apple (Malus glaucescens), height 25 feet, trunk
diameter
12 inches
June-Berry (Amelanchier canadensis), height 60 feet, trunk
diameter 2
feet.
Hawthorne (Crataegus punctata), height up to 30 feet.
Wild Plum (Prunus americana), height about 35 feet, trunk
diameter
about 1 foot
Choke-cherry (Padus virginiana), height about 90 feet, trunk
diameter
about 4 feet.
Sumac (Rhus hirta), height 40 feet, trunk diameter 9 feet.
Bladder-Nut (Staphylea trifolia), height 30 feet, trunk diameter
6 feet.
Soft Maple (Acer saccarinum), height 120 feet, trunk diameter 5
feet.
Sugar Maple (Acer saccarum), height 120 feet, trunk diameter
3½ feet.
Black Sugar Maple (Acer nigrum), height 120 feet, trunk diameter
3½
feet.
Wild Grapes (Vitis Labrusca), ascending high trees, stem a foot
in
diameter or more
Basswood (Tilia americana), height 125 feet, trunk 5 feet in
diameter
Flowering Dogwood (Cynoxylon floridum), 40 feet tall, trunk
diameter 1½
feet.
White Ash (Fraxinus americana), 130 feet tall, trunk diameter 6
feet.
Black Ash (Fraxinus nigra), 100 feet tall, trunk diameter 3 feet.
Wub-e-ke-niew with
trees in sugarbush on Bear Dodem land at Red Lake
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