Are Bent Tree's Protected?

[fireman32]

Now I’m not talking about “ bent trees”. The ones I’m referring to and have had pointed out were what we called “ dog legged”, 2 ninety degree bends. I’ve seen some good sized ones.

I’ve got a pine tree on my place with two 90 degree angle bends. I need to cut it down because it’s in the middle of 5 smaller swamp chestnut oaks. The pine isn’t huge, but big enough to make me nervous cutting it down.

 

[gawildlife]

In my over half a century traipsing around the woods I've only found a single tree that I suspect but cannot prove may have borne the mark of native Americans. A lightning mark sylvaglyph on an ancient beech that was over eight foot in diameter. Standing on the bank of Valley Creek just down from the intersection with Rock Creek in Alabama.
Probably not there any more as it fared poorly in the April 8th F5 tornado in 98. It wasn't toppled but it took a twist that cracked it top to bottom. In the years after it looked to be fading fast. Last saw it in 01 or 02 and looked to be nearly gone.
That same storm made three similar sized poplars just disappear.

 

[gawildlife]

Here’s a big unView attachment 1109775

Scale is hard to judge but that tree is less than a century old.

 

[gawildlife]

Most folks have no understanding of tree size vs age. My family has owned the same piece of property for six generations now. It has been logged and replanted to some degree or other every one of those generations.
There is pole timber coming off of it now that most would call old but I remember planting those trees in the 80s.
BTW, many of the trees we see today even though huge are young in age though ancient in lifespan. Prime example, today's predominant loblolly pine which has an average lifespan of less than a century compared to the longleaf pine it replaced which lived on average into it's fifth century. Point being that it would be a physical impossibility for the vast majority of the trees alive today to have been standing when the Cherokee were sent west.

 

[Nicodemus]

I think they did, actually. Look at the helical fletch on the Eastern Woodlands two-feather fletched arrows. Full turn in about five inches on some of them. If you make a reproduction, it spins like a power drill.

Reason I say the Plains tribes did was because of the way they hafted their points on arrow shafts. Veritical for hunting and horizontal for war with other tribes.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Reason I say the Plains tribes did was because of the way they hafted their points on arrow shafts. Veritical for hunting and horizontal for war with other tribes.

They almost always used straight fetching, too.

 

[NCHillbilly]

The first 90 degree bent was when the bigger tree fell on it and pinned it to the ground, the second 90 degree bend was when it shot up to the sky as God intended trees to do. The rest of the tree that went horizontal died and rotted away along with the tree that fell on it.
That’s how that shape happened then and still does to this day.

Yep. You can see the process in action pretty frequently if you spend much time in the woods.

 

[redneck_billcollector]

If it is next to a power line, it was probably injured as a sapling when they were putting in the power line right of way, hence it being bent. A tree would have to be nearly 200 years old to have been made right before removal....and by then Indians in the Southeast used established "roads" kept herds of cattle and swine, many owned african slaves and some had become rather successful Planters. Storm damage, logging operations and land clearing are the cause of all the bent trees you see....well some are from when a tree feel due to old age on a sapling....they are not "marker" trees. Did the natives make them? Hard to say, but if they did, they would have been long gone by now.

 

[redneck_billcollector]

Easy to prove/disprove get a canteen of water and start following "bent trees". You'll either get lost way out in the woods or wind up standing in the middle of Peachtree. Having spent nearly 90% of my time in the woods (not just hunting), I totally agree with Nic, Hillbilly, & Pappy - bogus info from folks that don't see the true drama that constantly occurs in the enviroment around them.

An even easier way to disprove or prove...just take a core reading, you will find the tree is less than 100 years old in 999 times out of 1,000 and if it is older than 100 years it is not 200 years old.

 

[redneck_billcollector]

Ones I've seen that are bent are in well know Indian camps. A quick walk around and can find tons of worked pieces of quarts. Few others will have broke pottery prices. Juts noting what a local with part Cherokee pointed out to me

If there was no pottery at the site, it will be an archaic site making it at least a few thousand years old....so that is one old tree. With pottery and lots of quartz or chert chips, it is still pre-Columbian which is over five hundred years old...once again a very old tree. You do realize, before the Cherokee were removed, many lived in really nice homes, better than what a lot of contemporary whites lived in, many owned slaves and were planters. The Cherokee were not making stone tools or using them after the mid-17th Century, basically since the Carolina Colonies were formed. They had muskets and metal for their points, they got wealthy trading slaves to the Carolina colonist and selling deer hides. The French also traded with them, along with the Spanish to a lesser extent, during many of the European Wars the bled over into North America, like Queen Anne's War or the 7 Years War.

 

[redneck_billcollector]

There's a few bent trees around the area. Only white oaks and they all look the same. The ones I've seen are all facing Sautee which is supposed to be Indian burial grounds. Also they are around 250 year old range when compared to other big whites that we've cut in the area. Most all others are definitely from trees falling on and damaging a young tree

It is not uncommon for trees to all be bent in the same direction, all one needs to do is drive through Tyndall AFB right now to see that result from Hurricane Michael. Storms are notorious for causing large number of trees to be bent in the same direction.