BIG TREES by Ralph Bice
From Wednesday, January 4, 1978
In a recent issue of a local weekly paper there was an item telling of the largest and perhaps the oldest maple tree in Ontario. This tree is in the Niagara area and is estimated to be 450 years old. The exact age could only be determined by cutting the tree down and I hope this will never be done. The tree apparently sits out in the open and has developed a lovely array of branches. The measurements given have the tree about 84 feet high and at the top at its fullest spread about the same width. It is over 40 inches in diameter. From what I was told it is close to 40 feet to where the branches start. It must be a lovely sight when the leaves start to take on their fall colours and again when the first green appears in the spring.
If the age given is anywhere near correct this was an old tree when the first white people saw it.
Age of trees has caused a lot of discussion. The modern way does not leave much room for argument as the growth rings tell the age quite accurately. I was once told by a forester who had studied the age of trees that by Champlain’s diary he mentions that in what is now Orillia there was a huge forest fire or fires in that portion of Ontario that is now Haliburton, Muskoka and Parry Sound. The ages of the logs being cut in the lumber woods about 20 years ago would show that they were trees that had begun to grow after that fire.
There are no maples in this part of Ontario nearly that large. I did know of a very fine black birch tree. When I was walking the trap line I went right past this tree and every time I used to marvel at there being a tree so much better than any other I had seen. It was large as birch trees go, possibly 42 or 44 inches on the stump, and it went so straight and was so tall.
Years ago I worked some in lumber camps and usually was on the cutting gang. This before there were chain saws and we pulled a cross cut. This birch, by its bark and outward appearance, would just about have to be tops. It stood in with other trees, maple, spruce and hemlock, but it seemed to have had a head start for it was much taller. I think from the stump to limbs it would have been possible to mark three 16 foot logs ad one smaller one.
I returned there after being away for a couple of seasons and the lumber men had been there. I suppose to them it was just another nice tree but after watching it for more than 30 years it did not seem like the same forest when it was gone. I looked at the stump and it was perfectly sound and it held its quality right up to the last saw cut. I have seen other birch trees that were larger but would not be as good quality. Peter Thompson took out one birch log that had over 1300 board feet but the tree had just one log, only 14 feet long which would mean it would have to be at least 45 inches at the top end.
On one of the portages between Manitou and Kioshkqui lake there used to be a pine tree. It stood perhaps 40 yards from the river. Since there was supposed to be a five hundred foot area from the water where trees were not to be cut we thought this tree would always be there. But one summer it was gone. This was not such a tall tree but perhaps the largest pine I have seen, speaking of diameter. I had a picture for many years that was taken at that tree and three of us are standing shoulder to shoulder and there is still pine tree that shows on each side of us.
Hubbel’s who had a mill at Oxetonque Lake cut a large pine. It had two logs, 12 feet in length, then the tree forked and there were three limbs that each contained three 16 foot logs. The butt logs were so large they could not be cut with a circular saw, and they had to be taken to a mill with a band saw and even then some of the log was wasted because it was too large. If my memory is correct there was over 3000 board feet of lumber in this one tree.
Another large tree I will always remember is a hemlock. It is in Nova Scotia. There were so many hemlock there and while we are told they are exactly the same as our hemlock in Ontario they seemed a little different. In this part of Ontario most hemlock trees had to be butted, which means the first part of the trunk would have at times ten feet cut away as it was too ‘shaky’ to be of any value. The Tobiatic Game Reserve had been lumbered. Only at one of the Ranger stations an area of perhaps 15 acres had been left standing, this just for people to see a natural stand of hemlock. There was one tree there well over 40 inches on the stump and this tree was lofty.
I am one of the fortunate people who has been able to see many stands of virgin timber, pine as well as hardwood and hemlock and the spruce forest of northern Ontario. Speaking of spruce, there is one standing on another spot on my trap line. Two companies have logged close by, and I asked the other day why it had not been cut as it is in the very large size group. I was told that the ministry has an idea this is perhaps the largest white spruce left standing in this part of the province. It will not be hard for people to see it. I do not think it is over three feet on the stump, but it is very tall, indeed a lovely tree. Only trouble is when these trees are left without other trees to break the winds, so often they get blown over.
