Mike,
It will be interesting to see what yours and Joe's skilled eyes will see from a timber perspective. I'll be curious as to what you see both in individual pines and in stands. It's going to be fun. In terms of basal area, the stands vary. Stands with most of the big stuff run between 250 and maybe 280 square feet per acre for stands in the age range of 100 to 150 years. Smaller areas like a quarter to half an acre can be at the rate of over 300 square feet per acre, although I'm not sure any single acre would quite make 300. There is a stand of 110 to 120-year old weevil-damaged pines in Mohawk that I visit on occasion. Most of the trees covering an area of about 4 acres show extensive weevil damage. Elsewhere damage is sporadic. Some of the younger stands (60 to 80 years) are in good shape, weevil damage wise. The areas in Mohawk that grow the biggest pines have sandy-silty soils. There is a lot of glacial deposit in the area with outwash terraces of the Deerfield River holding the best. Close to the river the soils show some clay. The quality of the pine goes down. I would image Russ has a good take on the soils of Mohawk and can speak to the growing conditions there more authoritatively that I can. Most areas of big pines are fairly well to very well protected. Rainfall is high, averaging over 50 inches per year. This year, the total will probably reach 65. There are areas in Mohawk that exhibit extraordinary growth. We'll see a little of that. Maybe we can make it to an area that has some extremely well-formed oaks. Most of forest growth shape are between 22 and 33 inches DBH, but a few are larger with the largest being around 40 inches DBH. The same can be said for the white ash, although a few approach 40 inches and one reaches 45. Mohawk has a total of about 33 species of trees, which is pretty rich by Berkshire standards. American chestnut just made it to the perimeter of Mohawk. I doubt that it did well there. White oak is there, but does not express itself well. I could go on, but better that we see it up close and personal. See you tomorrow at 8:30AM. Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Leonard" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 4:21:07 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [ENTS] Re: Back to Bob about Wednesday Bob, I can ’ t think in terms of cubic feet. S ince I ’ ve always dealt in board footage, cubic foot measurements are alien to me and therefore meaningless. I read that the ratio of board feet to cubic feet ranges from 5:1 to 6:1 depending I guess on which log rule is used and form class. I can ’ t believe th e waste is as high as 50% what with the newer bandsaws which reduces saw kerf as compared with the old circular saws. Yes you will have a lot of waste squaring off a cylinder as well as waste from the saw kerf but 50%? Mill workers have told me there is a built in overrun of 15% on the ¼ ’ International log rule. I remember watching Gerry Lashway of Lashway Lumber in Williams burg saw up logs at his mill. There was a computer in his box which showed him how best to saw each log to maximize profit and minimize waste. I compared that with t he old hand set circular saw that old man Sisco used to use at his mill in Hubbardston (1950 ’ s vintage) and it was quite the difference. Bill Sisco Sr. was from the old school. Whenever I asked him how the tally went he always said “ I come up just a little bit short ” . Right! Volume is important but grading logs i s usually far more important in the forest products industry . I remember watching a log scaler grade logs and I asked him how he could grade the logs if he wasn ’ t rolling them so he could look at all 4 sides. He told me it wasn ’ t easy! Yeah it ’ s not easy unless you ’ ve got X-Ray vision! He could have saved some time if he just went back to office and wrote up some fictitious scale slips because that ’ s what he was doing anyway. You know it ’ s the same old story: logger screws the landowner and the mill screws the logger. It will be interesting to see those big pines and wonder what makes that site so superior for growing white pine? In addition, Mohawk State Forest is pretty much out of the hurricane belt so that allows for a longer life span than other areas that are frequented more often by powerful windstorms. The other big factor with white pine is the white pine weevil. Why do some areas grow the crappiest multi - forked pine while others grow nice straight beauties? Is it all related to past land use history, competition early in their life cycl e , or something else? Are weevil populations denser in some areas than others for whatever reason? I n my opinion, the white pine weevil is the biggest hindrance to forest productivity in the northeast (besides high-grading of course). Yes if we grow white pine i n partial shade early in its life we can discourage the weevil while sacrificing some growth . But i f we could find a way to eliminate the weevil, we could get some phenomenal production. Or maybe a forest geneticist could someday breed a weevi l resistant white pine. Mike -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [ mailto:[email protected] ] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Sunday, August 09, 2009 9:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: Back to Mike Leonard about Wednesday Mike, There are a number of white pines in MTSF that we'll see on Wednesday that we in ENTS have modeled to between 400 and 600 cubic feet of trunk volume. Additionally, there are 5 pines in Mohawk in the 700+ cubic feet class. I don't have a good handle on how total trunk volume can be converted to board feet. However, I assume that a 600-cube pine that theoretically yields 7,200 board feet will actually yield about 3,600 in lumber - a 50% wastage factor. I think Russ gave me s o me realistic factors in the past, but I've forgotten what he said. I'm curious as to what you will see in the largest trees. BTW, the single largest pine we'll visit is the Tecumseh Tree in the Elders Grove. Its dimensions are: DBH=45 inches, height = 163 . 3 feet, and average crown spread approximately 45 feet, maybe a little more. I once asked Karl Davies how many board feet he thought was in the Tecumseh Pine. To the eye, it didn't look much different then than now. He said he thought about 5,000 board feet. If we take the ENTS modeled volume of 779 cubic feet of trunk volume and run it through the calculation 779 x 12 x 0.5 = 4,674, that isn't far off Karl's estimate of 5,000. I wish I'd asked him what the waste factor he was assuming. By way of com parison, the largest pine we've modeled in Massachusetts is the Grandfather Tree in Monroe State Forest. Will Blozan climbed and modeled the tree to 967 cubic feet. The Ice Glen pine, also climbed and modeled by Will, is second with 933 cubes. I presume t h at a typical pine grown for lumber is between 100 and 120 feet in height and around 2 feet in diameter. If the tree is under 100 years old, its form factor is likely to be between 0.33 and 0.36. Taking a pine that is 110 feet in height and 2 feet in diame t er and assuming a form factor of 0.35, the expected trunk volume calculates to 120 cubic feet. Tecumseh is 6.5 times that volume. No small tree. I think you'll enjoy seeing it. Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Leonard" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, August 9, 2009 2:01:00 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [ENTS] Re: Back to Mike Leonard about Wednesday Bob, Joe; OK we ’ ll see you guys at the Charlemont Inn for breakfast this Wed. at 8:30. How big i s the big Algonquin tree? 2,000 board feet? Wow we could fill half a log truck with that! OK I promise not to mark that tree! It will be interesting to look at some of these monster pines and think hey we should be growing more of these! Mike --~--~---- -----~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 entstrees+ u [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
