New England 



sO 



Idest Living Tree 



David VanLuven 



In 1434, when people still thought the sun re- 

 volved around the earth and Columbus hadn't 

 yet been born, a tree took root in an isolated 

 corner of what is now Rockingham County in the 

 state of New Hampshire. This black gum (Nyssfl 

 sylvatica, also called black tupelo or pepperage) 

 flourished through the centuries and last fall, scientists 

 assisted by the NH Natural Heritage Inventory (NHNHI) 

 discovered that, at the venerable age of 562, it is the 

 oldest living tree in New England. 



This black gum tops all of the previous oldest-tree 

 contenders by 130 years or more. New Hampshire's pre- 

 vious champion is a 412-year-old red spruce growing in 

 the White Mountain National Forest. Old trees in other 

 New England states were also significantly outdated. 

 Massachusetts' oldest known tree is 433 years old, 

 Maine's is 428, and Vermont's, 419. The oldest tree in 

 New York has yet to reach 400 years. 



Several hundred other black gum trees, the oldest of 

 which are 300 to 500 years old, share the ancient tree's 

 swampy habitat. Identification of the old trees began 

 several years ago when Dan Sperduto, ecologist with 

 NHNHI, discovered that some of the trees had grown 

 for nearly five centuries. It was not until late 1996, how- 

 ever, that the tiny rings of a pencil-thin core removed 

 from the oldest tree were carefully counted. 



The core from the oldest black gum tree was ana- 

 lyzed during the 1996 North American Dendroecological 

 Field Week which was held at the USDA Forest Service 

 Experimental Forest in Bartlett, New Hampshire. Re- 

 searchers first mounted the core and smoothed it with 

 300-grit sandpaper They then placed the core under a 

 microscope which was attached to a computer. By mag- 

 nifying the core between seven and ten times, the re- 

 searchers were able to measure the width of each ring 

 to within a fraction of a millimeter. 



These tree rings are valuable for more than simply 

 dating New England's oldest tree. They also provide a 

 chronology that scientists can interpret to learn about 

 historical climate trends and environmental conditions. 

 Paul Krusic of Columbia University is working with the 

 NHNHI and others to establish a link between climate 

 change and the growth response of the trees. They 

 hope the tree rings will yield new information on cli- 



mate variations over the last 550 years and give in- 

 sights into the changing environmental conditions New 

 Hampshire's forests have endured. 



Good luck and biology have allowed the trees to sur- 

 vive for so long. Black gum trees are naturally long- 

 lived and are very resistant to disease. Their twisting 

 grain and brittle nature limit the utility of their wood, 

 so their commercial value is low. They also tend to 

 grow in small, boggy basins perched high in watersheds 

 where beavers are unlikely to flood or fell them. 



Yet black gum trees are not invulnerable. Five years 

 ago, beavers flooded a large black gum swamp in 

 Rockingham County and killed over one hundred trees, 

 some of which had survived for more than 500 years. 

 Fortunately, hundreds of other trees in surrounding 

 swamps survived. These trees are safe from beavers 

 because their swamps lack the stream outlets that bea- 

 vers might dam. 



Black gum trees are common in the southeastern 

 United States, but less so in New Hampshire, where 

 they reach their northern limit. They typically occur as a 

 few trees growing scattered in red maple swamps. Of 

 particular interest to the NHNHI are swamps in which 

 black gums are the dominant species, or at least grow 

 in larger stands of twenty or more trees. The Natural 

 Heritage Inventory is conducting a broad study, funded 

 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, of these 

 New Hampshire swamps to identify these trees and 

 help interested landowners protect them voluntarily. 



The New Hampshire Natural Heritage 

 \nventory (NHNHI) is a small state 

 program in the Division of Forests and 

 Lands. Our mission is to find, track, and 

 facilitate the protection of New Hampshire's 

 rare plants and exemplary natural 

 communities. We are not a regulatory 

 agency; instead, we work with landowners 

 and land managers to help them protect 

 New Hampshire's natural heritage and meet their land-use needs. 

 For more information or lists of the rare plants, animals, and 

 natural communities in New Hampshire, contact us at. Natural 

 Heritage I«ve«(ory/DRED, P.O. Box 1856, Concord, NH 

 03302-1856. Or call 603-271-3623. 



DECEMBER 1997 «. JANUARY 1998 



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