ollege C WoodsVol I No 8 Jan-Dec 2014

University of New Hampshire ~ Durham, New Hampshire 03824

UNH

College Woods Day October 8, 2014 The Annual Rededication of College Woods

We happily observed College Woods Day on the second Tuesday on October which, this year, was on October 8th. Although rainy in the early morning, the clouds cleared as the day unfolded and it turned into a splendid day for the celebration. The activities began at high noon in the James Hall Conference Room with snacks, good conversation, raffle items, and a display of College Woods mementos. After about twenty minutes, the group strolled into College Woods for a dedication ceremony at the College Woods Natural Area sign.

Dick Weyrick introduced our guest speaker Phil Auger, land agent and land manager, Southeast Land Trust. Phil gave a good talk about his experiences in College Woods and his views on con-servation. Then Patty Bedker gave a thoughtful tribute to Emery Booska who was a strong supporter of College Woods. We were glad that Suzanne Booska could be with us to share the dedication and tribute. We miss Emery.

A few members of the group took a tour of College Woods following the ceremony. It was a beautiful day for our second annual dedica-tion of the priceless asset to the university, UNH College Woods.

Soils in College WoodsSid Pilgrim, August 2014

Perhaps the Five Factors of Soil Formation can serve as a frame-work for a discussion of soils in College Woods, University of New Hampshire. These are Parent Material, Topography, Biota (plants and soil organisms), Climate and Time. I generally add a sixth factor for New England, Human Disturbance or Anthropogenic.

1. Parent Material This is a major factor in the kind of soil found at a given location within College Woods. Materials left as the Ice Sheet departed New Hampshire and receded into Maine (about 17,500 years ago, Maine Geological Survey 2007) relate to soil properties for individual soils. The most extensive parent material in College Woods is glacial till. This is material deposited by active ice as it moved from the northwest to the southeast. A wide range of particle sizes is typical. This includes sand, silt and commonly less than 10 percent clay. Gravel and cobble size mate-rial is common with angular faces on the rock fragments. Stone size fragments (10 to 24 inches in diameter) are found in the soil profile as well as on the surface. Stone walls observed today in the College Woods were built during Colonial Time as an effort to

College Woods Coalition ~ Conserving the College Woods

remove the stones from the soil surface. This allowed for seeding grasses and providing pasture for livestock.

Only a thin mantle of glacial till over bedrock occurs in many areas. Soils forming in these areas are not as productive for forest growth or farming due to the low soil moisture holding capacity. Soil maps for these areas often show a shallow to bedrock soil (less than 20 inches) called Hollis and a deeper soil called Canton that occur in a very complex pattern. Bedrock outcrops also occur in these soil units.

A typical soil profile for a well drained deep soil in glacial till:

Surface soil -- Forest floor consisting of organic soil materials. Some material more decomposed than other areas but generally reflects the leaves and needles comprising the overstory forest trees.

Some areas have a thin A horizon. These are mineral soil materi-als that largely resulted from physical mixing of organic surface with some of the underlying subsoil mineral material as part of a land clearing operation during Colonial time. Additionally, sheep and cattle using the area in spring and early summer months when soils are very moist often mix the organic with mineral by action with their hoofs.

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Subsoil -- Yellowish brown color B horizons with loamy textures. Soil is friable with many roots. Rock fragments are angular and comprise up to 20 to 35 percent of soil volume.

Substratum -- Grayish brown color C horizons with more sand than the overlying horizon. Many angular rock fragments typical of glacial till. This horizon commonly starts at 24 inches below the surface and extends to at least 40 inches.

The second most extensive parent material is marine sediments. As you will see this is actually a misnomer. The active ice mass moving from the Northwest rides over bedrock outcrops grinding the rock into a rock flour. The mineral composition of the flour reflects the mineralogy of the bedrock. Schist and granitic rocks are common upstream, thus micas, feldspars, quartz are common minerals in the rock flour. Clay size fraction is generally 35 per cent or less with silt and sand making up the balance of the less than 2.0 millimeter material. Subglacial streams pick up the rock flour and transport to the margin of the ice sheet. These streams occur in topographical lows. An example is College Brook. The weight of the ice mass depressed the land. As ice melted ocean waters rose and intruded over the deposited rock flour. Eventually the land rebounded and marine waters receded exposing sediments that originated much further upstream.

A shovel pit dug in these sediments would show materials dominated by clay and silt with some sand. Rock fragments such as cobbles and stones would not be present in contrast to the glacial till. An A horizon of six inches or so is common. Color is generally a dark grayish brown in wet areas. Silt loam is a common texture. A thin forest floor often overlies the A. The subsoil or B horizon has an array of soil colors produced by the alternating wet soil conditions and then dry conditions. These colors are the footprint left in the soil from Fe reduction (wet - gray) and then Fe oxidation (dry – reddish brown). Soil microbes play a key role. These colors persist in soils and thus are useful in determinations of soil drain-age class and hydric soil calls in wetland work. One can use these footprints to predict the height and duration of the soil water table. The underlying substratum or C horizon extends from about two feet to four feet. Color of the matrix is often gray. The thickness of the sediments can be to much greater depths. Soils common in College Woods includes the moderately well drained Boxford and the poorly drained Scitico.

Some tree species have developed morphological adaptations so as to grow in the poorly drained sediments. White pine and hemlock

are common to the upland soils. There is no impediment to root growth as water tables are low. However, these species have adapted to the more poorly drained soils by use of elevated root systems. Excellent examples of this occur in College Woods. The down side of this is that the trees can be very susceptible to wind throw during storm events, especially if the canopy is quite open.

Marine sediments can be found in the southern part of College Woods extending from College Brook to the reservoir on Oyster River. Only minor areas of other kinds of parent material occur in College Woods. These include alluvium along the Oyster River.

2. Topography Different soils occur in upland areas compared to wetland areas. This is the primary function of topography as it relates to soil formation.

3. Biota - Plants and soil organisms Soils formed under forest have different surface layers than soils formed under a grass vegeta-tion as the former prairie areas of Illinois and Iowa. These soils have thick A horizons with abundant organic matter. Soils of the forested regions of the northeast commonly have surface mineral layers with low organic matter. This is typical of forested sites in College Woods that have never been extensively cultivated for crops. Earthworms contribute to the formation of surface A horizons by mixing the surface organic matter with underlying mineral soil material. However, the acidic surface layers of College Woods soils are not conducive for earthworms and rarely are any found. The soil organism community also includes soil microbes in saturated soils searching for oxygen atoms in Fe oxides, Fe203 ferric iron. Microbes entice the oxide to be an electron acceptor releasing an oxygen atom. The resulting FeO, ferrous iron is soluble in water and moves with the ground water. Thus, splotches of gray and white occur and can be seen against a more brown matrix soil. These splotches are called Fe depletions and are diagnostic features for estimating soil water presence. The marine sediments are excellent candidates to observe this soil forming process. All of this occurs under anaerobic conditions in wet soils during the growing season. Cornell University researchers estimate about two thirds of the iron reduction in wet soils can be attributed to microbial activity.

Fungi and bacteria play an important role in the decomposition of forest plant residue. Over long periods of time the residue or forest floor can be separated into distinct soil layers depending on the degree of decomposition. This is probably best seen beneath a long term deciduous forest canopy that may show three distinct layers. The organic soil material often will have an inch or two of the previous year leaf fall. This will be underlain by another two inches of partially decomposed organic material - fungi and bacteria action. Beneath this would be another two or three inches of a highly decomposed organic material. Contrast this to a forest floor beneath a long term canopy of hemlock or white pine. The plant residue is needles and twigs with perhaps more resistence to decomposition and less likely to have three distinct layers.

4. Climate In the big picture of things the temperate climate of the seacoast does not provide the extreme conditions for soil develop-ment as in the Arctic regions or the deserts of southwest U.S. In these regions climate plays a significant role in soil formation.

SAVE THE DATE1962 - 2015

Annual Rededication of theCollege Woods Natural AreaCOLLEGE WOODS DAY

WednesdayOctober 14, 2015116 James Hall

12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

tion to handle. The only way it could be met was to manage the area under a modified selection system. In this case undesirable or mature trees are removed individually or in groups. The idea is to keep the leaf canopy practically intact, that is, to do little or no clear cutting. With such a mature stand this procedure is hardly profit-able. It is inevitable that in a few years the last of this old growth forest will have disappeared. Nor will it be replaced by young pines because they are intolerant of the shade conditions existing under the present stand. The forestry department has already begun to set out the area to spruce which will thrive under those conditions and later give a valuable stand of timber.

Paul Bunyan - photo by James Barrett August 25, 2006

Editorial from James Barrett

A number of reports indicate that Ben Thompson considered the College Woods Natural Area a special place that should be protected as a park. Some reports suggested that he would include a provision in his will for the protection of the Natural Area. Alas the provision was not included. Perhaps death came before he took care of this business, for death waits for no one. We will never know why he didn’t take this final step to protect the Natural Area.

Those that inherited the land that is now the campus, the agricul-tural fields, and College Woods continued to consider the Natural Area as a special place that needed protection. A formal dedication took place in 1962 that committed UNH to limited protection of the Natural Area. The College Woods (including the Natural Area) is a priceless asset to the UNH community and deserves enduring protection. Note: National Civil War battlefields are protected not just because of their physical features but mainly because of the history of what took place. The College Woods Natural Area has both unique physical features and a unique history.

More from the “Special Collections” archivesArticle by Charles F. Scott, October 1967

Ben Thompson did a great many things to help the people of this vicinity besides leaving his estate to New Hampshire College (forerunner of today’s University). Some people in Barrington were burned out and he gave them lumber for a new house with the condition that relatives in Barrington would help them put up the house. He gave his entire apple crop to the Railroad if they

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5. Time Soil formation has been on going since deglaciation in this area - 17,500 years or so ago. But not at the same rate over this period of time. Cold temperatures and low precipitation character-ized some of this time frame resulting in little soil development.

6. Soil Classification The soils of College Woods are placed in the order Inceptisols in the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. These soils have a diagnostic cambic B horizon suggesting some alteration of the subsoil. For upland soils this is generally a color change – a yel-lowish brown - as compared to the gray color of the substratum C horizon. This is brought about by some weathering of the resident minerals. For wetland soils the iron chemistry of the cambic has been altered yielding reduced gray colors. The term inception is relative to this soil order suggesting early stages of soil formation.

Article from the archives “Special Collections” of the Dimond Library “The New Hampshire” ~ September 30, 1916Duplicate of California “Big Tree” in College

Local Forest Has Tree Two Hundred Years Old in its Midst--Sixty Acres of Woodland Form Natural Park

It has been discovered that we have almost a veritable “big tree” right here in the college forest. In fact there are a good many, but this one deserves special mention because it is the largest and oldest tree there, having defied its enemies two hundred years. Nevertheless it still has sufficient vitality to grow in diameter at the rate of 1 inch in 7 or 8 years, rather remarkable for a tree of that age. It is 140 feet tall and has a diameter, breast high, of 50 inches. Estimates show that the tree contains at least 3000 board feet of lumber. Altogether it is as fine a specimen of the white pine as one could desire. It calls to mind nature’s law of the survival of the fittest. This huge stick, which makes a lumberman’s mouth water to see, will stand untouched. That means the tree will eventually be blown down, well nigh a total loss. But is that lamentable? The tree has an aesthetic value that greatly outweighs its value in cold dollars and cents.

INTENDED FOR PARK

But that particular tree is only one of many that constitute the col-lege forest which is managed on a somewhat more business-like basis. This old growth forest, comprising 60 acres, is a part of the farm bequeathed to the college by Benjamin Thompson. He per-mitted no one to cut the timber there when he was alive and in his will specified that the forest should be maintained as a park. The forestry department with this condition was given a hard proposi-

Woodland SoundsJames Barrett, September 5, 2014

Woodland sounds in College Woods soothe and heal the body and soul -- birds tweeting, the rustle of leaves, the patter of raindrops in a gentle rain, the ripple of water over boulders in the Oyster River.

One of my favorite walks is to the bridge behind the Oyster River Reservoir dam. After a rainy period the water roars over the dam and ripples down the river like a grand, natural musical concert.

The sound, like other sounds in the woods, create a sense of harmony.

Become a Supporter of the College Woods CoalitionThe College Woods Coalition seeks a large membership in order to demonstrate broad support for the permanent protection of College Woods. Your one-time membership contribution of at least $10 will be used for further outreach by the Coalition. If you provide your email address, we can keep you up-to-date on our progress and activities; your addresses will be neither shared nor overused.

Name__________________________________________________________________________ Address________________________________________________________________________ Town_____________________________________________State___________ Zip____________ Email (optional)___________________________________________________________________

Check as appropriate: _____Individual _____ Organization _____Department

_____Please contact me about how I can help. Phone ( )___________ _____Please do NOT use my name in any public list.Send this form and a check for $ _________($10 minimum) payable to “UNH,” with “College Woods Coalition” in the memo line or use your VISA/MC. VISA/MC ________________________________________ exp ____________________ To: Dr. James Barrett, Emeritus, Natural Resources & the Environment, 114 James Hall, 56 College Road, University of New Hamp-shire, Durham, NH 03824

If you wish to become a member of the Coalition, or as a member, would like to make an additional contribution, please send a check for ten dollors or more with the following form.

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would transport the apples free to the Boston market. In those days, the railroad was not bothered by Interstate Commerce regulations.

Mr. Thompson made money on his farm as he had all kinds of animals and crops, but he would have made more if he had cut the big trees in the College Woods.

He wanted the trees saved for the enjoyment of the students and faculty of the College and his will stated that no trees should be cut in the College Woods. This request was carried out for a long time but when the 1938 hurricane came, not much damage was done in Durham except in the College Woods where the water got under the roots of white pines that should have been cut years before. Many fell down and some fell part way down and twisted up with others. After that, some were cut as the hurricane was called an “act of God” and in such cases exceptions are made in the way wills are carried out.

In those days, several men from Durham worked in Boston and went back and forth six days a week, but Ben Thompson never went to Boston. He took one trip to the Isle of Shoals and that is as far as he ever got away from Durham.

He was very good to his help in most ways. George Amazeen and Hamilton Palmer said that when they were haying they would sometimes leave a bit of hay that had bees in it and Ben would shout, “Get every bit of it?”

Ben Thompson would never use a swear word but Hamilton Palmer told me that when he went to school (in what is now the Grange Hall) and Ben lived in the house that stood about where the Post Office is now, the boys would bat the ball against the side of his house and Ben would shout: “Thundering guns, boys -- Bat the ball the other way!”