Saturday, March 23
The Connecticut Forest and Park Association
16 Meriden Road (Route 66)
Rockfall, CT

Bark: Get to Know Your Trees

Michael Wojtech, freelance Naturalist, Writer, Illustrator, and Photographer

The leaf, twig, and bud traits typically used to describe trees are often hard to see or seasonally absent. Join Michael for an exploration of bark—which is always visible, in any season—based on his book, Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. He will explain how bark structure can be used to help identify the bark of each species, and how ecological interactions have influenced the evolution of such a wide variety of bark characteristics. Why do some species have smooth bark, while on others it is thick and broken? Why does bark peel? Some of the many human uses of bark will also be covered.

For more information, visit Michael's web site Know Your Trees.

Bark of Populus deltoides (cottonwood). Photographed by Janet Novak at Bull's Bridge, Connecticut, May 2003.