The
Catskill
Forest:
A History
by Michael Kudish
This is a detail from the inserted 36" x 27" full-color map showing the Catskills' first growth forest (green), second and third growth forest (grey), burned over areas (red), agricultural lands (yellow), landslides (dark brown) and reforested areas (blue), former and existing railroads. State-maintained trails in the Forest Preserve are shown as dashed lines. On the reverse is a map in two colors showing present and former forest-product industries.
Chapter Three: Peat Bogs: A Window on the Past
"Peat Bogs in the Catskills and elsewhere are not only places of contemporary geological and biological interest, but also provide peeks into the past. They are so acid, pH 3.5 to 4.0, and preservation is so good that plant and animal materials decay barely at all. Written history can take us back only 300 or 400 years in eastern North America. The history recorded in the rings, or dendrochronology, of the oldest trees cannot take us back much further, the oldest trees in the Catskills are eastern hemlocks, about 400 years old. Fossils perserved in the peat bogs can assist us in reconstructing the history of the forests dating back to the time of the origin of the bogs themselves, in the Catskills up to 8,000 years. This is nearly two-thirds of the way back to deglaciation!
Bogs in the Catskills are small wetlands at high elevations. They typically occur in cols or saddles between peaks along the ridges, although a few occur on terraces on upper slopes...The average bog elevation 3,280 feet, and the range is from 2,380 to 3,820 feet. The bogs lie in small topographic basins which were formed at deglaciation between 14,000 and 13,000 years ago; there is no way for the basins to have formed in more recent times. These basins do not lie directly upon the bedrock, but rather upon an intermediate very thin veneer of very stony, dense, and nearly impervious glacial till only one or two feet thick..."
"Rarely, a guide to understanding a classic American landscape comes along. The Catskill Forest: A History is Michael Kudish's account of his life-long pursuit of how climate, soils, plant biology, and people have affected the Catskill forest since the last glacier retreated 10,000 years ago. It's all here: Native Americans, European settlement and agriculture, early forest industries. Dr. Kudish guides us into the mountain ranges one by one. Pick your favorites--Slide, Bearpen, Peekamoose, Kaaterskill High Peak, Shokan High Point. Go out on the trails. Explore the long history of connection between the Catskills and the people fortunate enough to inhabit or visit these enchanted mountains."
Michael Kudish, a retired professor from the forest division at Paul Smiths College, currently lives in the Catskills. He is author of Adirondack Upland Flora and Mountain Railroads of New York State
$45.00 hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press original
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