A CRISP, SUNNY WINTER DAY
THE MOTHER HEMLOCK
YOUNG HEMLOCKSThursday, 8:15 AM. 12 degrees, although it got much colder during the night. Wind NNW, calm. The sky is mostly blue and everything sparkles in the bright sunshine. The barometer predicts snow but I think it is a very weak low. A satisfying “crunch” emanated from the icy roads as we walked this morning.
Eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis, is a large, often dominant tree of the Great Lakes region, Ontario, Quebec, New England and New York. Bayfield is on the western edge of its natural range. In nature hemlocks require cool, damp sites and lots of snow, and they do not reproduce well without those conditions. These young trees are growing on the banks of a conservancy ravine on 8th and Rittenhouse Ave. The mother tree is at the top of the south side of the ravine.
As incongruous as it may seem, there is a large natural forest of hemlocks along the dells of the Bronx River in the New York Botanical Garden. When I first walked it thirty-five years ago it was still beautiful, although it was no longer reproducing seedlings. It offered a true refuge from what was the chaos of the Bronx at that time. I do not know what the condition of The Hemlock Forest is today, but the recent heavy snows will be welcome to it, and I wish it well.
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