Tim,
I have no idea about who might have put white paint on the trees. That is a little bothersome though, isn't it. Sounds like the fellows from PA don't know their trees very well. There are only two white pines we've measured in PA that are in the 12 x 160 club. We also have two in Massachusetts: Tecumseh and Thoreau. I think the PA dudes were expecting to see much older trees and trees that at least appear larger. Oh well,. We can't please them all. Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Timothy Zelazo" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, October 9, 2009 10:01:27 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [ENTS] Re: Saheda and Chris Matera Bob: When I hiked into the Elders Grove with our trail coordinator on Thursday 10-08-09, I saw white arrow markings all along the trail. I didn't remember seeing them on my first walk in with you a few weeks ago. While I was hiking on the other side of the forest near the red pine stand, I met four guys that hiked in from Zoar Gap. While Becky and I were checking out the Tecumeseh Tree, they were hiking back to their vehicle so I asked them how they knew about the trail since they were from Pennsylvania, and they told me they found the trail on the web site for the Mohawk Trail State Forest. The new trail map for the forest doesn't show the trail, but the trail coordinator and I thought this would be an excellent trail to start marking and maintaining. Do you know who marked the trail with white paint? Since Chris wants to start bringing people to the site, I'd like to maintain the trail and put it back on the Mohawk Trail State Forest trail map. Recently, we discussed the issue of making the public aware of the resource, and the sensitive issue of giving them access to there special resource. The next time we get together, we have to discuss this important issue. By the way, the boys from Pennsylvania didn't think much about the Elders Grove because they were looking for the old growth and thought the pines were small. I hope they had a different mindset after my short interpretive program. Tim On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 6:10 PM, < [email protected] > wrote: Will, I was really sorry that I missed your 2007 climb of Saheda. As you well remember, I was flat on my fanny with a severe case of the shingles. I will always be indebted to you and the others for following through with the climbs and the events. Hope you are doing well in Florida. We look forward to good photos and measurements. It is time we all get back out in the field and bring up our big tree-tall tree databases. I'm psyched to remeasure all the trees in the Elders Grove. Lots of nice statistics to compute. Bob P.S. I'm especially pleased that Saheda is a favorite of yours because Saheda says it wants you to climb it again in 2010. These trees can be very demanding, can't they. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Will Blozan" < [email protected] > To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, October 9, 2009 5:35:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [ENTS] Re: Saheda and Chris Matera Bob, Awesome! Saheda remains one of my all-time favorite trees. My two climbs of Saheda couldn't be much different. The first (and worst) was in a squall of snow and wind. We had a huge problem setting a line in the tree for ascent, then got the cambium saver stuck in the tree on the way down. Had to climb AGAIN and retrieve the device and hike out in near dark and hypothermia. The last climb I hit a 89' set on the first throw and breezed thru the climb on a gorgeous sunny day. Both climbs ended the same however, with good micro-brew at the Charlemont Inn. Always worth it! ENTS, I am currently in Florida and hope to measure some live oaks and other species while down here for a week. There is supposedly a live oak with a 175' crown spread that is entirely unsupported except by the trunk (it does not touch the ground). Will From: " [email protected] " < [email protected] > To: [email protected] Cc: "CAMPANILE, ROBERT" < [email protected] >; "Davis, John" < [email protected] >; "Gafney, David" < [email protected] >; "Gilmour, Carol" < [email protected] >; "Hurley, Claudia" < [email protected] >; "Jahnige, Paul (DCR)" < [email protected] >; "Kaiser, Amy" < [email protected] >; "Kaiser, Stephen" < [email protected] >; "Laubach, Rene" < [email protected] >; "Morrison, Laurie Sanders & Fred" < [email protected] >; "Ricci, Heidi" < [email protected] >; "Ryan, Mike" < [email protected] >; "Seale, Doug" < [email protected] >; "Richburg, Julie" < [email protected] >; "Stransky, Laura" < [email protected] >; "VanDePoll, Rick" < [email protected] >; "Williams, Bill" < [email protected] >; "Weiss, Nancy" < [email protected] >; "Sweetser, Wendy" < [email protected] >; "Foster, David R." < [email protected] >; "Kellett, Michael" < [email protected] > Sent: Friday, October 9, 2009 5:15:01 PM Subject: [ENTS] Saheda and Chris Matera ENTS, Today Chris Matera and I visited the Elders Grove in Mohawk Trail State Forest. Chris wanted to investigate the spot as a possible site to take dignitaries in the future - a place of inspiration instead of destruction. While in the grove, naturally I grabbed the opportunity to remeasure the big Saheda white pine, one of two flagship trees in the Elders Grove. Chris is a fellow engineer and as a consequence at least potentially understands my tree measuring compulsion. He was very patient as I searched for the right canopy opening and fiddled with my equipment. I couldn't remeasure Saheda earlier in the season because of the thick canopy, but today everything worked out well. I found the almost perfect vantage spot and I was able to use my high-end $1,600 TruPulse 360 to determine crown height above eye level. I got 116.5 vertical feet from the crown's highest point down to eye level. I then had to use my Nikon Prostaff 440 to shoot the base because of clutter that the TruPulse couldn't penetrate. I got 49 yards. Using the TruPulse to measure the angle, I got -19.1 degrees to the base of Saheda on the uphill side. I later determined the uphill point of the base to be 1.5 feet above the midpoint of the slope. So, the full height calculations at this point were: 116.5 + sin(19.1) x 49 x 3 + 1.5 = 116.5+48.1+1.5 = 166.1 ft. Now from many uses of my Nikon, I often get 1.5 feet too much as the reported laser distance. It happens frequently enough, that if I want to be conservative, I subtract 0.5 yards from the reported distance. I don't always do this, but I wanted to be conservative. With this correction in mind, the calculations are: 116.5 + sin(19.1) x 48.5 x 3 + 1.5 = 165.6. This is the height I'm going with. At the point I chose for mid-slope, Saheda's girth is slightly over 11.6 feet. However, a better determination of CBH was done by Will Blozan in Oct 2007, when he established a point midway between upper and lower slope positions as the best place to measure CBH. Will placed Saheda's CBH at 11.8. Using Will's dimensions from his 2007 climb of Saheda, I derived a trunk form factor of 0.3839 for Saheda. Using this factor, Saheda's current height, and the 11.8-foot girth, we arrive at a trunk volume of 704 cubes. At a 67% trunk utilization factor, this results in a board feet calculation of 5,660. That is a heck of a lot, but illustrates what the huge Mohawk and Monroe pines represent. Saheda is one of the truly great New England trees. It is the second tallest tree in Massachusetts and one of a select few with trunk volumes of 700 cubes or more. Saheda and its companion pine, the Tecumseh Tree, are part of the group of nine 150-footers in the Elders Grove, but Saheda and Tecumseh are the only 160-footers.. Within Massachusetts, there are ten 160-footers, 9 grow in Mohawk and the other in Monroe. Should these great trees be a source of pride for Massachusetts? I certainly think so and I have a growing number of companions who also hold that position. Bob --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
