Tamarack Trees and Bear Prints

Before Daniel headed to New York for a three-weeks long work trip, we took a walk with Sadie out in the woods past Milford. I noticed some small tamarack trees (like the one below) growing along the side of the woods road and asked Daniel why we don't hear much about milled tamarack. I know it's there - sometimes you see it in outdoor uses like trail bridging and fence posts - but you don't tend to see huge stacks of milled tamarack at the local lumber yard.

I'll do my best to recount Daniel's explanation. Apparently tamaracks (or larches) tend to do very well in difficult conditions, both really dry and really wet. Growing in difficult areas (like a bog) also makes them very difficult to harvest. And though they are very good at growing in these unfavorable conditions, they aren't particularly good at growing in favorable conditions. In good soil tamaracks tend to get pushed out by other, more vigorous trees. The end result is that there just isn't much tamarack that is worth harvesting.

Totally coincidentally, on the same day we had this conversation, we received our summer Northern Woodlands magazine and it had an article about exotic larch plantations. Some folks have had luck with planting and growing tamaracks for harvesting. They grow quite quickly but other species must be kept in check at the beginning so that the tamaracks can be given a fighting chance. It was a funny coincidence and interesting to read more about them.

We also saw some big bear prints...

I had to take super quick photos because as soon as I stopped the mosquitoes would descend en masse. Consequently, these are not the best. I'm pretty sure these are bobcat tracks. 

Hopefully we'll get some drier days and photographing (and outdoor recreation in general) will become less mosquitoe-y!