Please note: you are encouraged to comment and welcome to ask questions, but Tom does not monitor these posts and probably will not personally respond. -Ray
Wow thank you for this info. Although I don't live in New England I have stumbled across very elaborate Stone fences like this during my journeys through the woods in Pennsylvania.
sheep fever extirpated a lot of native wildlife especially the Catamounts or Mountain Lions, glad to see that New England is reforested and the Catamounts are coming back via Canada, the sheep fever is still present out west though
Hey Ray, Do people often inquire about getting into the masters program these days ? I was just curious, I've personally been getting into natural stone masonry living in northern Alabama, and its coming to my attention day by day the value of being able to identify some of the Appalachian topography and forests around where I live and work. A great deal of what is on our property is old Native American sites and stone walls and old stone formations that appear to be from farmers around similar time periods. Id be interested in educating myself better in the field.
Me too! This guy is like the Imperial Planetologist from the Dune series novels by Frank Herbert! I'm not a newbie botanist/historian but I learned more than a few new things in only a couple of minutes listening to Tom!
I’m in my 70s, and have been a student most of my life. I’ve had a lot of good teachers over these many years, far more than bad ones. But I can say without question whatsoever that Tom Wessels is absolutely the best. The time I spent at Antioch under his guidance made more of a difference in my educational journey than any other person I’ve ever known. The insights offered by the kinds of questions he always asked reverberate within me whenever I’m trying to figure something out. And damned if they don’t always work. Tom, thank you.
Makes me want to go live in a forest, integrated with it so as not to cause great disruption, instead find unique ways to give back. I've never been camping sry lol
Makes me long for a time when Americans could actually make a living and survive on simple farm work. Living happy, peaceful and healthy lives. Nowadays most small farms are more of a side hobby than an actual career and the fast paced hustle and bustle of modern civilization has all but completely overtook the lifestyle of our forefathers. Humans were intended to live simple, stress-free, happy lives. The progression of our civilization will be responsible for our ultimate demise.
That's a sign of a good teacher. This man knows how to inform and inspire. Plus he radiates kindness and passion for his craft. My advice is dont second guess your career path (unless you truly regret what you've learned and spent time on), but rather take this is a venture for new knowledge! Perhaps you could weave it into your life.
@@ThatRebelBoyold comment but I’ll ask anyway, why didn’t these happy, peaceful, healthy farmers and their offspring continue living their happy lives instead of ending up where we are today.
I understand why this has almost 1 million views. I had no idea that you could just walk into a forest and look at the trees and earth, and it’s entire history can unfold right before your eyes. I would also like to say, that I have used Tom’s methods to determine past crop fields in the forest where I visit. I found a couple of stone dumps, but what really gave it away was one part of the forest was uneven with pillows and cradles and the other half was completely smooth. I never would’ve realized this if I hadn’t watched these video’s. Thank you Tom.
This may be one of the greatest things I've ever watched on youtube. Is there anything more gratifying than piecing together a story from a combination of knowledge and observation, and then sharing that with others? How much there is to know in this world when you learn how to see.
Dear Dr. Wessels, I have been stumbling through the forests of new England in all seasons for over 40 years. I am a trained biologist. It is as if you took a blindfold off of me, and I stand seeing for the first time in my life. This is an awesome and powerful revelation to me - regarding one of my most prized possessions, - the amazing forests of New England. I cannot thank you enough. Your lectures (this is my second time through all) are some of the most fascinating information I have ever been struck by. Thank you Sir..
Most history is complete BS, just saying. Unless someone was THERE witnessing it firsthand for themselves, then all they’re doing is regurgitating what was told to them or what they read somewhere. Always question academia, they are the greatest regurgitators of them all.
Very inspiring. I just retired, was a forester in New Zealand till 1980, and a plant ecologist. In retirement I want to explore the US wilderness and I have personal reasons I want to explore the North East US. I have never been there. Now I have some concepts to apply to what I see. I just love the title - Reading the Forested Landscape. Thanks you for a great video series.
I went to the states when I was 17 for a couple of weeks. It blew my mind how different the nature was compared to New Zealand. I hope you can go. It's such a beautiful country I didn't want to leave.
Spent most of my working life in the woods, logging and land clearing. Learned a lot in the past 1/2 hour and can't wait to watch the rest of the episodes. Big thank you to Tom
@@madisheila6725 RIP forests, what up climate change..can't believe we still clear cut all the forest today..I live in OR n WA, youd think with climate being changed so drastic and it gettn worse by the day we'd save the forests rather than cut em down just for $
Clear-cutting isn't ethical; it's not the way to log. Selective logging is ethical. If one wants an entire agricultural area for farming, there's the midwestern plains for that.
Such a pure, simple and real way to see life. How it’s all connected, all linked to things we do today that will change tomorrow. Great reasons to do good, and to appreciate nature far more than we do. Thank you for sharing, and thank you Tom, for being Tom.
New England has some of the nicest woods on the planet. I wish they would stop developing them, we're losing out on the most gorgeous country in our backyards.
I was in the nursery landscape business for 20 years. After that I did some logging. I learned more about what the forests can tell us in this one video than decades of working with trees. Brilliant stuff.
What a generous man to freely share the knowledge he's gained over decades of experience. I'm so grateful I came across this series! Watching from Pennsylvania on a snowy day.
The audio engineering for the narration is outlandishly good. Excellent use of the lapel along with post compression and noise cancellation. Most outdoors types show are horrifically windy or rough sounding.
@@Xosidhe Ever see an uprooted tree? Google if you haven’t. The roots sticking up from the ground decompose and form the pillow. The cradle is where the roots used to live before the tree fell over. Now picture the tree standing upright, and how it would have needed to fall to form the pillow and cradle, and then you can imagine which direction a storm wind came from to knock it over.
I’m glad I stumbled across this. I live in downtown Los Angeles, never been to NH and have really no practical need for this info and yet I find it fascinating. Nicely done!
Absolutely love your username! And, like you, I live in Los Angeles Andy at stumbled across this amazingly well done and fascinating video… this man is a marvelous teacher.
This is such fascinating material. I have 20 acres of woodland in SW Michigan. We're near Lake Michigan and the soil composition is nearly all sand. Aerial photographs show the site as having been cleared, or nearly cleared, prior to 1930. There are straight channels in the land visible in those early photos in the NE quadrant and those channels are still evident both on the ground and in aerial photographs today. It certainly appears that the trees were cleared and an attempt made to drain the site. With Tom's insights about pits and mounds, I'm now thinking that while they cleared this land and tried to drain it, that effort was abandoned without significantly disturbing the pits and mounds. I need to take a walk back to that quarter with the channels in it to see whether or not the pits and mounds are evident there. Through the remainder of the site, they definitely are present.
Excellent series, this answers so many questions about things I have seen in the woods on hikes but did not know how they evolved! Thanks to Tom's fascinating discussion I will be looking at the forest with a new appreciation of what took place.
This video has changed my life. I've spent all my life in woods, farming, permaculturing, trail running, river tubing, canoeing... just sitting. My knowledge is vast but miniscule at the same time. In the forests and mountains of North Carolina I constantly am reading the history through topography but missed some links. You have shown me what I want to do with my life. Sure, I'm an electrician.... but this is what I will be doing for rest of it. Reading the land and spending my life becoming intimate with it.
I've spent a lifetime with trees in Northeast Ohio. From planting, growing, reading them in their natural habitat. Arborist, plantsman, horticulturist, designer....all have given me a decent living. I have this love affair with mother nature that never seems to end. Take a winter day and park you arse against a large tree in the woods. Before you realize it they will be talking to you. I will caution you though...she is tough and unforgiving...but her beauty only gets better with age. I've never regretted my lifes choices. I doubt you will either. Have fun!
Ok I have to say i thought I knew quite a bit about forests until i started watching your videos, and now realise i know next to nothing :-) I have learnt more watching your videos in the last few weeks than wandering around them for the last 50 years, many of the things i have seen over the years , now i know why they are like that, a huge wealth of knowledge thank you for sharing .
Starting about a dozen years ago? ...... I really started enjoying his book, "Reading The Forested Landscape". So much more info to inform my hikes through New England. Then, he came out with an illustrated version a few years back, and that was just fantastic! Well, this series is the icing on the cake! Everything is explained and presented in video! Perfect! I am greatly impressed at how this video is produced! Tom Wessels is given plenty of time to communicate each idea, and quick clips are added to further illustrate things. First rate!
Fascinating. I don’t know anything about trees and stuff but I live in Rhode Island and those stone walls in the woods are all over the place. This guy knows so much about this subject, very nice to learn from him.
Tom gave a keynote talk at a URI land conservation conference around 2010. It was the best and most useful talk we have had at that annual conference. Unfortunately he doesn't get down here very often to give talks. While conferences are good an in-person field trip with him would be wicked good.
Dude this spring and summer are gonna be awesome hiking with my mom and wifey here in New Hampshire. Thank you for giving me something amazing to ponder while exploring in my home state.
Phenomenal logic. I've spent the better part of sixty years trapesing around central New England forests and all of this knowledge has given an answer to all of the questions that arose in my mind as I did so. Tom Wessels is not only "skilled" in his assessments, but he's also a visionary. This is a tremendous revelation for any New Englander used to mucking about in our forests. Well done! BTW this presentation took a very dry subject and turned it into a riveting presentation. I could NOT stop watching once I stumbled upon it. Cheers.
I'm an avid outdoorsman and spend a lot of time in the Arkansas Ouachita National Forest and while our region is certainly different from the subject of this vid, the info within has been very useful and applicable to our area. Thank you.
Thanks Ric. It's rewarding and encouraging to get positive comments, they're always appreciated. Tom deserves all the credit, he's quite a knowledgeable teacher. Ray
I don't know how this came up in recommendations, since I haven't been actively searching for it, but I'm a permaculture nerd and a CG hobbyist looking to understand geomorphology, and the apparent chaos of landform at all scales, better. This tickled every one of those fancies. Thank you Tom.
Having many years of animal tracking I had long hoped for a book like Tom's so I was overjoyed when Forest Forensics came out. I can somewhat read the woods of Virginia but not to the depth Wessels shows is possible. Every area has different forests with new things to learn so time to get hiking!
These videos are awesome. I have been looking for this kind of commentary and insight for a long time to help me understand the natural world around me. I am glued to this series.
This makes me want to get out in the woods and explore. My family has around 100 acres in Maine and I’m looking forward to showing what I learned here to my kids this summer. Thanks for rekindling my interest in nature.
100 acres in Maine! Incredible, you are very fortunate. It’s a beautiful place, I just went up there from MA for some bbq and taking in all the trees was spectacular
When I clicked on this I was asking myself why the frig did I click on this I must be super bored!? But it ended up being really interesting and I'm glad I did, you are a great presenter I'm going to watch more of these 👍
I am so impressed and amazed at the wealth of knowledge you have! I am captivated when you speak. I have been trying to evaluate my mom’s property in NE Pennsylvania. You taught me so much in just this short video. I will most definitely read your book! This is just the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you for educating me.
When I was in 3d grade in 1959, we were taught the stones for New England fences were from glacial deposits, and had been pulled from the fields as they were worked. Newer stones were supposed to be emerging as well, so the landowners never stopped culling them and needed a place to stack them, like a fence.
I’m 24 minutes in and this is absolutely incredible. I feel like I’m on a paid hike/ history/ intellectual geographical lesson about current and historical events about forestry and more specifically the northeast
TOM, i love how wise you are. i live in farm country in upstate ny. ive always built stone walls gorgouse step down with fountains into a koi pond. you are AMAZING !!!!! i WISH YOU WERE MY DAD OR UNCLE, your the kind of person that will survive whats coming to the world. HOW DO YOU KNOW SOO MUCH. my dad passed away, youd fit right into my family. . i have learned SOOOOOO much from you today. very clean , and pollite person id like to know. i am american indian and hungarian. i have an orchard i planted when i was young, huge gardens i grow 1000 squash and cukes and tomatoes a year to donate to food pantrys. plus a really kewl 200$ do all incubator, i started with 12 JERSEY GIANTS.....i now have 200 chickens assorted breeds now. yes i get 200 eggs a day. i donate them to an amish family up the road from me, they have 7 kids. mom and i help them every week. buying them grain, flour, lots of food . blankets, tarps. they dont have or wear shoes. i own a huge antique/ junk shop and i had them come down and gave them all a 50$ credit. ive never seen 7 little kids soo happy, 3 to 15. i love how they live soo much, but i could never go without my puter n phone.lol . i am 60 yrs old , but i love god and he keeps me young. your a tree guy, heres a funny tree story for ya. my wife and i in 1988 didnt have money for a xmas tree, so we walked threee miles to where there were 80yr old pines. well i was young and gutsy so i got my hack saw and started to climb, and climb, and climb, the higher i got the windier it got and that pine was swaying back and forth, so i start cutting, going back in forth with the saw and the tree moving. i got SOOOOOO SICK i hurled a huge lunch we had. it went all down thru the tree that i had to climb down thru. whenever i see a 80ft northern christmas tree i think of thst. feels like yesterday. she gone now, im losing everyone and its not fair. i feel deserted. another VERY KEWL THING I OWN, i have the UNDERGROUND rail road cave system under my shop and huge victorian. it goes id say ten miles each way, and im the only one that knows abot it. i think i should get lanterns nice ladder and charge 50bucks a day for them to go caving. theyd have to sign a waiver. i looked up the laws and it says if you own a cave system you only own the part under your property. that sucks!!! well, im glad i found you program. my uncle joe is a woodsman too. take care you wise ole owl! may god richly bless you and you partner. signed, pastor richard h smith jr. also known as richie rich. (richie richs is my shops name). lmk if you want 20 baby chicks. free to you,
Not sure how I came upon this video, but the most interesting thing I've seen on the internet in ages! WOW! Fascinating stuff and does this guy ever know his stuff. Looking forward to watching Part 2 and 3!
Great collection of videos. You have made me so much more observant when I am on hikes and I am able to pass on all this information to my kids. Tom Wessels has some great books out there too!
This might be the most interesting video I have ever watched, I was unaware of even the simple concepts at the start of the video like pillows and mounds being formed by down trees - but he took that to a whole other level talking about wind patterns and directions - then when he started aging the trees on the mounds and confidently estimating which particular storm knocked those trees down I nearly lost my mind. This is so cool!
Forester here. I was taught to refer to the "pillows or cradles" as hummocks and hollows, for the same reasons. The rock walls were all over Vermont, where I grew up and attended college in the early 1970's. Old field white pines were infested with weevil evidence. Rare was the unaffected tree.
Regarding the stone walls....When the low lands were deforested for ag, a phenomenon called frost heave occurs. Basically what happens is the exposed soil layers freeze deeper because there is no blanket of vegetation. The soil will then push up stones when it freezes during winter faster. Also, since the pastures were lowlands there were more stone to push out of the ground due to geologic weathering. Every spring the farmers would carry off all of the new stones. Walls were the convenient way to move the stones away from the pastures.
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,/ That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,/ And spills the upper boulders in the sun; /And makes gaps even two can pass abreast ... No one has seen them made or heard them made,/ But at spring mending-time we find them there./ I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;/ And on a day we meet to walk the line/ And set the wall between us once again.” -Robert Frost
Wow, a genuine forest detective! We have 90 acres in the southern Adirondacks and I'm always finding rock walls, barbed wire, etc. Now I have some idea what those are there for. I'm absolutely going t purchase Tom's books and learn more. Fascinating!
I'm impressed with the interesting, detailed, well researched, and engaging presentation on information that havent found to be readily available. I appreciate the lesson.
This guy is awesome! He's got one hell of a memory that's for sure. I came here because it said New England forest and I'm missing New England everything, "Vermont". Because I'm down here in Texas.. Instead I got a history lesson, and a geography lesson. Great video 👍
absolutely phenomenal knowledge being passed here. I visit the old hemlock forest in Wachusett quite frequently and this is all invaluable to understand the fingerprint of the forest. thanks tom and new england forests crew.
Hi Dan, is that the old-growth near the top of Wachusett? I recently read about it after visiting Sheldrick Preserve in NH. If so, do you have to hike to the top? Thanks!
This spring I'll be walking my woods with a lot of new information. I already have seen a stone dump, a few pillows and cradles, and barbed wire going through a line of old trees. Thanks for the lessons. You've got a new subscriber.
Great video! Recently learned about old-growth and sparked my interest in forest-life. Can't wait to watch the rest in this series. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!!
Please note: you are encouraged to comment and welcome to ask questions, but Tom does not monitor these posts and probably will not personally respond. -Ray
Why. Is he ok
Wow thank you for this info. Although I don't live in New England I have stumbled across very elaborate Stone fences like this during my journeys through the woods in Pennsylvania.
sheep fever extirpated a lot of native wildlife especially the Catamounts or Mountain Lions, glad to see that New England is reforested and the Catamounts are coming back via Canada, the sheep fever is still present out west though
Hey Ray, Do people often inquire about getting into the masters program these days ? I was just curious, I've personally been getting into natural stone masonry living in northern Alabama, and its coming to my attention day by day the value of being able to identify some of the Appalachian topography and forests around where I live and work. A great deal of what is on our property is old Native American sites and stone walls and old stone formations that appear to be from farmers around similar time periods. Id be interested in educating myself better in the field.
Tom is such an icon I love him
Came here to learn about forests... learned about geology, history, ecology, agriculture and a whole mess of other subjects... and forests. Awesome.
in other words, geography!
Because it is all interdependent to get a full tapestry.
I never learned so much so fast!!!
Welcome to what forestry is!
Me too! This guy is like the Imperial Planetologist from the Dune series novels by Frank Herbert! I'm not a newbie botanist/historian but I learned more than a few new things in only a couple of minutes listening to Tom!
The RUclips algorithm gave me this despite never having looked at forestry videos before, and honestly I’m quite glad it did
I’m in my 70s, and have been a student most of my life. I’ve had a lot of good teachers over these many years, far more than bad ones. But I can say without question whatsoever that Tom Wessels is absolutely the best. The time I spent at Antioch under his guidance made more of a difference in my educational journey than any other person I’ve ever known. The insights offered by the kinds of questions he always asked reverberate within me whenever I’m trying to figure something out. And damned if they don’t always work. Tom, thank you.
So good to hear, really looking forward to these videos, thank you!
I had a few teachers like that, there, too, lucky we somehow find these people in our lives.
Wholeheartedly agreed. There is a lot of learning packed into 35mins.
Wow... quite a guy
This video makes me second guess my career path.
Makes me want to go live in a forest, integrated with it so as not to cause great disruption, instead find unique ways to give back.
I've never been camping sry lol
Makes me long for a time when Americans could actually make a living and survive on simple farm work. Living happy, peaceful and healthy lives. Nowadays most small farms are more of a side hobby than an actual career and the fast paced hustle and bustle of modern civilization has all but completely overtook the lifestyle of our forefathers. Humans were intended to live simple, stress-free, happy lives. The progression of our civilization will be responsible for our ultimate demise.
That's a sign of a good teacher. This man knows how to inform and inspire. Plus he radiates kindness and passion for his craft.
My advice is dont second guess your career path (unless you truly regret what you've learned and spent time on), but rather take this is a venture for new knowledge! Perhaps you could weave it into your life.
In college right now and ive been debating on switching to a forestry major for awhile now
@@ThatRebelBoyold comment but I’ll ask anyway, why didn’t these happy, peaceful, healthy farmers and their offspring continue living their happy lives instead of ending up where we are today.
I understand why this has almost 1 million views. I had no idea that you could just walk into a forest and look at the trees and earth, and it’s entire history can unfold right before your eyes.
I would also like to say, that I have used Tom’s methods to determine past crop fields in the forest where I visit. I found a couple of stone dumps, but what really gave it away was one part of the forest was uneven with pillows and cradles and the other half was completely smooth. I never would’ve realized this if I hadn’t watched these video’s. Thank you Tom.
This may be one of the greatest things I've ever watched on youtube. Is there anything more gratifying than piecing together a story from a combination of knowledge and observation, and then sharing that with others? How much there is to know in this world when you learn how to see.
Dear Dr. Wessels,
I have been stumbling through the forests of new England in all seasons for over 40 years. I am a trained biologist.
It is as if you took a blindfold off of me, and I stand seeing for the first time in my life.
This is an awesome and powerful revelation to me - regarding one of my most prized possessions, - the amazing forests of New England.
I cannot thank you enough. Your lectures (this is my second time through all) are some of the most fascinating information I have ever been struck by.
Thank you Sir..
What an engaging storyteller. Got me all wrapped up in Jarvis and his 4,000 smuggled Merinos like it’s the new Tarantino flick.
I'm seriously grateful for this series and this channel.
Well - now I am going to see pillows and cradles every time I'm in the woods! Great documentary/show/video
Tom is a National Treasure. Thank you.
No idea how this was recommended to me, but it's amazing
I’m a huge fan of early American history and never heard this story about merino sheep etc. only 4 1/2 minutes into this video and love it !!!!
Oh, why wasn't the "Sheep Fever Period" taught in school?
Me too. I know about Merino because I’m a knitter but didn’t know its origins.
Right? 4000 sheep being smuggled is a huge feat in the age of sail. I wonder how many ships made the voyage
Most history is complete BS, just saying. Unless someone was THERE witnessing it firsthand for themselves, then all they’re doing is regurgitating what was told to them or what they read somewhere. Always question academia, they are the greatest regurgitators of them all.
I enjoyed the sheep history way more than I thought I would
Incredible. Thank you for sharing!
Very inspiring. I just retired, was a forester in New Zealand till 1980, and a plant ecologist. In retirement I want to explore the US wilderness and I have personal reasons I want to explore the North East US. I have never been there. Now I have some concepts to apply to what I see. I just love the title - Reading the Forested Landscape. Thanks you for a great video series.
Visit the northwest
Yes, please do some comparison research, what NZ indigenous plants and trees occupy the same niche as the American species.
I went to the states when I was 17 for a couple of weeks. It blew my mind how different the nature was compared to New Zealand. I hope you can go. It's such a beautiful country I didn't want to leave.
The Northeast is beautiful! Beaches, snow, cities, farmland, mountains.
Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts!! You’ll love it, the scenery and forests are lovely
For the first time in a long time the RUclips algorithm has led me to something refreshing. Great video
Spent most of my working life in the woods, logging and land clearing. Learned a lot in the past 1/2 hour and can't wait to watch the rest of the episodes. Big thank you to Tom
My husband's family owns a logging business, I can't wait to show his this series.
Oof that’s a sad job my man
@@madisheila6725 RIP forests, what up climate change..can't believe we still clear cut all the forest today..I live in OR n WA, youd think with climate being changed so drastic and it gettn worse by the day we'd save the forests rather than cut em down just for $
Clear-cutting isn't ethical; it's not the way to log. Selective logging is ethical. If one wants an entire agricultural area for farming, there's the midwestern plains for that.
@@TheSadistNat1on
The cause of that is man's tech, not what they say it is.
Tom, you certainly know your business. I wish I had seen your channel sooner, because this subject is so very fascinating.
Such a pure, simple and real way to see life. How it’s all connected, all linked to things we do today that will change tomorrow. Great reasons to do good, and to appreciate nature far more than we do. Thank you for sharing, and thank you Tom, for being Tom.
Awesome. Just awesome. Knowing a place is such a gift.
The knowledge of this man is incredible and his talent at passing it on is just as magnificent
Just finished watching the 3 videos in the series, now I'm rewatching them
New England has some of the nicest woods on the planet. I wish they would stop developing them, we're losing out on the most gorgeous country in our backyards.
This channel is criminally underrated.
I was in the nursery landscape business for 20 years. After that I did some logging. I learned more about what the forests can tell us in this one video than decades of working with trees. Brilliant stuff.
This video just reinforced my desire to pursue environmental sciences in retirement.
anybody interested in forest and trees is a great human.
🙄...Many serial killers are interested in forrests and trees for various reasons 😳
This video made me a fan of Tom and his tremendous wealth of knowledge. Wow!
What a generous man to freely share the knowledge he's gained over decades of experience. I'm so grateful I came across this series! Watching from Pennsylvania on a snowy day.
This is just the gem I needed to find at 3am
The audio engineering for the narration is outlandishly good. Excellent use of the lapel along with post compression and noise cancellation. Most outdoors types show are horrifically windy or rough sounding.
Agreed!
Wow. That was a fantastic video.
This is the kind of stuff that everyone hiking the Appalachian Trail should be watching.
I had to stop watching 9 minutes in to give myself a few days to process everything I learned in just that 9 minutes. Insane content
How could you possibly need a few days to process that info?
same.
its alot.
I tried watching the cradle and pillow part a couple times, but I was too dumb to follow it 😅
@@Xosidhe Ever see an uprooted tree? Google if you haven’t. The roots sticking up from the ground decompose and form the pillow. The cradle is where the roots used to live before the tree fell over. Now picture the tree standing upright, and how it would have needed to fall to form the pillow and cradle, and then you can imagine which direction a storm wind came from to knock it over.
I didn’t even know I was interested in this! Thank you Tom.
I’m glad I stumbled across this. I live in downtown Los Angeles, never been to NH and have really no practical need for this info and yet I find it fascinating. Nicely done!
Absolutely love your username! And, like you, I live in Los Angeles Andy at stumbled across this amazingly well done and fascinating video… this man is a marvelous teacher.
I love coming back to this video. Thanks
I like this guy, he knows his shit. I went on hikes with him in Maine with one of my classes in high school and he could identify everything.
This is such fascinating material. I have 20 acres of woodland in SW Michigan. We're near Lake Michigan and the soil composition is nearly all sand. Aerial photographs show the site as having been cleared, or nearly cleared, prior to 1930. There are straight channels in the land visible in those early photos in the NE quadrant and those channels are still evident both on the ground and in aerial photographs today. It certainly appears that the trees were cleared and an attempt made to drain the site. With Tom's insights about pits and mounds, I'm now thinking that while they cleared this land and tried to drain it, that effort was abandoned without significantly disturbing the pits and mounds. I need to take a walk back to that quarter with the channels in it to see whether or not the pits and mounds are evident there. Through the remainder of the site, they definitely are present.
Excellent series, this answers so many questions about things I have seen in the woods on hikes but did not know how they evolved! Thanks to Tom's fascinating discussion I will be looking at the forest with a new appreciation of what took place.
Thanks for commenting, MJ. We expect to be starting another film with Tom this May. Looking forward to it.
I studied this very thing in a biogeography class. It's one of the classes I look back on most fondly
This video has changed my life. I've spent all my life in woods, farming, permaculturing, trail running, river tubing, canoeing... just sitting. My knowledge is vast but miniscule at the same time. In the forests and mountains of North Carolina I constantly am reading the history through topography but missed some links.
You have shown me what I want to do with my life. Sure, I'm an electrician.... but this is what I will be doing for rest of it. Reading the land and spending my life becoming intimate with it.
I've spent a lifetime with trees in Northeast Ohio. From planting, growing, reading them in their natural habitat. Arborist, plantsman, horticulturist, designer....all have given me a decent living. I have this love affair with mother nature that never seems to end. Take a winter day and park you arse against a large tree in the woods. Before you realize it they will be talking to you. I will caution you though...she is tough and unforgiving...but her beauty only gets better with age. I've never regretted my lifes choices. I doubt you will either. Have fun!
Brah... your a beast of knowledge! Thanks for imparting some of it to the world.
This needs way more views. True knowledge with an understanding of historical evidence shown in a practical and concise format.
Excellent. So informative. Thank you.
I’m literally so EXCITED right now! This is literally all me and my brothers talk about when we go metal detecting
That sounds fun. What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever found?
Using technology to bring me closer to nature. Thanks for the video!
I don't know how anyone could downvote this. Tom is the best!
Huge fan of Tom, have been for years. Ran into him at a Subway once.
I haven't learned so much in a very long time. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Ok I have to say i thought I knew quite a bit about forests until i started watching your videos, and now realise i know next to nothing :-) I have learnt more watching your videos in the last few weeks than wandering around them for the last 50 years, many of the things i have seen over the years , now i know why they are like that, a huge wealth of knowledge thank you for sharing .
Starting about a dozen years ago? ...... I really started enjoying his book, "Reading The Forested Landscape". So much more info to inform my hikes through New England. Then, he came out with an illustrated version a few years back, and that was just fantastic! Well, this series is the icing on the cake! Everything is explained and presented in video! Perfect!
I am greatly impressed at how this video is produced! Tom Wessels is given plenty of time to communicate each idea, and quick clips are added to further illustrate things. First rate!
Thank you, much appreciated. Tom is a great teacher, and has a lot of fans in New England.
Fascinating. I don’t know anything about trees and stuff but I live in Rhode Island and those stone walls in the woods are all over the place. This guy knows so much about this subject, very nice to learn from him.
Tom gave a keynote talk at a URI land conservation conference around 2010. It was the best and most useful talk we have had at that annual conference. Unfortunately he doesn't get down here very often to give talks. While conferences are good an in-person field trip with him would be wicked good.
This is that environmentalist/historian crossover content I crave.
Dude this spring and summer are gonna be awesome hiking with my mom and wifey here in New Hampshire. Thank you for giving me something amazing to ponder while exploring in my home state.
The algorithm won't stop suggesting this video, I finally relented.
Phenomenal logic. I've spent the better part of sixty years trapesing around central New England forests and all of this knowledge has given an answer to all of the questions that arose in my mind as I did so. Tom Wessels is not only "skilled" in his assessments, but he's also a visionary. This is a tremendous revelation for any New Englander used to mucking about in our forests. Well done! BTW this presentation took a very dry subject and turned it into a riveting presentation. I could NOT stop watching once I stumbled upon it. Cheers.
I'm an avid outdoorsman and spend a lot of time in the Arkansas Ouachita National Forest and while our region is certainly different from the subject of this vid, the info within has been very useful and applicable to our area. Thank you.
Just wonderful! Felt like I was back doing a walk with my undergrad ecology prof! Well done.
Thanks Ric. It's rewarding and encouraging to get positive comments, they're always appreciated. Tom deserves all the credit, he's quite a knowledgeable teacher.
Ray
Shared it via my twitter account, too: twitter.com/UntilDarwin
@@NewEnglandForests 2021 and watching your videos before checking out Caledon Statepark near my home!
Hi Joe... hope you make some good finds out there. Enjoy!
Totally! It was my favorite class, too.
This is such an interesting talk. It's a pleasure to learn from such an expert.
This is a wonderful video, I've lived in Connecticut my whole life and find every hike in the woods a good opportunity to learn all about history.
So glad I decided to watch this. Flax gets uprooted, not sickled, in order to get the maximum fiber length.
I don't know how this came up in recommendations, since I haven't been actively searching for it, but I'm a permaculture nerd and a CG hobbyist looking to understand geomorphology, and the apparent chaos of landform at all scales, better. This tickled every one of those fancies. Thank you Tom.
Having many years of animal tracking I had long hoped for a book like Tom's so I was overjoyed when Forest Forensics came out. I can somewhat read the woods of Virginia but not to the depth Wessels shows is possible. Every area has different forests with new things to learn so time to get hiking!
These videos are awesome. I have been looking for this kind of commentary and insight for a long time to help me understand the natural world around me. I am glued to this series.
This is fasinating. Possibly the most informative I have watched. Thank you very much.
From Old England!
🇬🇧👍🇺🇸
This makes me want to get out in the woods and explore. My family has around 100 acres in Maine and I’m looking forward to showing what I learned here to my kids this summer. Thanks for rekindling my interest in nature.
I want to own land in northern New England. I'm older (69) but I have the resources now. My wife will think I'm nuts but I think it has to happen.
100 acres in Maine! Incredible, you are very fortunate. It’s a beautiful place, I just went up there from MA for some bbq and taking in all the trees was spectacular
This is one of the best videos I have ever seen.
my buddy and have been going in our woods for years smoking pot with questions of the past. Thank you
I think I can believe that.
Your probably reflecting on deep philosophical questions...
😎
The dude abides
When I clicked on this I was asking myself why the frig did I click on this I must be super bored!? But it ended up being really interesting and I'm glad I did, you are a great presenter I'm going to watch more of these 👍
I am so impressed and amazed at the wealth of knowledge you have! I am captivated when you speak. I have been trying to evaluate my mom’s property in NE Pennsylvania. You taught me so much in just this short video. I will most definitely read your book! This is just the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you for educating me.
This is low key one of the more interesting videos about the outdoors
When I was in 3d grade in 1959, we were taught the stones for New England fences were from glacial deposits, and had been pulled from the fields as they were worked. Newer stones were supposed to be emerging as well, so the landowners never stopped culling them and needed a place to stack them, like a fence.
You all are so knowledgable. Interesting videos. Thank you!
I’m 24 minutes in and this is absolutely incredible. I feel like I’m on a paid hike/ history/ intellectual geographical lesson about current and historical events about forestry and more specifically the northeast
TOM, i love how wise you are. i live in farm country in upstate ny. ive always built stone walls gorgouse step down with fountains into a koi pond. you are AMAZING !!!!! i WISH YOU WERE MY DAD OR UNCLE, your the kind of person that will survive whats coming to the world. HOW DO YOU KNOW SOO MUCH. my dad passed away, youd fit right into my family. . i have learned SOOOOOO much from you today. very clean , and pollite person id like to know. i am american indian and hungarian. i have an orchard i planted when i was young, huge gardens i grow 1000 squash and cukes and tomatoes a year to donate to food pantrys. plus a really kewl 200$ do all incubator, i started with 12 JERSEY GIANTS.....i now have 200 chickens assorted breeds now. yes i get 200 eggs a day. i donate them to an amish family up the road from me, they have 7 kids. mom and i help them every week. buying them grain, flour, lots of food . blankets, tarps. they dont have or wear shoes. i own a huge antique/ junk shop and i had them come down and gave them all a 50$ credit. ive never seen 7 little kids soo happy, 3 to 15. i love how they live soo much, but i could never go without my puter n phone.lol . i am 60 yrs old , but i love god and he keeps me young. your a tree guy, heres a funny tree story for ya. my wife and i in 1988 didnt have money for a xmas tree, so we walked threee miles to where there were 80yr old pines. well i was young and gutsy so i got my hack saw and started to climb, and climb, and climb, the higher i got the windier it got and that pine was swaying back and forth, so i start cutting, going back in forth with the saw and the tree moving. i got SOOOOOO SICK i hurled a huge lunch we had. it went all down thru the tree that i had to climb down thru. whenever i see a 80ft northern christmas tree i think of thst. feels like yesterday. she gone now, im losing everyone and its not fair. i feel deserted. another VERY KEWL THING I OWN, i have the UNDERGROUND rail road cave system under my shop and huge victorian. it goes id say ten miles each way, and im the only one that knows abot it. i think i should get lanterns nice ladder and charge 50bucks a day for them to go caving. theyd have to sign a waiver. i looked up the laws and it says if you own a cave system you only own the part under your property. that sucks!!! well, im glad i found you program. my uncle joe is a woodsman too. take care you wise ole owl! may god richly bless you and you partner. signed, pastor richard h smith jr. also known as richie rich. (richie richs is my shops name). lmk if you want 20 baby chicks. free to you,
Not sure how I came upon this video, but the most interesting thing I've seen on the internet in ages! WOW! Fascinating stuff and does this guy ever know his stuff. Looking forward to watching Part 2 and 3!
FANTASTIC. Definitely getting Tom's books.
Great collection of videos. You have made me so much more observant when I am on hikes and I am able to pass on all this information to my kids. Tom Wessels has some great books out there too!
Hi Jon,
That's a wonderful compliment, and I appreciate that you took the time to write it. Thank you!
Ray
Soon as you said “forest forensics” I was immediately hooked 🪝
Great content, great story telling. Tom should be a guest panel member on the BBC TV program QI.
This feels like a PBS show my fam and I would watch on a Sunday afternoon
This might be the most interesting video I have ever watched, I was unaware of even the simple concepts at the start of the video like pillows and mounds being formed by down trees - but he took that to a whole other level talking about wind patterns and directions - then when he started aging the trees on the mounds and confidently estimating which particular storm knocked those trees down I nearly lost my mind. This is so cool!
This guy's vocal cadence is so satisfying to listen to. fascinating video
I love the outdoors & you’ve answered so many questions I’ve always had. So much respect to you and your knowledge!
Forester here. I was taught to refer to the "pillows or cradles" as hummocks and hollows, for the same reasons. The rock walls were all over Vermont, where I grew up and attended college in the early 1970's. Old field white pines were infested with weevil evidence. Rare was the unaffected tree.
Regarding the stone walls....When the low lands were deforested for ag, a phenomenon called frost heave occurs. Basically what happens is the exposed soil layers freeze deeper because there is no blanket of vegetation. The soil will then push up stones when it freezes during winter faster. Also, since the pastures were lowlands there were more stone to push out of the ground due to geologic weathering. Every spring the farmers would carry off all of the new stones. Walls were the convenient way to move the stones away from the pastures.
opps looks like you explain this half way through sorry.
He mentions exactly this around the 15 minute mark.
Isn't that exactly what he explains in great detail?
so pretty much what he was talking about around the 15:00 min mark?
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,/ That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,/ And spills the upper boulders in the sun; /And makes gaps even two can pass abreast ... No one has seen them made or heard them made,/ But at spring mending-time we find them there./ I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;/ And on a day we meet to walk the line/ And set the wall between us once again.” -Robert Frost
Wow, a genuine forest detective! We have 90 acres in the southern Adirondacks and I'm always finding rock walls, barbed wire, etc. Now I have some idea what those are there for. I'm absolutely going t purchase Tom's books and learn more. Fascinating!
I'm impressed with the interesting, detailed, well researched, and engaging presentation on information that havent found to be readily available. I appreciate the lesson.
This guy is awesome! He's got one hell of a memory that's for sure. I came here because it said New England forest and I'm missing New England everything, "Vermont". Because I'm down here in Texas.. Instead I got a history lesson, and a geography lesson. Great video 👍
This guy has style, love his beard, and wearing that baldness proud. Such a boss.
Idk why but I can't stop watching....
absolutely phenomenal knowledge being passed here. I visit the old hemlock forest in Wachusett quite frequently and this is all invaluable to understand the fingerprint of the forest. thanks tom and new england forests crew.
Thanks Dan... happy to see that you appreciate the old growth on the mountain too, we should allow much more land to return to old growth.
Ray
Hi Dan, is that the old-growth near the top of Wachusett? I recently read about it after visiting Sheldrick Preserve in NH. If so, do you have to hike to the top? Thanks!
Not sure why RUclips recommended this to me but I'm glad it did. Fascinating stuff.
Hands down the most informative video I've ever watched on RUclips. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
I ADORE how nerdy all of this was. Thank you! 💚
This spring I'll be walking my woods with a lot of new information. I already have seen a stone dump, a few pillows and cradles, and barbed wire going through a line of old trees. Thanks for the lessons. You've got a new subscriber.
Best material on RUclips I've encountered honestly
Great video! Recently learned about old-growth and sparked my interest in forest-life. Can't wait to watch the rest in this series. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!!
Wow. Fascinating. This guy knows his neighborhood.