Went out again yesterday to poke around a few local areas to feel them out, see what they had to offer in terms of possible big trees. Started the morning off making a short loop through a local campground at Barton Cove in Gill, MA. Its on a small "peninsula" in the Connecticut river, forming a small cove before heading over the Turners Falls dam. Measured a few White Pines in the parking area, none of which came up over 95-100'~ so if the pines arent that big.......
Sure enough, spent about an hour and a half trudging through the shin deep, crusty snow, just about fighting for every footstep. Most of the hardwoods (Red and White Oaks, Pignut Hickory, Black Birch, Red and Sugar Maples, Beech, and very few White Birch) topped out about 95', with the vast majority being closer to 80-85'. The White Pines were the biggest things going out there per usual, a few had some very neat trunk shapes (bends/curves at the base, heading back to straight growth). But the largest of them I could come up with barely tickled 105'. Most of the Hemlocks were well short of that. I did however come across a small plot of seemingly random Red Spruce and White cedar, I'm assuming they were planted, but could be way off. They were all small trees, nothing over perhaps 20' for even the largest of the Spruce, but neat to find nonetheless. I found some native Dogwoods as well which was nice to see as its been awhile since I've come across that as well. Bar none the most interesting tree I found stood no more than perhaps 12' tall and spread maybe 10' wide. I'm certain its Beech based on the buds and the overall appearance of it, but the structure was just wild, such a cool tree. The trunk and main limbs had almost a twisted look to them, like a piece of wrought iron a blacksmith had heated up and twisted. Got a few pictures of it to share. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/beech1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/beech2.jpg Left there with nothing else remarkable in mind and headed a bit further down Rt. 2 into Northfield where I walked down to a small picnic area/boat launch across from the Northfield Mountain Project. While the trunks of the trees here got much larger, the heights looked very similar to those from a few miles down the road at Barton Cove. Nothing even notable for pines here, all young trees, and most the hardwoods just barely making it 100' tops, even though the trunk sizes were significantly bigger than those down the road. This area was a mix of Red and White Oak, Shagbark Hickory, Cottonwoods and Aspens, Sugar, Red and Silver maples, Yellow and White Birch, Black Cherry, White Ash, and a few rather peculiar looking varieties of Hickory or Elm that I wasnt able to identify. They had a long almost Ash like seed, but looked almost like just an elongated Elm seed, while the bark also had that fine fissuring of White/Green Ash. Oh well, leaf out is just a few months away. ;) Found a small grouping of Tamarack down next to a stream running out into the river, the largest of which being 92.1' and a trunk measuring 4.8' CBH. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/tamarack.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/tamarack2.jpg I had also revisited the Howland Cemetery in Conway, MA I last posted about with the large pines, and yet again have disproved myself and learned a lesson in the process. DONT RUSH! It was snowing heavily, the wind was blowing, my notebook was getting soaked, and I obviously incorrectly entered a distance measurement or angle reading before doing my calculations, there was no such 152' pine there, as Bob was correct, the tallest there being just about 140'~. I did however record one Norway Spruce to 114.2' right next to the pines. While again in Conway, I visited another cemetery just another mile up the road I had previously worked in, and while none of the Pines here were quite as impressive, I did however come across a few White Cedars that were fairly notable, two of which I measured. The first of which coming up to 78.1' in height and 7.1' CBH, with a thick, full crown coming nearly to the ground, the first branch being about head height. The second came up at 70.7' and 6.5' CBH. Both great looking, full trees. I've spotted a few Pitch Pines locally as well that I've shot for height which werent too remarkable, for but Barry's sake I think I'll scale a few snowbanks and get some measurements, a couple of them might make it to 7.5-8' CBH if I'm thinking correctly. Have to get some pictures of them as well. Discovered our own little "Pine Barrens" up here as well in an upland flat that is almost 100% Pitch Pine, looks really great driving through and seeing nothing but those chunky barked trunks and fluffy looking crowns. If I'm back in the area again tomorrow and the suns out, I'll be sure to pull over and take a few pictures. I'll be out hunting again tomorrow, but this was just this weeks worth of rambling I had to share! Jeff --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
