Scribe Marks

Walking along an old woods road on a large tract of woodland I was brought up short by some marks in the bark of a tree.

These weren’t the marks created by the claws of a bear climbing the tree. No, these marks were made by human hands, hands wielding a tool that goes by various names in different parts of the country: bark scribe, race knife, timber scribe, tree scribe. The tool comes in various forms depending on the manufacturer –

Older versions, like the older versions of most tools, were often beautiful handmade works of art –

To my eye, the new versions are just plain utilitarian –

Surveyors and foresters are the primary users of these scribes, using them to put semi-permanent marks on trees. The scribes can incise letters, numbers or other marks in bark or wood. In this case, the U-shaped cutter on a scribe was used by a forester to mark the location of an inventory plot. The marks don’t go through the bark where they would actually wound the tree, but were merely cut deeply into the bark. 

The two diagonal witness marks (highlighted in yellow) face toward the center of a circular plot, probably of 1/5 acre (52.7 foot radius); the center that is, or was, marked by a wooden stake. The horizontal mark was placed just below the spot where a steel “diameter tape”, that directly reads a tree’s diameter, was placed.

On the other side of the old road were two other trees with scribe marks, one with both a horizontal mark and the witness marks facing toward the plot center – which must have been in the center of the road. The second tree had only the horizontal mark for the diameter tape –

All of the trees in that plot would have the same type of horizontal mark. The marks would last for many years, until the next inventory of the forest in 5, 10 or 20 years. During the next inventory the growth of each individual tree would be determined and trees that died or were cut in the intervening years could be accounted for.  

If, during your woodland wanderings, you see scribe marks like these you’ve walked into a forest inventory plot.

Ice

Spring weather came early this year with temperatures in the 70s in February – but then the weather reverted to more normal conditions. When the temperature is well below freezing, some of the river backwaters freeze from bank to bank –

In quiet places along the shore of the river itself ice develops, often into intricate and beautiful patterns –

Where fallen trees or low-hanging branches are within the splash zone of the river's waves an abundance of ornate icicles often form –

It’s been quite warm for the last few days, far above freezing, so it's doubtful if more of these beautiful ice sculptures will form before next winter, but ...

The Round of the Year - Winter

Winter seems like a bleak season and many people feel that it’s unpleasant to be out in the cold and snow. But, just as in other seasons, there’s always pleasure to be found in the natural world and interesting things to see.

Early winter can see deep cold and days that are almost balmy, high winds and dead calm, rain and snow and blue skies. The coldest weather here usually comes in late January, by the end of February there may be warm sunny days and the first spring migrants may appear.

My project to post a photo from each day of the year season by season is now three fourths over; photos from summer and fall were posted here and here.

Once again, the dates of any photos from my camera traps are listed at the end of the post - see if you can identify them before you reach the end (no cheating). Herewith are photos from the winter  –

 

 

 

Winter began in the year when the worldwide temperature was the highest on record. It included record-setting heat in February, with a temperature of  73º F at the house. The last week of winter brought two days of snow, one dropping the most snow we've had all winter.

Now winter's over and spring is about to burst forth.

Camera trap photos - 1/14, 1/16, 2/28 and 3/9