Biggest Cedar so far - Timmins Honour Role of Trees

This is not the biggest cedar I have seen, but it is the biggest I have come across since I started the Timmins Honour Roll of Trees.


This tree in in a clump of 3 very big trees. I think the tree are well over 400 years old.

Check out the Honour roll and find a tree that is bigger and better! let me know.

248.4cm circumference

Timmins Honour Role of Trees

Published to the net.

Hope you can participate.

Timmins Honour Roll of Trees is now online.

http://www.nt.net/~gofor/HonourRoll/TimminsTreeHonourRoll.html

White Birch crawling through the Forest?

It looks like a spider or something, walking through the forest. While walking along the edge of a wet area, where I could see the water running along the ground down between the rocks, I found a very interesting white birch.

This birch tree must have sprouted on what looks like a big tree that blow down. The roots were forced to reach to the ground for food. The root mat of the old tree is still partially visible, but is rotting away slowly but surely. The roots are suspending the tree creating a very interesting root system for the tree.

This birch with the curved 'neck' would make a very unique animal from the forest, if only I could find a way to get it into the living room!

Here is a little snippet from an answer blog:

According to a 1990 Report to Parliament from Forestry Canada, one acre of healthy forest produces about 4 tonnes of O2 per year. On average, we estimate that one acre of mature forest contains 400 trees, therefore:4 tonnes @ 2,200 lbs/tonne = 8,800 lbs 8,800 lbs divided by 400 trees = 22 lbs/tree/year

On a daily basis, this means that a tree releases approximately .06 lbs of oxygen per day, enough to blow out your birthday candles, but not enough to fill your bicycle tire

I found a huge cedar pictures here this week. It will be the first Cedar on the Timmins Honour Roll of Trees.

Wood is environmentally friendly !!

Wood Works!!
There are many different sites on the web that discuss the virtues of using wood for building. Cement and steel are much more damaging to the environment then wood. The cost (environmentally speaking) is much more when using steel and concrete.
Here in Timmins, where forestry is one of the main employment sectors, or use to be, college boreal is putting up a building of steel and concrete.
College Boreal - similar to Boreal Forest - is building within throwing distance of the Domtar mill.
Using wood locks up carbon and looks great. Production of steel and concrete produces a net loss of oxygen.
More info. to follow.

How far do I have to travel to see a Polar Bear

Left Timmins as the sun was coming up. Had to drive to Cochrane for an "Ontario Forestry Safe Workplace Association" (OFSWA) meeting. We left Timmins heading north up hwy 655 as the sun began to peak over the tree tops.
The forest in the area along the highway is a mixture of black spruce and tamerack, with the occasional hump of poplar and birch. The sun made the tamerack look a nice bright yellow. The needles of the tamerack turn colour and drop off each fall.
After our meeting at the Tim Horton Center we went to the Polar Bear Exhibit.
Cochrane is in the north, but it is not that far north that polar bears would be wondering around the town. That is reserved for the black bears.
This was my first visit to the place, it looks like it is growing into a very interesting site. Old cars, snow machines and general store are all on site. Worth a visit I would say.

Little creatures prepare for winter - Cone Cache

I was not out to collect cones today, lucky for some little creature
of the woods. I suspect it is a red squirrel that made this little cache of black spruce cones.

The squirrel will climb up a tree and bite off all the branches that have cones on them. It is a smart way of getting the maximum number of cones to the ground with the least amount of energy.

The clumps of cones are then removed one at a time and put into a neat little pile. Much like a beaver that will store food under water for winter a red squirrel will store cones that will be under the snow to be retrieved later.

Each cone can contain between 15 to 30 tiny seeds.

At the bottom of the trees in the area are many little chopped off branches with the cones removed.

While I was taking the picture of the cone cache another creature let me know they were getting ready for winter. I could hear a flock of Sandhill cranes overhead. They are starting to fly together as they prepare to fly south. Their chevron flight may look like Canada geese when they are far away, but the low croaking sounds give them away.

A small creek I walked beside was frozen over with very thin ice.

Honour Role of Trees

Ontario has an Honour role of Trees. It can be found at http://www.ancientforest.org/oldtrees.htm I have started to keep track of the Timmins Honour Role and have just started a list in a Facebook group.

This weekend I will put up a Honour Role Page of all the species so everyone can see what the biggest live trees in the area are.

To get things stated I am finding the biggest tree I can find over the next couple of months of each species and will fill in the blanks. As you find a bigger tree I will replace the second place tree.

Today it rained and snowed in the bush. Pleanty of good moisture for the trees going into the winter.

I found a big Yellow birch that will be hard to beat. I did not being home the location information, but it will be included in the chart I create. I have a picture and some stats. This tree has produced oxygen for us for over 60 years I guess.

Yellow birch

Circumference 310cm

Diameter 98.6cm