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News

  • Acclaimed Cottrell-Baldwin Environmental Lecture Series Starts in March

    Anna Berry
    February 22, 2021

    The series explores topics from trout streams and New England Cottontail rabbit habitat restoration to foraging for edible native or invasive plants and the protection of freshwater resources.

  • A New Way to See the Merrimack Watershed

    Anna Berry
    January 12, 2021

    Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Merrimack has been cleaned up considerably over the last 50 years. But there is still work to be done.

  • Together, we made it through 2020

    Anna Berry
    December 31, 2020

    We hope you’ll take a few minutes to view a short slideshow of some highlights from our year of conserving, enjoying and caring for forests.

Water In The Trees

Something Wild
Dave Anderson
May 22, 2014
Clean Water
Old Growth researcher Chris Kane with an ancient yellow birch leaking hundreds of gallons of water per day at Mount Sunapee, Newbury, NH. Photo Dave Anderson.

How Trees Move Water... When the late spring rains arrive

The patter of rain. Fingers of wind comb the canopy of tender leaves. These are exotic sounds of the new tree canopy in late May. New Hampshire forests are adapted to withstand rigors of wind and weather. Leaf structures reflect inner tree plumbing we rarely consider.

Tubes of the water-moving "xylem" are coiled like springs that stretch and recoil to some degree and not break the tension of water in these drinking straws. Stem fibers of differing lengths break at different stress points

Leaves raise water from roots to canopy. Water rises via the plumbing connecting trunks, branches and limbs to fine twigs and newly-arrayed leaves which act as leaky spigots into the air. Microscopic "stomate" pores function as tiny vents releasing water vapor. This process called "transpiration" creates the “tug” of hydraulic tension. Xylem cells in the outer sapwood of large trees can trees lift hundreds of gallons of water each day via capillary action and the draw of leaf stomates.

When spring rains saturate the forest soil, tree stems recycle it upwards and back out to the atmosphere. Trees don't pump water, they leak from leaves along an air-powered hydraulic gradient.

Leaf geometry - size, shape and configuration - conspire with wind to move water upwards. Small leaves of aptly-named trembling aspen feature tiny keels which catch wind and increase moisture spilling from leaves to fuel the rapid growth characteristic of the poplar family.

Listen to the feature here at NHPR

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Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests54 Portsmouth St.Concord, NH 03301
Phone: 603.224.9945Fax: 603.228.0423info@forestsociety.org
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