Shoe Trees part two: Last Tree Standing

I was around the age of 14 when I first experienced the Black Hills of South Dakota on our way to a new station in Colorado Springs. My interests at that time didn't extend to the Lakota people or to the Black Hills. We were there to see Mount Rushmore and as time permitted the Badlands. The irony of this escaped me until I visited again while driving coast to coast at the age of 51. It was on this second visit that Wayne, Abby and I (at my daughters insistence) made a point of including the Crazy Horse monument on our itinerary.

But let's back this up just a smidgeon. As I would later surmise, the Black Hills were named in similar fashion to the way other ranges in North America were. The Rocky Mountains have a tree line at 11,000 feet leaving peaks of exposed rock.  The Green mountains are covered with green trees, plants and shrubs and the Black Hills were covered with Black Spruce. I say "were" because the area that we traveled through on that second visit had been mostly cleared of trees.

It was at the Crazy Horse Monument that I approached an employee and asked him why the hills had been cleared of trees.  His  answer was that it was in an effort to save the Black Spruce from Black Hills Spruce Diseases. Black Hills Spruce Diseases are three kinds of fungal infections that were spreading from tree to tree through the hills at a rapid pace. The decision had been made to remove all but one healthy tree per acre.

Several springs ago here in Vernon, we lost our entire roadside row of mature spruce. Some suggested that it had to do with road salt applications. It was when I noticed numerous balding spruce in my neighborhood and on Pond Rd that I asked our local forester what was happening. He speculated that it was a fungal disease and that we should remove dead trees, prune lower branches and carefully dispose of tree litter. When my trees came down a neighbor expressed sadness because they were some of the only mature trees in the development. I agreed that the loss of a mature tree is a loss to the community; but removing some to save the others was a sacrifice well worth the cost.

Of course here in Vermont, there were and are other reasons for removing trees besides firewood and disease. Historically, Vermont's rocky soil, rolling hills and swift rivers made it ideal for the sheep and wool industry. By the middle of the 1800s, seventy-five percent of Vermont's forests had been cleared. Today while hiking through our forests its common to find rock walls created by clearing land for pasture. You might also come upon Wolf Trees that for whatever reason were spared the ax and saw, escaped illness and await the day when they too will be brought down. - Norma Manning

Wayne stands next to a Wolf Tree on the Red and White trail in Vernon