A healthy American beech is a "strikingly handsome" tree with tight, smooth and skin-like light gray bark. This slick bark is so unique, it becomes a major identifier of the species. Also, look for the muscular roots which often remind one of creature legs and arms. Beech bark has suffered the carver's knife through the ages. From Virgil to Daniel Boone, men have marked territory and carved the tree's bark with their initials.
Alfred Joyce Kilmer and His Memorial Forest
By Steve Nix, About.com
A dead and rotting American beech log is a typical sight in the Joyce Kilmer virgin forest. A virgin forest can be very beautiful but not necessarily healthy. A virgin forest can be consumed by the diseases of age. The Joyce Kilmer forest has its share of these downed and dead trees.
Index: Alfred Joyce Kilmer and His Memorial Forest
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