Hey John, Some interesting pictures here. I know the Tall Timbers area well in Putnam County, Indiana. I grew up in the Western portion of Hendricks County, Indiana and used to fish Big Walnut Creek for smallmouth bass. Tall Timbers is a fairly new acquisition in regards to "officially" recognized protected lands (i.e. parks, nature preserves). Use to be that only a few of us were aware of the beauty and diversity of it and we tried to keep it to ourselves! I guess word leaked out... Steve Springer Urban Forester/Stormwater Coordinator City of Bartlett
________________________________ From: [email protected] on behalf of jon parker Sent: Tue 8/18/2009 10:30 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] intro First post. I joined the ENTS group a month or two ago and have been, and probably will stay, more of a lurker here as I'm a layman when it comes to forests, and have a hard time finding ways out of the big city, but over the last few years my interests in forests has grown a lot. I thought I would share a couple of large tree photos I've taken over the last couple of years: First: This is the only photo here not in the Eastern region of the United States... it's an old Kapok tree in the Mamiraua reserve in west-central Amazonia, in Brazil (taken in March 2008). I believe it's also called a Ceiba tree, and in Portuguese it's called a Saumauma tree. Although there were a lot of HUGE trees in the Amazon, this one stood out from the others from what I had seen up close; there had been logging of the giant trees in the region for years before this type was granted protected status. I can't tell you how tall it was but the trunk was at least six feet across many feet up to the first branches. I have read that these can grow to over 200 feet tall. Second: I believe this is an American Elm tree, the photo was taken last summer along the Thompson Pond trail near Stissing Mountain in Duchess County, NY. It was certainly the widest tree I saw along the trail, although there could have been others as I only went about halfway around the lake trail. Third: Again, I could be mis-identifying the tree, but I'm pretty sure this photo, taken in September 2008, features a Sycamore tree. If so it was easily the largest I've ever seen up close... it's hard to get perspective on it since I was alone, so sorry no human comparison is possible! It hangs over Big Walnut Creek in Putnam County, Indiana, and I found it walking along the Tall Timbers Trail of the Big Walnut Preserve. Fourth: Also from the same preserve, further inland from the creek. I was floored by this place, not least because I had grown up only 10 minutes away and had only known about it for the first time just last year, when I was browsing the Nature Conservancy's website for places to hike while I visited! (I live in NYC now). It really lives up to its name Tall Timbers, at least part of it is virgin forest. To imagine that the whole central region of my home state used to look like this is a real revelation for me. The thick tall trunk in the background is a huge tulip tree growing there. I wish I could estimate the height but as I said before I'm just a layman when it comes to trees! Keep up the interesting work here ENTS! Jon --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
