Strange Things I Have Seen – A Ringed Tree

The wife and I have been taking a new friend of ours on tours of all the near-by trails in the area. She moved into town last Spring and we met her just a few months ago while hand-feeding chickades on the AKS Marsh trail. The best part of showing someone else an old trail, is the chance to see it through their eyes. Things you have come to take for granted are re-appreciated. Then again, there are some things you would never have paid any attention to.

Case in point :

This oddly shaped tree was noticed while walking a rarely used trail. This tree is a testament to the tenacity of Life. If you look closely, you’ll see why it grew those peculiar rings. Some 50 years ago, when this trail was the edge of a farmer’s field, wire was strung around trees along the property line to form a fence. Over time, this particular tree “ate” (grew-over) the wires and compensated for the abberation by accelerating cell growth at the pinch-point, hence, the rings.

We have a huge silver maple in our backyard which has consumed a three foot long metal rod, a coupla rubber coated cables, and eight inches of decking boards. But I guess when you’re a tree with a girth of six feet, you don’t show lumps from what you ate recently, like the tree above does.

There was an even stranger phenomenon spotted on that same trail. A sight that will require foliage, and a video to record it all. I’ll share that with you come Spring/Summer.

Bushwhacker