TABLE 5.- STOCK TABLE Slope Type - Average volume per acre based upon 84.86 acres, The ridge type occupies the upper slopes and the tops of the mountains and ridges. This type is characterized by thin soils covering the upper slopes, which are usually very steep or precipitous, and the more or less flattened tops of the ridges. The balsam fir is well distributed throughout this type and, although this species constitutes a relatively small percentage of the stand, it at once becomes prominent because of its regular form and development which contrasts strongly with the short boles and irregular crowns of the hardwoods found here. (See Plate II.) Specimens of black cherry are frequent but they are of too poor form to be of any value. The remainder of the stand consists of about an equal distribution of beech, birch and maple, all of which are in a very poor condition. Many of the trees are dead, especially of the beech and birch, thought to be the result of severe winter injury some ten or twelve years ago, leaving the stand in a very open condition. As a result of the opening up of the stand a large number of herbaceous plants have come in (see Plate II), also some mountain maple and a considerable quantity of balsam fir reproduction now five to ten feet in height and well distributed throughout the whole type. If not interfered with, the balsam should in time fill the open spaces left by the dying out of the hardwoods, though it is not sufficiently tolerant to develop very rapidly in the more shaded places. Growth in this type is necessarily slow because of shallow soil, lack of moisture during the summer season and a high altitude, all of which contribute to the development of short and poorly formed trees. The maintenance of forest cover upon this type is of importance primarily for the protection of water supplies and game. Its value for the protection of the watershed of Esopus creek cannot be too greatly emphasized because of the enormous amount of money recently expended by New York City in building a water supply reservoir upon that stream. The general distribution of the trees in this type by volume and number is shown in the stand table and the stock table for the type (Tables 6 and 7). The type comprises a merchantable area of 1,494.81 acres with an average stand of 86 trees per acre and an unreduced volume of about 5,000 board feet of merchantable material. TABLE STAND TABLE Ridge Type - Average number trees per acre based on 79.91 acres. D. B. H. Balsam Hem- Beech Birch Maple Ash Bass- Miscel- Total lock wood laneous |