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Fischer Woods is owned by Cornell Plantations at Cornell University, as attested by a bronze plaque—dated 1998—affixed to a small granite boulder in the path through the woods. Richard B. Fischer is still a popular Life Sciences professor at Cornell who donated this ecological treasure to the University. He jokingly refers to the plaque as his "tombstone," and a lovely place to rest your bones it is.
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Fischer Woods contains a nice diversity of hardwoods—many exceeding a century in age—with hemlock and white pine. The largest and most numerous are northern red oak, tuliptree, eastern hemlock, white oak, american beech, sugar maple, and red maple. But good-size basswood, hickory, ash, black cherry, and witch hazel can be found. The canopy is not extra-ordinarily high—probably not breaking 100 feet—but lifts its lowest branches enough to create the spacious shelter of stereotypical eastern old growth.
Fischer Woods is small and a bit out-of-the-way to become a popular public site. Yet, more steeply sloped adjacent land can be added to the existing preserve, and perhaps access could be developed from the bottom of Cayuga Valley. Currently, a trailer park west of NY 96-38 blocks access to Fischer Woods from the bottom. Yet, as more humans settle in the lower Cayuga Valley, Fischer Woods can become a real Urban Forest, offering sanctuary to wildlife while being a living learning laboratory for the human community to practice ecological literacy. Certainly its dedication on the bronze plaque speaks to this potential.
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October 19, 2002 Leader: David Yarrow Assistants: Anita Devine & Michael Davolos DATA |
to Fischer Woods |
Saturday, October 19, our start of an Ithaca-area old growth survey team visited Fischer Woods for a first assessment. Locating the Woods was a challenge, since no sign marks the trail, the woods are a few hundred yards down a steep slope from Route 13, and our directions were incomplete. On our third pass, we saw the greenhouses on the north side of Route 13, and got safely parked on the other shoulder of the highway. The view across Cayuga Valley was awesome, and we wondered which ravines on the steep opposite valley wall might shelter more small stands of ancient forest.
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We skirted around the demolished barn foundation, and hiked steeply down along the edge of two meadows, admiring the Cayuga Valley vista. After nearly 1800 feet, the footpath left the lower meadow and entered a grove of black walnut and hickory trees in a shallow gully. On our left, a third field was abandoned and being overrun by shrubs and saplings.
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After another 100 yards, rusted strands of barbed wire, deeply embedded in tree trunks, signaled the edge of the old pasture. Ahead, the land began took a steeper descent, plunging into Cayuga Valley, while the height of trees soared. Tree species shifted into greater diversity, revealing the transition into old growth dominated by oaks, maples and hemlock.
We stepped out of farmland and out onto ridges and slopes too steep and narrow for agriculture. A trail with orange blazes branched left; we took the trail to the right that led along the narrow crest of an earthen ridge with steeply sloped sides north and south. Near the end of this finger of land, the small boulder with its bronze plate sat in the pathway. It was dwarfed by the giant old trees all around: oak, hemlock, pine, maple, beech.
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The size of the red oaks is very impressive, but the white oaks have the most bark balding I've seen anywhere—up to 20 feet up the trunk. Most older oaks were over two feet DBH, and two Red Oaks exceeded 3.5 feet DBH. Yet, some of the oldest-looking oaks were smaller diameter. No height measures were attempted, but these forest-grown trees had straight trunks that soared to nearly 100 feet tall, with no branches below 50 feet; a few red oaks may exceed 100 feet height.
These great, ancient oaks are balanced by other species. Many hemlock and white pine exceeded 2 foot dbh; one hemlock was just shy of three foor DBH, and one white pine was just over three foot DBH. Many large beech with smooth, light gray trunks showed no sign of beech bark scale disease.
We descended into a ravine on the north that sheltered several remarkable tulip poplars, whose crowns may reach 100 feet. Along the ravine bottom, a series of flagged test plots indicated an ongoing botanical study, likely of a rare plant species by a Cornell grad student. Numerous large logs littered the ravine slopes; one made a footbridge across the ravine.
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We climbed out of the ravine onto the next ridge. One giant tree—long-dead, but still standing—was punctured by dozens of cavities—many large enough to be a doorway in an avian condominium high rise—one of the most impressive snags I've ever seen.
Along the crest of this northern ridge, the trees are not as tall, and the species mix changes. Hemlock and white pine are less abundant, and black birch and black cherry appear. We measured the girth of over 30 trees, then headed out and up to our car. Clearly this is an old growth stand which could benefit from a full survey team visit to gather comprehensive site data.
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The Earth Restoration and Reforestation Alliance — www.championtrees.org — updated 4/14/2003