#2471 "Pioneer Sugar Maple"

I revisited the huge sugar maple that I painted in #2454 "Singleton Sugar Maple". It was a cold and sunny day in late January and I was walking the Singleton Sanctuary trails to see what else might be enjoying the winter day. The huge maple was here long before the pioneers arrived in the 1800's. This time I placed the tree in the foreground and let the marble ridge lead away with the afternoon shadows of the maple in tow. On the west side of the trunk of the tree there are a series of swirls and lines that are very much like vorticity centres and deformation zones. Similar forces apparently are also found in living tissue which experiences the strain of nature. 

This maple has a circumference of 135 inches (11.25 feet) at 36 inches above the ground. Simple math gives the diameter of this tree of about 43 inches. The Comfort Sugar Maple tree has a 20 foot circumference at the base which is larger than the 11.25 feet circumference of the Singleton Maple which I measured a bit higher. The Comfort Sugar Maple near North Pelham, Niagara Region, was a sprout when Columbus navigated to the New World in 1492. The Singleton Sugar Maple was likely at least a good sized tree for the War of 1812. Size is not always related to age though. There are cedars on the Niagara Escarpment that are 2000 year old (1890 in 2014) and they have circumferences measure in just a few inches. Life like art, is not a competition and I am just happy that both old trees are still alive. 

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