ENTS,
Yesterday I spent part of the day in MTSF walking around with a DCR
employee showing him different sites of historical, cultural, or ecological
value; groves of stately trees; discussing the statistics of individual trees;
and discussing with him what we in FMTSF and ENTS have learned about sites,
groves, and individual trees in MTSF. The walk and talk was a gratifying
experience for me because although we get sufficient respect from DCR for the
work we do, I'm not always sure that what we're learning about the sites,
groves, and individual trees in terms of the values they incorporate gets
sufficiently absorbed by the local DCR employees who may be asked questions by
the public and feel embarrassed when they don't have the answers. To help close
this information gap FMTSF will soon rejuvenate a project to develop a series
of trail guides for MTSF. It has been an onn again off again project, mostly
off. Hopefully, we'll follow through this time. However, it will be up to DCR
to get the brochures reproduced.,We'll do all the design and interpretive work
and turn the result over to them. The brochures will be limited to sights along
the trail network. There is a need to protect the off trail sites from too much
visitation.
One stop we made on yesterdaay's excursion was at the site of the Bear
Tree in the Algonquin Grove. The Bear Tree is the single largest tree in the
Algonquin Grove. Its dimensions as of yesterday's measurements are:
Girth: 11.0 feet at 4.5 feet above midslope position
Height: 153.5 feet
Looking at the rate of taper on this tree, I believe that F = 0.38 is
sufficiently accurate to capture the taper and be used in volume estimates.
Using this F value, the estimated trunk volume is 562 cubic feet, slightly less
than the Jake Swamp Tree in the Trees of Peace.
In July 2002, the Bear Tree's circumference was measured at 10.4 feet.
Its height then was around 151 feet. Using these early measurements in
combination with the current ones, I believe the Bear Tree is putting on wood
at the whopping rate of 11 cubic feet per season. This seems like a lot, but
I'll soon present more data in the FMTSF annual report to DCR that confirms
growth rates in this range of other white pines in MTSF. In general, growth
rates of the dominant Mohawk pines appears to be in the range of 6 to 12 cubic
feet per year.
I do not believe that the above stated rate of increase among pines in
the age range of the ones in MTSF is understood to be happening by
silviculturists. I could be mistaken about that, but it has been my impression
that they believe that the great whites slow down considerably after about 120
years of growth. That is not proving to be the case with the Mohawk pines as
well as other stands of pines that I have been monitoring. Are we seeing a
bonafide manifestation of climate change?
On a slightly different tack, Andrew and Taylor selected a very worthy
tree with which to commune during the recent ENTS rendezvous. I envy them their
experience. BTW, the Bear Tree is so named because of a large male black bear
that once used the tree as a territorial marker. It was a large animal, maybe
400 pounds. I like to think that a bit of the bear's spirit lingers there in
the vicinity of the big tree and that the secluded nature of the place where
the pine grows contributes to the remaining imprint. Just so mid-morning
ramblings
Bob
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Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org
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