Raymo853
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Re:Sand Spring deadfalls - 2006/10/25 13:50
frank wrote:
IF only we had a soil scientist on the board to post some non-sense.
It is a combo of soils, topographic position and the tree canopy. Tersely, the soils are "thin" as not very deep and with lots of rock fragments. The depth to bedrock is probably pretty great, on the orders of tens of meters, but in that 10's of meters are the remnants of rock glaciers. Not glaciers as ice, but rock glaciers which I won't describe here. Basically it means the soils are young, thin and chocked full of rocks that retard good root development and lowers overall water capacity of the soils. That slope is also an erosional surface, leading to the soils being less developed. Thin and poorly developed soils do not grow healthy trees unless the trees are designed with that in mind. Since the natural tree patterns are all fucked up, the trees there are not too well placed.
I also suspect the falls occur a lot since the tree canopy is pretty open. A less dense canopy leads to higher ground and near ground winds speeds leading to more tree fall. It is a nasty feedback cycle. Similar to the feedback cycle Frank goes through when his Viagra prescription runs out.
Why did two trees near each other fall over at the same time? Did they hit each other? Did they share some common root areas? I doubt vibrations of a minor increase in local winds had much to do with it.
Post edited by: Raymo853, at: 2006/10/25 13:56
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