Old Beech There is a lot of beech in this forest. The bark blight that Queen Victoria sent us (unintentionally) via two European Beech she contributed to the Halifax Public Gardens in 1890 meant that their growth stalled out when the blight reached them. Trees like this one may not be very big but they are in all likelihood very old.
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By Nina Newington
On Boxing Day six years ago, local resident Bev Wigney organized a gathering on the peninsula between Corbett and Dalhousie lakes. She shone a light on the value of the old, beautiful forest there to wildlife and to people.
When the Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia proposed the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area for protection in 2022, we included Corbett Lake and the peninsula. For most of the last two years our focus has been further to the west, but a couple of weeks ago, just before the snow came, we decided it was time to take a closer look at the Corbett area.
To our delight we identified eight new occurrences of Frosted Glass Whisker lichen (pending confirmation.) This comes on top of spotting a Rusty Blackbird, another species at risk, earlier this year at the south end of the peninsula, and an Olive-sided Fly Catcher documented on the north shore of the lake.
New Records for Species at Risk
Corbett Lake is nowhere near as pristine as Goldsmith Lake. In addition to damming Bloody Creek to create Dalhousie Lake 50 odd years ago, the power company cut a channel to Corbett Lake, which changed the water level there, flooding the shorelines.
Old Yellow Birch, 79 cm diameter
Nonetheless, a chunk of the mixed wood forest on the Peninsula is old growth or very close, with many yellow birch over 70 cm in diameter at breast height as well as large red spruce and maples and many old beech.
The forest floor shows the pit and mound pattern typical of old growth forest.
There are fallen giants rotting into nurse logs and standing snags for wildlife as well as every other age of tree.
The rare Grey Jay, a denizen of cool, deep forests, showed up on one of the afternoons.
The peninsula, in other words, is another ecological gem, with Frosted Glass Whiskers once again serving as an old growth indicator species.
Exploring those woods was a wonderful way to spend a couple of days before the Winter Solstice. Among its other charms, the peninsula is quite easy to get to. As a Wilderness Area it will be (fingers crossed) a wonderful place for both local people and tourists to visit.
Corbett Lake and the Peninsula are included in the citizen-proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area
This post appeared originally as a post on Annapolis Environment & Ecology (Public FB Group) on Dec 22, 2024. View that post for more photos.
For More Info about the Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes Old forest, see :
www.nsforestmatters.ca/the-camps/Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes Old Forest