City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1467085
I discovered it on a hilltop in Wellfleet, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. During the COVID-19 lockdown of spring 2020, my "pod" and I found ourselves split- ting time between home in Providence and a house in Wellfleet, which is located in the Outer Cape toward Provincetown. Wellfleet's town center is sur- rounded by huge swaths of forested land protected and managed by the Cape Cod National Seashore since 1961. The house where I was staying is situated within the eastern or Atlantic Ocean side of town, which culminates in dramatic beaches with dune cliffs. On an April day, too much time at the computer screen propelled me outside. After walking along the road- side for several hundred yards, I saw an unmarked path leading into the woods, and impulsively took it. "Maybe I can find a shortcut to the beach," I thought. The forest was lovely, and it drew me in. The overstory is primarily pitch pine (Pinus rigida), black oak (Quercus velutina), and white oak (Q. alba)—a pine-barren forest type acclimated to the acidic, sandy soils found on the Cape. There's a notable uniformity to the trees stretching for miles, but they're beautiful nonetheless. The understory is nondescript but interesting at closer look—a mixture of lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angus- tifolium), huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), greenbrier (Smilax rotundi- folia), and sometimes colonies of inkberry (Ilex glabra) shrubs where their roots find extra soil moisture. The carpet of damp pine needles permeates the air with a sweet, earthy smell. Patches of sand sporadically appear, sometimes covered with a waxy, crawling plant called bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). After a minute of walking, I was completely engulfed in the forest—no one around, no houses (except an occa- sional "grandfathered" house lot within this federal land), the paved roads out of sight. What a treasure that most Cape visitors never see, and a vital part of the National Seashore. Some locals clearly know about these woods, made evident by an intriguing network of paths and fire roads with no markings or names. I had a ball choosing one path and then the next, knowing I was heading in the general direction of the ocean. I finally emerged at Ocean View Drive, crossed over, and took a fire road to the top of a sand cliff to see big crashing waves and water as far as the eye could see. The way back brought a different surprise. A bit lost, my path traversed a hilltop (Gross Hill, as I later found on a map)—and I sensed a change from the regular visual pattern of pine and oak. The trees to my left were suddenly closer together, very straight and uniform but twisting in the upper crown. The bark was light gray, and their tops exploded in dense twiggi- ness silhouetted against the gray sky. Even without the leaves it was obvious to an experienced forester what they were, but still completely unexpected and beau- tiful. "Tupelos, here?" They appeared out of nowhere, formed a dense stand for about 50 yards (46 m) with the largest trees in an epicenter, then faded out. There were no others in these woods, as I realized by scanning every patch of forest on my walk home. Not one. >> The bark was light gray, and their tops exploded in dense twigginess silhouetted against the gray sky. urban-forestry.com 31