Gilboa Fossil Forest,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States, is a

petrified forest Petrified wood (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial plant, terrestrial vegetation. ''Petrifaction ...

and one of the oldest known

forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

. Located near the

Gilboa Dam The Schoharie Reservoir is a reservoir in the New York City water supply system located in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. One of 19 reservoirs in the system, it was created by impounding Schoharie Creek, and feeds via the Ashoken Rese ...

Schoharie County Schoharie County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,714, making it the state's fifth-least populous county. The county seat is Schoharie. "Schoharie" comes from a Mohawk word meaning " ...

, New York, the region is home to tree trunks from the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

period. The fossils, some of the only survivors of their type in the world, are believed to have been from one of the first forests on Earth, and was part of the Earth's

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: natural Regeneration (biology), regeneration, agroforestry and Tree plantation, tree plan ...

Paleobotanists Paleobotany or palaeobotany, also known as paleophytology, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant fossils from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (pale ...

have been interested in the site since the 1920s when construction work for a water supply project found several large, vertical fossilized stumps. Some of these remain on display at the Gilboa Dam site () and the

New York Power Authority The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is a public benefit corporation owned by the State of New York and is the largest state public power utility in the United States. It provides some of the lowest-cost electricity in the nation, operating 16 ge ...

Blenheim-Gilboa Visitor Center in

and at the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, Albany, New York (state), New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and to ...

References

External links

Gilboa Fossils website

Gilboa Historical Society
{{coord, 42, 23, 48.98, N, 74, 27, 7.84, W, region:US-NY_type:landmark_dim:20, display=title Paleozoic paleontological sites of North America Geology of New York (state) Forests of New York (state) Protected areas of Schoharie County, New York Petrified forests Paleontology in New York (state) Devonian paleontological sites Fossil parks in the United States

References

Further reading

External links