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Saving the Great
Forest Of Oz . . . And Other Great Forests, Too!
by Tom Howard
This has been an eventful year in both
the effort to save what is left of our world’s diminishing natural
environment and for the increasingly powerful forces that are determined
to consume the last of our natural areas to serve our society’s
insatiable greed.
Luckily, the ancient oak groves in North Syracuse still thrive, and
our program to save the larger grove at North Syracuse Junior High School
(NSJHS) is doing very well. We have a new group of enthusiastic kids
in the NSJHS Oak Grove Club; we plan to meet once a month, and the kids
are thrilled by the oak grove’s connection to L. Frank Baum —
this was the grove that inspired Baum's Great Forest of Oz. We are still
planning a presentation to the School Board to get permission to place
a permanent sign at the entrance and to convince the Board to commit
to the permanent preservation of the grove as a significant ecological,
educational, and historical site. We are also planning an Oak Grove
Festival next spring, a celebration of the grove’s old-growth
quality and its connection to Baum and Oz.
My central NY old-growth activities have extended beyond North Syracuse.
Robert Henry and I are among the founding members of the NY Old Growth
Forest Association (NYOGFA). This organization was formed at Green Lakes
State Park near Syracuse with the purpose of documenting and preserving
the state’s old-growth forests.
Green Lakes is also an incredible place — by far the largest old-growth
forest in central NY. We have made several visits there and have confirmed
that this state park contains more than 1,000 acres of old-growth forests,
dominated by Sugar Maple, but also containing Tulip trees that at more
than 140 feet tall — these are tallest trees in central NY. This
is the largest old-growth Sugar Maple forest near any major city in
the US.
Sincerely,
Tom Howard
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