Fieldstone walls still stand

at Woodbourne Forest

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Easy, they're not. Handicapped-accessible, they're not. However, for those who can handle hilly climbs and a few rugged stream crossings, the trails at Woodbourne Forest Preserve, south of Montrose in Susquehanna County, will lead a hiker back into another time.

Woodbourne, this year celebrating 50 years since becoming the first site owned by The Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania and one of the first in the U.S., protects one of the few remaining old-growth forests in eastern Pennsylvania and many examples of the swiftly disappearing pre-1874 fieldstone walls.

In 1956, Francis R. Cope Jr. and his family donated almost 500 acres to TNC to begin the preserve, which has grown to 654 acres through donations from the family and purchases by the conservancy.

The old walls of fieldstone mark the boundaries of many of the former field and farmstead sites that have been incorporated into Woodbourne, the same sites from which the stones were removed to be arranged into the walls.

Among the walls are prime examples of the builders' techniques, including the "soldiers' course" of an erect layer of stone topping the wall and the "mystery wall," with two cantilevered shelves jutting out from the upright structure, according to Ken Ely, a local stone-wall builder/restorer and a member of the stewardship committee that takes care of Woodbourne.

The walls, which once were found throughout the northeastern corner of the state, are vanishing as a booming market for their fieldstone leads a growing number of local companies to enter the business of dismantling them and shipping the stones elsewhere.

"People who manufacture wooden pallets [for shipping the fieldstone] can't keep up," lamented Ely.

Beyond its storied history, the site holds some of the most recent work done on a TNC site in Pennsylvania. During the summer, Keystone Trails Association crews installed the 4.9-mile Cope's Ramble Trail that reaches into most areas of the preserve.

With its existing three-mile Woodruff Hill Trail and 0.75-mile Swamp Loop Trail, Woodbourne now offers the largest collection of wilderness paths open to the public in Susquehanna County, an area with a dearth of long hiking trails.

The well-marked trails begin at a small pavilion at the preserve's small parking lot, off Route 29 about a mile north of Dimock. The pavilion holds trail maps and other information about the site.

The preserve also hosts a variety of plant and animal life. Mushrooms of a few dozen species just now are growing in profusion on logs, stumps and tree trunks throughout the landscape kept heavily shaded across much of its acreage by the towering tree canopy of hemlock, white pine and maple.

In the spring, the woodland is filled with wildflowers like painted trillium, wood sorrel and gold thread, while the few open fields are packed with meadow wildflowers, and the 10-acre beaver pond is home to a bounty of wetland and aquatic plants.

Mink, otter, bear, northern flying squirrel, bobcat, coyote all occupy and pass through the site, which also hosts salamanders and turtles.

Woodland songbirds call Woodbourne home, while many others use it as a migration stopover. It also attracts waterfowl and wading birds.

For information on guided tours, nature walks and classes, or other activities at Woodbourne, contact resident naturalist Jerry Skinner at 570-278-3384.

MARCUS SCHNECK: 610-562-1884 or mschneck@comcast.net. Schneck's outdoor writing also appears in The Patriot-News Sports section today and Wednesday, and at pennlive.com.