Both of the pictures are of the American Beech tree which is the third most abundant tree in the Northern Hardwood Forest. 

The top picture is a tree of about 10 to 15 years old and the bottom pictures is of an aged American Beech.

The tree has a very full crown with many branches. This makes for a full canopy and wonderful shade.

They live as long as 300 years. During Fall, the Beech's leaves are a bright golden color. The Beech also produces edible nuts. The American beech tree is a shade tree native to the eastern United States with strikingly silver-gray bark. It is the only beech tree that is native to North America. The most robust specimens can grow to a height of 115 feet. It produces four-lobed beech nuts which draw birds and animals that forage for them in the tree branches and on the soil surface. The American Beech reproduces by the spread of its seedlings and through sprouts in its roots. Because of the root propagation stands of American Beech often grow close to one another. Its roots grow to quite a thickness above ground, and many people consider them to have a resemblance to the human leg and arm muscles. The largest specimens of the American Beech grow in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys near the rivers of both valleys. American beeches there can live for as long as 400 years.