Round Lake National Natural Landmark - Preservation of The Old-growth Forest

Preservation of The Old-growth Forest

The virgin quality of the forest near Round Lake was already considered unusual by 1855, when Ledyard Lincklaen noted that this "dense body of woodland had hardly felt the axe." The region of Upstate New York in which Round Lake lies was heavily forested through the 18th Century, but by 1855 the region had largely been deforested to create farmland. In the early 19th Century, Upstate New York was rapidly being settled by European-Americans. Soldiers who had fought in the Revolutionary War had often received land grants in this former Indian territory. Essentially the first act of most settlers was to cut down the primeval forest and to burn the hardwood logs to make potash, which was quite profitable in that era.

The land near Round Lake was settled in 1817 by David Collin III. It lies within one mile (1.6 km) of the Erie Canal, which was completed in 1825. It is remarkable that a forest so close to a major transportation route remained nearly untouched throughout the 19th Century. However, for the entire interval between 1817 and the purchase of the land for Green Lakes State Park, most of it was owned by Collin or by his descendants. One of these descendants, Betsy Knapp, wrote a memoir Rocks, Fields and Beauty Forever: One Family's Memories of Fayetteville's Green Lakes in 1989. Her memoir makes clear that the land was never clearcut either for lumber or for potash. In essence, the forest was preserved by the Collin family until its purchase for the park in 1928.

The old-growth forestlands throughout Green Lakes State Park were extensively surveyed in 2001-2002 by members of the Wildwood Ancient Forest Alliance. The surveys found that there are about 800 acres (3 km2) of old-growth forest within the park. The surveyors speculated that the paucity of hemlock trees in some areas indicates selective cutting of this species, perhaps for log roads in the mid 19th Century. They nonetheless conclude that "Green Lakes State Park is likely the finest old growth forest in central New York." Green Lakes State Park contains particularly old and large examples of tuliptrees, sugar maples, beech, basswood, hemlocks, and white cedars. One particularly impressive grove of trees, lying just southwest of Round Lake, was renamed the Tuliptree Cathedral following the 2001-2002 old-growth surveys. A survey of the heights of especially large trees was reported in 2011; the tallest was 147 feet (45 m).