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'Really big trees' go back in Russell history
(by Joan Demirjian - July 21, 2010)
'Really big trees' go back in Russell history
By JOAN DEMIRJIAN
When settlers arrived in what would become Russell Township, which was created in 1827, they dealt with more than hardships of impassible roads and the threat of bears. They had to clear their way through forests to develop fields for planting.
Some of those trees from the early 1800s are in township Trustee James Mueller's yard. These are "really, really big trees," he said of the oak trees on his property.
He had an arborist look at the trees on his seven-acre property where he has lived for 20 years. Some of the trees are 120 feet tall. "I was told they are about as big as oak trees get," Mr. Mueller said. Two trees are estimated at over 200 years old and one at 400 years.
Russell Historical Society's "Pictorial History of Russell Township" talks of settlers who were amazed by the size of the trees in Russell, Mr. Mueller said.
The history book read, "Huge trees, primarily maple and beech, covered the land. Felling trees 4 and 5 feet in diameter, pulling stumps to create fields, planting and harvesting were all back-breaking work."
Mr. Mueller's house looks over a ravine with a creek bed at the bottom. He refers to one of the giant oak trees on the brink of that ravine as the "two sisters."
The base splits into two trunks, thus the "sisters" designation. He has measured the base at 25 feet to 30 feet in circumference and about 8 1/2 feet through the middle, he said.
One side was hit by lightening, but it did not stunt the tree. Mr. Mueller pointed out owl pellets around the base of the trees. He has seen the owls there. "They like to sit in the branches," he said.
When he needed to cut a huge limb that hung over the house, he had an arborist look at it. Cutting less than 25 percent of the canopy was permissible without hurting the tree, Mr. Mueller said.
The arborist said the oaks are probably the largest oaks in Russell and possibly in Geauga County. He noted they are in perfect health, and he was fascinated by them, Mr. Mueller said.
One of the trees fronting on Kinsman Road (Route 87) is about 25 feet around and close to 6 feet thick. It grew on the side of a slope to a creek bed about 30 feet below. It was probably never subject to drought conditions, Mr. Mueller said.
Regarding the status of his property, he said he doesn't "own" the acreage. "I'm just the custodian. And my job is to keep these trees healthy."
Mark Wilthew is a service forestry coordinator, with District 7 of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry in Geauga County.
For whatever reason, Mr. Mueller's trees never were harvested and left to grow to biological maturity, Mr. Wilthew said.
Many of the forests today also re-grew from the days when the pioneers harvested and farmed, he said. "Some are second growth."
The most precise way to measure years of a tree is a core sample, short of counting stump rings, Mr. Wilthew said. A tool is used to auger into the tree, extracting a core sample to count the rings.
He recalled a few years ago, at the Johnson's Woods in Wayne County, a Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, where oak trees predated pioneer settlement and were never harvested.
Mr. Wilthew recalled how his supervisor cut a section of a fallen burr oak tree and they counted 580 rings, indicating it was 580 years old at the time that it was blown over.
"It shows burr oaks can live over 500 years," Mr. Wilthew said.
The uplands white oak, found in this area, has a lifespan of over 400 years, he said.
Red oak has a lifespan of 250 to 300 years or more. The uplands red oak and the black oak are common in northern Geauga County, Mr. Wilthew said. Red oak is the more common of the two.
Geauga County has had an agricultural use since the 1800s, and early settlers used the forests for an agriculture use, harvesting the timber.
They used the trees for products and equipment for their homes and farms as well as for manufacturing.
Today's harvesting continues that tradition of using forestry sources for building, cabinets and flooring. It is not necessarily deforestation.
Deforestation occurs where the trees are removed and not replaced, Mr. Wilthew said. Forest land is sold for development, including housing, factories and shopping malls.
"We have seen a lot of that on the western tier of Geauga County and in Northeast Ohio," he said.
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