Richard B. Primack
“Who hears the rippling of the rivers will not utterly despair of anything.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.
Letchworth State Park, south of Rochester, NY, was established to protect the deep and immensely beautiful valley of the Genesee River. The park is remarkable for having three spectacular waterfalls. The upper falls lies below an immense railroad bridge.
The wide middle falls lies below the historic Glen Iris Inn.
The middle falls
 |
| The Glen Iris Inn |
The lower falls is in a deep gorge. Vultures and hawks circle above, riding updrafts from the gorge.
The steep sides of the gorge create highly varied local conditions supporting fifty tree species, making it one of the most diverse temperate forests in the world.
 |
| Forests growing along the sides of the gorge |
And yet this wonderland faces grave threats to its trees: the emerald ash borer is killing the ash trees, and oak trees and other species are being defoliated by spongy moth caterpillars. And recently the woolly adelgid insect has arrived in the park, threatening to destroy the groves of hemlocks shading the forest paths at the top of the valley.
 |
| Ash trees are dying due to insect attack |
No comments:
Post a Comment