Old-growth forest a titan in Baxter

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BAXTER STATE PARK — Maine was part of the British Empire when the tiny red spruce sprouted on a hilltop west of Grand Lake Matagamon.

For years, it waited in the dappled shade of the old-growth forest. When the canopy opened — probably after a towering, forest giant fell to earth — the little spruce reached for the sunlight.

The minutemen fought at Concord. Lewis and Clark explored the Louisiana Purchase. Lincoln was assassinated. Unnoticed, the tree continued to grow.

The Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. Bread lines formed during the Great Depression. Richard M. Nixon resigned in disgrace. Seedlings covered the ground beneath the now-mighty tree.

The last 20 years brought more changes to America, but had little impact on the spruce. Still it stands, on a hilltop west of Grand Lake Matagamon, with thousands of other titans, in a 300-acre stand that may never have felt the bite of a woodsman’s ax.

The trees are in the Scientific Forest Management Area of Baxter State Park. The late Gov. Percival Baxter created the area as a place to demonstrate state-of-the-art forestry.

Jensen Bissell, resource manager for the SFMA, said he was uncertain why the stand survived. Thousands of acres in the northern part of the park were burned in 1903. For some reason, these trees escaped the flames.

Baxter bought the land in 1955 from the Eastern Co. of Brewer. It was one of the last parcels he purchased. Apparently, Eastern had no reason to harvest the trees.

The stand was discovered in 1990 by Ray “Bucky” Owen, then a professor of wildlife resources at the University of Maine. He was scouting for deer sign in the area north of Trout Brook, which is open to hunting.

The size of the trees surprised Owen, who is now commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. On several other visits, he found no evidence the area had been cut.

Owen told park personnel about his find. During the past year, several foresters have visited the area to confirm that it is virgin forest.

“I’ve looked at it several times, and I’m still not sure what I’m seeing,” said Bissell. “I guess that’s my definition of old-growth in Maine: a stand where the previous history is not readily apparent.”

The largest spruce are 85 feet tall and more than 28 inches in diameter. Scattered white pines are more than 40 inches wide and 100 feet tall. A nearby slope has more hardwoods — towering yellow birch, beech, sugar maple and even poplar.

One estimate puts the volume of wood on the stand at 80 cords per acre. Statewide, the average is about 15 cords per acre.

“I am very curious to see how this stand develops and grows,” said Bissell. “Will it last only a brief time and change quickly? I just don’t know.”

Logging appears to have been conducted only on the fringes of the area. Bissell said 5 percent to 7 percent of the conifers in the stand appear to be more than 200 years old.

“These seem to be approaching the natural mortality of spruce,” he said.

Undoubtedly, there are older trees in Maine. Some of the stunted spruce growing at higher elevations are 400 years old, and there are rumors of cedar stands that are even older.

There are also larger stands of virgin timber. The 4,800-acre Big Reed Preserve, about 12 miles north of the park, is believed to be the largest patch of old-growth, mixed-wood forest left in New England.

The newly discovered stand is unusual for several reasons: It isn’t on a mountain, the soil is reasonably good and almost half the site is a nearly pure stand of red spruce.

“This might be the largest old-growth spruce stand in the state,” said Robert Seymour, a forestry professor at the University of Maine.

If so, it could provide a glimpse of the Maine forest prior to European settlement. Some experts believe much of the state originally was covered with towering stands of red spruce and white pine.

“Here is a case where spruce is the end point in the ecological succession,” said Seymour. “This really needs to be studied in much greater depth.”

The phrase “old growth” conjures images of trees standing like Greek columns, fog-shrouded and hung with lichen, in awesome solitude and splendor. In fact, the area found by Owen looks much like any other mature woodland.

The largest trees are spaced about 40 feet apart. Between them are many smaller specimens. The forest floor is carpeted with seedlings of spruce, white pine and fir.

No unusual plants or animals are immediately apparent. The ground is littered, however, with moss-covered trunks in various stages of decay.

After a while, another difference becomes apparent. Despite the large number of trees, there are no dark shadows. Light filters down from openings 80 feet above the ground, reflecting off bark and creating an unusual, diffuse shade.

Some experts say lightning strikes frequently started fires that devastated Maine timberlands before the arrival of the Europeans. The wildfires caused an essentially even-aged stand to develop — all trees being roughly the same age until they were destroyed by fire. Modern clearcuts mimic such a pattern of growth and removal, those experts say.

Owen’s old-growth stand might challenge that theory. Core samples reveal trees that vary widely in age — apparently the result of natural selection rather than catastrophic intervention.

“This area has great research potential,” said Seymour. “It tells us just how big spruce trees can grow.”