Nova Scotia can now claim to have the oldest tree in the maritime provinces after researchers from the Department of Natural Resources inspected core samples from an eastern hemlock.
The tree is situated on a parcel of provincial crown land near the South Panuke Wilderness Area, near Hubbards.
Peter Bush, manager of research at the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, says the discovery came as he and a group of summer students were investigating some of the province’s old-growth forests.
“We take core samples from plots that we map, so fortunately this plot was set up to include this particular tree and in that sense, we were a little lucky to find it,” Bush said.
Core samples are not analyzed on-site so it took about a week before researchers uncovered what they had found. Bush says when they collected the sample no one was thinking it could be the oldest tree in the Maritimes.
“The tree itself isn’t even the biggest hemlock in the area, and looking at it you wouldn’t necessarily think it was anything special,” Bush said.
Meaghan Pollock, a summer student was the first one to take notice of the age of the tree. She counted over 500 rings on the sample, at which point she asked her colleague Dafna Schultz to confirm her count.
“I was out of the office on the day they analyzed the sample and Emily and Dafna texted me that they thought they found a tree over 500 years old, to which I responded ‘Are you sure?’,”.
Sure enough, the count was correct, so the sample was then sent to Mount Allison University for further confirmation.
Dafna Schultz collecting a core sample from the oldest tree in the Maritimes. Photo: Peter Bush
Coincidentally, the sample was received at Mount Allison by Ben Phillips who has an interesting link to old trees in the Maritimes. Phillips who now works as a Professor at the university is credited with discovering what was previously believed to be the oldest tree in the Maritimes, a 450-year-old red spruce in New Brunswick.
The discovery of the 532-year old hemlock changes some long-standing assumptions biologists had about old-growth forests in the region according to Bush. “We didn’t know trees could survive this long, in our environment,” Bush said. “Trees in Nova Scotia have to survive a lot, from heavy wind to erosion and so much more, then you add in human intervention.”
While some information has been released about the location of the tree Bush says they won’t be providing specifics to avoid an influx of visitors that could potentially harm the tree and the surrounding ecosystem.
