Northern Woodlands Magazine

letters to the EDITORS
Political Parlance

To the Editors: It surely has something to do with the current political season we’re in, but I think I may have thought of a better word to describe a group of crows. How about a caucus? It really works if you pronounce it “caw-cuss,” with the emphasis on the first syllable...it’s what they do!

Kim A. LaMothe, Colchester, Vermont

Crazy Beavers?

To the Editors: We came across this shapely chunk of beaver-chewed popple while mapping the bedrock geology in the north woods of the Connecticut Lakes area, New Hampshire, in the early 1960s.

Was it a matter of several successive snowfalls thwarting an eager beaver’s work? (It finally made it on the fifth try.) Or perhaps the boss beaver said, “OK boys, I want six-inch chunks now!”?

We love your magazine, having spent lots of time in northern New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont.

John & Jan Green, Duluth, Minnesota

Editors Reply: We’ve asked researchers about this before, and have yet to come up with a definitive answer. Coincidentally, we recently used a similar photo as part of the bi-weekly “What in the Woods is That?” contest on our webpage and received reader replies ranging from the practical (so they can roll the log to get to the cambium on the other side) to the physiological (beavers’ incisors grow continuously so they need to chew all the time to file the teeth down) to the humorous (sheer boredom…between sports seasons when UMaine Farmington Battling Beavers are idle).

Acid Rain Update

To the Editors:
Joe Herring’s great piece
on red spruce recovery
[Spring 2016] suggested
that spruce trees – a
species famously affected
by acid rain – are doing
better these days. Are all
plant and animal species that were affected by
acid rain recovering? I’m especially interested
in sugar maple. Back in the 1980s acid rain was
the big environmental problem everyone talked
about.

Gerard Robben, Blue Hill, Maine

Editors Respond: We asked Charles Driscoll, university professor of environmental systems and distinguished professor at Syracuse University, to give us an update on acid rain in the region.

Here’s what he had to say:
Federal legislative and regulatory actions asso-
ciated with the Clean Air Act have dramatically
decreased national emissions of sulfur since the
early 1970s and nitrogen oxides since the early
2000s. These measures have caused large reduc-
tions in sulfuric acid and nitric acid in regional
precipitation. The magnitude of these decreases
has been remarkable. Today, concentrations of
sulfuric acid in precipitation are approaching
values estimated to have occurred back in the
early 1900s. While decreases in nitric acid have
not been quite so dramatic, concentrations are
still much lower than we experienced 20 years or
so ago. In the northeastern U.S., these decreases
have led to large decreases in the acidity of sur-
face waters.

While we have witnessed a remarkable recovery of lakes and streams, the news is not all positive. While the acidity of waters has decreased, the fish and insects that were affected by this acidity have not recovered to the degree we might expect. It is unclear why aquatic organisms are slow to recover. It could be they just need more time to recover, or it could be that climate change is altering the environmental conditions of streams and lakes irrespective of the acid rain issue. The other problem is soil. Although waters are recovering, soils are responding more slowly. It may take centuries to build back the calcium that was leached from the soil by acid rain, which may challenge sensitive trees, like sugar maple. We know that if we artificially add back the lost calcium to forest soil, tree health can be restored. However, this approach would not be possible over a large area like the Northern Forest. So while acid rain is not the problem it once was, its legacies still affect forest resources. Only time will tell if the Northern Forest will fully recover.

The Right Mix

To the Editors: I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for the wonderful writing in the Spring issue of Northern Woodlands. I am always impressed by the magazine on many levels. Finding the sweet spot between technical natural resource material and information that is of interest to the public is a challenge, but Northern Woodlands finds that balance on a regular basis. As a wildlife biologist and forester, as well as a teacher, I really appreciate this!

Thanks again and keep up the good, important work at Northern Woodlands!

David Pilla, Woodlands Manager, Proctor Academy, Andover, New Hampshire

The CCC’s Lasting Legacy

To the Editors:
I have just finished reading the Spring 2016 issue
of Northern Woodlands. I was especially inter-
ested in the article entitled, “A Legacy of Forests
and Parks, The Civilian Conservation Corps.”
Located close to my home is Letchworth State
Park, where the workmanship of the CCC is out-
standing. The CCC’s masonry stone bridges, stone
walls, walkways, and shelters, built a good 80 years
ago, attest to some remarkable workmanship, as
enduring today as when first constructed. There is
OF
JOH N