Last summer, a well-read friend asked me, "What
one resource fueled the westward expansion of America's colonial settlers?" My answer, "White Pine?"
Close--the correct answer was "North America's forests".
What my friend didn't know, is that our lakefront acre was "logged". To build our cottage, we had painted a big white "X" on the trees that needed to go. The logger ignored our directions and proceeded to remove every "marketable" tree!
There's a few Sugar Maple, but only because the surrounding 100 acres was a Maple Syrup enterprise. Left standing was
one Cedar,
one White Oak, and
one Hickory, and probably because they were spindly--back 70 years ago.
Over the years, I've encouraged the re-growth of White Pine, but Eastern Hemlock has displaced almost every other species. Sometimes, young Hemlocks themselves are "shaded-out".
So, how "marketable" is Eastern Hemlock?
Answer: "Not very". It's
not even recommended to burn it in anything that has a chimney!
