Bob:? I enjoyed your photos of Stafford Meadow....between the meadow itself and the incredible plantation of grid pattern red pines on the north side of Stafford meadow I can think of no other place that has been more enjoyable to visit during a heavy winter snow storm.? Several times during the 1980s I raced up to Charlemont just so I could?be there during the most miserable weather possible.?
The area itself is so historic that I have spent many hours just sitting under the giant trees, staring at Negus and pondering the long history of the location (near the confluence of the Cold and Deerfield Rivers).? During a heavy snow storm the surveyor straight rows of red pines on flat ground creates an almost surreal environment where it becomes incredibly easy to become completely disoriented (but without the ultimate panic of getting lost because there are only a few acres to get "lost" on.?? Russ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; Belchetz-Swenson, Sarah <[email protected]>; Dittmer, Paul <[email protected]>; Gilmour, Carol <[email protected]>; Heller, Sharl <[email protected]>; Hurley, Claudia <[email protected]>; Jakuc, Denis <[email protected]>; Kaiser, Amy <[email protected]>; Logue, Bill <[email protected]>; Goodrich, John <[email protected]>; MALANGA, KEVIN <[email protected]>; Loomis, Rob <[email protected]>; Olson, Christine <[email protected]>; Ricci, Heidi <[email protected]>; Seale, Doug <[email protected]>; Weiss, Nancy <[email protected]>; White, Richard <[email protected]>; Zorzin, Joseph <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Thu, Jul 16, 2009 6:06 pm Subject: [ENTS] Mohawk Trail State Forest - My Woodland Mecca ENTS, ?? ?Today Monica and I returned to Mohawk Trail State Forest, our woodland Mecca, to check on several important trees. Of course, I had to remeasure the Jake Swamp white pine - tallest known tree in New England. Using 3 lasers, I finally settled on 169.3 feet. I may be over by a tenth of a foot, but I want to give Jake the benefit of the doubt. Jake is the tree flagship of New England. ?? ?After measuring Jake, Monica and I went on to the Algonquin Grove and I confirmed two new 140s in the south end of the grove that didn't have any 140s a few years ago. However, it now has at least three and probably five or six. In the center of the grove, 140s and 150s are the rule with two 160s. Heights at the north end trail off into the 120s and 130s. The north end receives the brunt of the winds. ?? ? While at the north end of the Algonquin grove, I happened to look down to a lower terrance and noticed a very tall-looking pine in an area of otherwise young trees that I've not heretofore bothered to measure. It is the north end of the area we identify as the Frog Pond Grove. The tree turned out to be 146.5 feet in height with a girth of a very modest 7.3 feet. The discovery opened my eyes to the super fast growth of the Frog Pond Pines. I will return to catalog all the 140s in the grove. ?? ? The Frog Pond pine inspired me so I compiled a list of the tallest pine in each of the 15 named groves of Mohawk white pines. The named groves is the system for keeping track of what is where. I often can't get GPS coordinates under the tall canopy and have to resort to other schemes to oranize the lot of them.? ?? ? The following table shows why Mohawk trail State Forest is such an extraordinary place. In the table for age class, M=mature, O=old growth, and Y=young. I consider young to be under 120 years. Mature is 120 to 174 years, and old is 175 years or older. ?? ? ?Before presenting the table, I'll briefly mention the 5 attached images. They are all in MTSF. Two are of meadows. One shows the new Algonquin pine and two are in the Frog Pond Grove. The last image shows Monica with one of her named pines - the Sweetie Pie Pine. It is young tree and growing like a weed. I didn't measure it today, but it will be around 141.5 feet. It was 140.5 at the end of the last growing season. I now believe that the Frog Pond Pine Grove is the one to watch. All the trees fall into the young age class and are growing very fast. BTW, my definition of young in a white pine is at variance with what timber specialists would consider young.? Tallest tree in each grove in MTSF ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Grove Tree Height-Ft ?? ?Girth-Ft ?? ?DBH-IN Age Class ? ? ? ? ? ? Trees of Peace Jake Swamp 169.3 10.4 ??39.7 M Elders Saheda 164.9 11.6 44.3 ?? O Algonquin Algonquin 161.2 8.9 34.0 ??M ENTS Lee Frelich 160.4 8.5 32.5 ??M Shunpike Brant 160.2 11.1 42.4 ??M Mast Pines Forked Pine 155.9 9.0 34.4 ??M Pocumtuck Will Blozan 153.3 7.3 27.9 ??Y Cherokee-Choctaw Jani 152.0 11.0 42.0 ??M Trout Brook Trout Brook 151.9 8.2 31.3 ??M Kershner Bruce's Tree 150.2 9.3 35.5 ??M Frog Pond Surprise 146.5 7.3 27.9 ??Y Headquarters Nonni 144.4 9.7 37.1 ??O Cold River Big Boy 143.5 9.4 35.9 ??M Indian Springs Old Man 140.8 9.7 37.1 ??O Todd Mtn Northern Sentinel 137.1 10.6 40.5 ??M ? ? ? ? ? ? Average ? 152.8 9.5 36.2 ? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
