Pines

[bach2yoga]

I was reading McCormicks Preliminary Ecological Inventory of the Pines yesterday and found this info:
When an area has been burned by frequent, severe fire, the dominant oak trees will be blackjack oak and to a varying degree post oak. If the area is not burned quite so often, the pine, blackjack and post are still the dominant, but black oak will be a frequent associate and other oaks will be found as scattered individuals.
In an area that has burned by severe wildfires at widely spaced intervals, app once a century, black, white, chestnut, and scarlet oaks are the most abundant.

He also mentions tar making in the late 1600s through 1800s, also revived briefly during the civil war. Does anyone know anything about it, where or how it was done?

Renee

 

[BEHR655]

He also mentions tar making in the late 1600s through 1800s, also revived briefly during the civil war. Does anyone know anything about it, where or how it was done?

Renee

Well here is part of the answer to your question.

"Like many colonial Pinelands industrial sites, the sawmill and tar kiln at Webb's Mill are only a memory. Zebulon Webb established a sawmill and village here in 1774. A tar kiln was later built; however, both were in ruins by 1839. Today the forest has reclaimed this industrial complex and it is now part of the 16,333 acre Greenwood Forest/Pasadena tract. Remnants of the old charcoal pit, the dam, mill pond, and sand roads are still visible to the careful observer."

 

[bach2yoga]

He also mentions tar making in the late 1600s through 1800s, also revived briefly during the civil war. Does anyone know anything about it, where or how it was done?

Renee

Well here is part of the answer to your question.

"Like many colonial Pinelands industrial sites, the sawmill and tar kiln at Webb's Mill are only a memory. Zebulon Webb established a sawmill and village here in 1774. A tar kiln was later built; however, both were in ruins by 1839. Today the forest has reclaimed this industrial complex and it is now part of the 16,333 acre Greenwood Forest/Pasadena tract. Remnants of the old charcoal pit, the dam, mill pond, and sand roads are still visible to the careful observer."

Hmm...I didn't know that, thanks. Has anyone ever seen any of those features? What book is that from, it sounds interesting?
I wonder how the tar was processed?
Renee

 

[bach2yoga]

I found this on some sites not specific to the Pines:

Logging left stumps with sap-filled heartwood, good for making tar. People used tar for waterproofing all kinds of things, from roofs to tarps. It was spread on wounds in animals. It was anti-bacterial and, like a bandage, made a tough, flexible covering.

Local men would split heartwood from pine stumps into stove-size pieces. Then they would stack them on an iron plate about a yard square. They’d put a large iron kettle upside down over the plate with the pieces of pine inside. This was to keep oxygen away from the wood so it could heat without burning. They would pile slash (waste branches left from the logging) over the whole thing and set it on fire. They fed the fire, letting it slowly burn for several hours. The pine sap would heat up, trickle out of the wood, and collect on the bottom of the plate. The plate had a central groove to drain the sap away and into a pot or jar for storage.

********
A tar kiln was constructed (by three men on a mountain at the head of Sawmill Hollow) to render pine tar. Stones and clay from the mountain were used to build the kiln, which resembled a sorghum molasses furnace. The boiler had a capacity of 800 gallons, which was equivalent to a wagonload of pine knots. The locals, benefiting themselves with the bountiful supply of rich black pine, would deliver these knots in wagons, sleds and even burlap bags. The tar kiln operation started in about 1917 and continued for about 10 years.

Operation of this process was that the pine knots were split and tossed into the boiler and boiled until the resin was released in the water. The residue was then skimmed and poured into lard cans and sold for making pine tar.

These sites were all in the Ozarks, and all in the 1900s. Wonder if it was done differently back in the 1600s and 1700s here.

Renee

 

[BEHR655]

Very interesting. When I was googling for tar I did see a reference to "Pine Tar". I guess the tar they refer to is different from the Dino tar we are familiar with today.

Steve

 

[BEHR655]

Here is everything you ever wanted to know about "Pine Tar".

http://www.maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.htm

 

[bach2yoga]

Here is everything you ever wanted to know about "Pine Tar".

http://www.maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.htm

Thanks, Steve.

from that article:

From the beginning, Britain's colonies in North American were encouraged to produce pine tar and pitch, and to collect gum from pine trees for later shipment to England. These fledgling industries in New England and the Carolinas were encouraged by the Bounty Act of 1705. At that time England had been cut off from its Scandinavian supplies by Russia's invasion of Sweden-Finland. " By 1725 four fifths of the tar and pitch used in England came from the American colonies..."4 This supply remained constant until the American Revolution in 1776, when England was again forced to trade with the Dutch for Scandinavian products.

So do you think that majority of the tar was used for shipbuilding in the Pines? It would make sense to me.
Apparently the byproducts from the kiln were tar and charcoal.

Renee

 

[ocprnaturalist]

FYI - Research by A. Windisch
VEGETATION TYPE FIRE RETURN INTERVAL
(Average number of years between
fires, over several centuries)


sugar maple-beech forest
(absent in the Pine Barrens)
many hundreds of years
oak or oak-hickory forest
(at edges of the Pine Barrens)
100-200 years
* oak-pine forest
60-100 years
* pine-oak forest
30-60 years
* pine-oak woodlands
20-30 years
* pitch pine-shrub oak barrens
15-25 years
* dwarf pine plains 5-15 years

 

[Ben Ruset]

That's one mighty large avatar.

 

[bach2yoga]

FYI - Research by A. Windisch
VEGETATION TYPE FIRE RETURN INTERVAL
(Average number of years between
fires, over several centuries)


sugar maple-beech forest
(absent in the Pine Barrens)
many hundreds of years
oak or oak-hickory forest
(at edges of the Pine Barrens)
100-200 years
* oak-pine forest
60-100 years
* pine-oak forest
30-60 years
* pine-oak woodlands
20-30 years
* pitch pine-shrub oak barrens
15-25 years
* dwarf pine plains 5-15 years

Great info, thanks! Which park do you work at?
Renee

 

[ocprnaturalist]

I am the director of the Cooper Environmental Center, Cattus Island Park. Love the pines but also spend quite a bit of time in the Barnegat Bay.
and...
You know what they say about "the larger one's avitar..."
"The larger one's bandwidth"

 

[bach2yoga]

I am the director of the Cooper Environmental Center, Cattus Island Park.

Have always wanted to get there...
Renee