BEARS GALORE: Must be bears are out and about even more than we
had thought – and right in residential areas. Our carriers in
Bradford reported a large bruin in the vicinity of Gregory Avenue
and a second not far from the YWCA on West Corydon Street.
We also got word that Emporium is experiencing similar problems
with bears coming into town. The subject came up at a meeting of
Borough Council and members agreed to contact the Pennsylvania Game
Commission as the situation needed immediate attention.
In the meantime, residents were cautioned to keep a safe
distance from these animals. Several of them have been seen with
their cubs and this creates even a more dangerous situation,
officials noted.
The Game Commission, as we’ve reported previously in RTS, says
this situation is normal for the months of June and July mainly
because of the lack of food available in the woods during these
months.
WHITE OAK: After telling readers about Gene Fazio’s gigantic oak
tree, he called back with some specifics. While we had surmised it
was a red oak, Gene tells us it was a white oak.
Its crown had a spread of over 100 feet, Gene tells us. You may
recall this particular tree was 186 inches in circumference, a very
large specimen by any measure.
Nonetheless, we were forced to go back to our listing of the
2006 biggest trees in Pennsylvania to check out the statistics for
the white oak. And while Gene’s is large, the biggest one in
Pennsylvania measures 232 inches around, stands 115 feet tall and
has a 122-foot spread of its crown!
TREE TIME: Call us crazy but we think tourists would be very
interested in seeing some of these very big trees in our region.
Why not try to promote this idea? We can already envision parents
with their kids trying to wrap their arms around some of the
behemoths, and posing for pictures.
The tree list we’ve been telling you about includes some photos
and we can see city folks getting a big kick out of measuring and
photographing these beautiful specimens. Living in “the woods,” we
tend to take “our” big trees for granted.
