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June 18, 2002 |
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Bog Hunting with Dr. Kudish
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On Monday, when there was a break in the rainy weather, we took advantage of a great opportunity that occurs for only two months each year - hiking with Dr. Michael Kudish, the foremost expert on the forests of the Catskills. Mike is a professor of Forestry at Paul Smith's College in the Adirondacks. Although he teaches and lives up north, his true love is the Catskills, and he has done fieldwork here every year for over 30 years. Since 1994 Mike has been sampling high-elevation bogs throughout the Catskills. By collecting peat samples, he can identify macrofossils such as bark and cones that have accumulated in the acidic peat for thousands of years and are clues to the various forest types of the past. Radio carbon dating is used to determine the age of the samples. This type of fieldwork requires assistants to carry equipment for many miles; often it's a bushwhack, through the mountains and we are always happy to volunteer.
The recent adventure was to show Mike a bog at the base of Giant Ledge on Panther Mountain that we had found on a camping trip last year. We began the hike at the Giant Ledge trailhead along County Route 47 in Oliverea with our friend (and a former student of Mike's) Justin Perry, and writer Frank Knight who is doing a story on old growth in the Catskills. The yellow-blazed Phoenicia East Branch Trail quickly ascended in 0.7 miles to a saddle between Slide Mountain and Giant Ledge where we took a breather and Mike explained the difference between 'first growth' and 'old growth' forests.
We then followed the blue-blazed Giant Ledge-Panther-Fox Hollow Trail for about a half-mile until we left the trail and began bushwhacking northeast. We walked over talus and moss-covered logs at the base of Giant Ledge, gazing up 200' at its sandstone face. We encountered a huge downed hemlock that measured 42" in diameter and was estimated to be about 200 years old!
We located the bog (2,800') at the base of the northeastern end of Giant Ledge. As Mike dug a hole that quickly filled with water, the rest of us tried to fight off the relentless black flies. After grabbing peat samples from the bottom (23" down), we measured water temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen.
After packing up our gear, we decided to climb up into the saddle (3,000') between Giant Ledge and Panther's summit. Once we hit the blue trail, Mike wanted to take a dissolved oxygen reading at another bog along the trail on the way up to Panther's summit (at 3,390'). For the second time the dissolved oxygen reading was much lower than expected, leading us to believe something may have been wrong with the meter. The trail was incredibly muddy, as was the fieldwork, but we certainly had fun.
Mike's love of the Catskills inspired his 30-plus years of fieldwork, and some of his intimate knowledge of the history of our forests is a written in a recent book called The Catskill Forest: A History by Michael Kudish, published in 2000 by Purple Mountain Press. This is the most comprehensive book ever written about the Catskill forests and the natural and human dynamics that have shaped them. As Mike's fieldwork continues, our understanding of the history of our forests will continue to grow. We thank you Mike for letting us tag along with you, and we already look forward to next year's adventures.
- Chris and Aaron
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