PRELIMINARY RESULTS
A total of 625 stumps and 20 downed
logs were measured and mapped on an sample area of 1.7 hectares of the stump
field (Figure 9) .
Figure 10
shows the mapped stump's locations and size. The frequency distribution of stump
diameters (Figure 11) shows a discontinuity in the
upper diameter classes. There were no stumps whose average diameter was between
120 and 140 centimeters but there were three stumps found over 140 centimeters
thus possibly suggesting a minimum of two age classes. Preliminary aging tends
to confirm this. Not all stumps could be aged completely due to rotted pith or
sections and/or lack of intact bark to confirm presence of the last ring formed.
However, Table 1 shows the majority of stumps were
probably around 200 to 300 years old. Exceptions to this was one of the largest
stumps, stump 226, which was mostly rotted yet the small readable section was
aged at 197 years old. Also a log that was found at the Mill Creek site that had
not been cut was aged at 499 years. These data combined with the radiocarbon
dating presented later suggest the living white-cedar stand, at the time it was
cut, was nearly even aged (at 200-300 years). There were however, older trees
that were dead and either still standing or down that represent the previous
stand that was replaced.
Spatial statistical analyses using nearest neighbor, Ripley's K (Figure
12) and Moran statistics suggest a regular spacing often seen in older
stands.
Radiocarbon dating was done on samples from three sections
representing the variation in cross sections found. The old downed log (code=
HL), which was aged to be 499 years old, was found to have died 630 years
ago (+/- 40 years BP) with a calibration of 1290 to 1410 AD (Figure
13). Radiocarbon dating of stump 226 found it died 430 years ago (+/-
50 years BP); the calibrated result had two high probability times: 1415 to 1520
AD and 1575 to 6125 AD (Figure 14). Radiocarbon
results for stump 503, which had 250 rings, showed death occurred 240 years ago
(50+/- years BP). Stump 503 had a calibrations of 1510 to 1595AD, 1615 to
1680AD, and 1740 to 1805AD (Figure 15).
With the use of the SVS (Stand
Visualization System), data collected from mapping, and tree parameters
estimated the stand was recreated to show how it might have looked over
250 years ago (Figure 16).