Just A Stump, eh!

Rambling in nature by Earl Plato

A stump is a stump is a stump. Not so, at least according to this stump lover. I love Marcy’s Woods, Greater Fort Erie’s pristine 350 acres of second growth trees. Yellow birch, beech, black oak, maple, hemlock, and a few giant tulip trees are found there. If you love trees just for the sake of their longevity you will enjoy a walk along the Lower Trail of Marcy’s Woods.
One morning, a while back, I took my sketch book, my collapsible tripod seat and headed for my stump. If you know Marcy’s Woods the yellow birch stump was located just before the Lower Trail takes a sharp swing south. I spent about an hour drawing the remains of the stump that stood about fifteen feet tall. Someone knocked the stump down in the months that followed. The late owner Dr. George Marcy didn’t believe in removing stumps or logs unless they blocked the walking paths. The remains of the old stump is still there helping to produce new organic life as it decays.
I like the Yellow birch not because it far outlives our common White or Paper birch but because it is associated with the Carolinian trees found at Marcy’s. Just a few hundred feet into the trail you find the first of several huge Yellow birches. It has a yellowish sheen to the rather loose and laterally peeling bark on the trunk. You might even think that the bark had been lightly buttered here and there. Come out sometime for a walk here and you can agree or disagree with my above observation.
How old was my old stump? Yellow birches can live from 60-100 years or more. What I drew was the remnant of a mighty tree that was probably alive in the last century.That’s the 1800’s! Keep rambling in nature.