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A few days ago, I wrote about two trees at the G. Howard Ferguson Forestry Centre, located in Kemptville, Ontario. I said that I’d be following up with a few more of my personal favourites, so consider this to be the next installment.

For a number of years, I’ve been photographing any arborglyphs which I come across during my forest rambles. Most have been carved into Beech (Fagus grandifolia), but occasionally into other trees such as Aspen. I’ve found them in many well and lesser known forests. There are numerous examples on the Beeches of Gillies Grove in Arnprior, and also in Baird Woods at Herrons Mills near Lanark. Another location where I’ve photographed a number of glyphs is on the trail to the ruins of the experimental phosphoric acid condensation plant built by Thomas “Carbide” Willson, above Meech Lake in Gatineau Park around 1910-13.

Arborglyphs belong to those artifacts now described by archaeologists and historians as CMTs (culturally modified trees). Most often, they consist of the inscribed name of the carver. The year and sometimes even the day is frequently inscribed alongside the name. Some inscriptions are declarations of so-and-so loves so-and-so, occasionally with a heart inscribed to surround the names. Less common are lines of poetry, or even drawings. More recent inscriptions which I’ve found tend to be of symbols rather than words. For example, I’ve seen numerous peace signs, and also the logos for rock bands. Inscriptions on Beech trees can be quite old — easily more than a century. Those on Aspens are not usually so old as the trees have a much shorter lifespan.

Despite their somewhat destructive nature, arborglyphs are of interest to many historians. Among the more publicized examples are the thousands of arborglpyhs created by (predominantly) Basque sheepherders who worked throughout several states in the western US in the earlier part of the 1900s. To learn more about this history, visit Carol Pedersen’s webpage on the Steens Mountain Arborglyphs, or read the .pdf version of Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe’s Carving Out History – The Basque Aspens.

The arborglpyhs carved on the Beech trees at the Ferguson Forestry Centre (pictured above), aren’t particularly artistic or exotic in nature. There are quite a few names and a few symbols carved into the bark (click here to see a larger view). Perhaps the most noticeable glyph is the one by “Cory D.” who carved “Futures ‘87″ below his name (Futures being the name of a summer job creation program for students).

Unfortunately, this favourite Beech cluster is in pretty tough shape now. Over the past couple of years, the trees have rapidly deteriorated, losing a number of branches. Last autumn, the largest broke and fell over to block the hiking trail. The rest are showing signs of disease – probably Beech Bark Disease, a problem which we’ve been seeing throughout this area in recent years. It’s a sad thing to be losing so many of these wonderful old trees. – bev

Tags: arborglyph, beech tree, fagus grandifolia, baird woods, ferguson forestry centre, gillies grove