ENTS,
Today Julia Darcey, a graduate student at Boston College, Jennifer Berglund, a graduate student at Boston University, and myself spent the day climbing on Clark Ridge in MTSF. Julia is writing an article on old growth, big trees, and the return of the New England forest, Jennifer is working on a thesis, and I was there to show them around and remeasuring trees (surprise, surprise). Both Julia and Jennifer wanted to see big trees and old growth, and in particular, they wanted to visit the Elders Grove. Let me say right away that Julia and Jennifer are great. They tolerated my non-stop tree talk. They scrambled over rocks, under and over fallen trees. They deeply appreciated the forest and all its treasures. The first tree I remeasured was a big white ash standing above the trail to the Elders Grove. It is 11.3 feet in girth and slightly over 110 feet in height. It is an old tree with a crown that is struggling to stay intact. It grows in a second-growth area with a lot of 100 to 115-foot tall trees and a few over 120. After measuring the ash, we moved on to the Elders Grove. The first tree I remeasured in the Elders Grove was the Crazy Horse Tree. Its girth is up to 11.15 feet and its height to a top that is re-growing from a break is a respectable 144.9 feet. Crazy Horse has the research tag# 157. The second tree I remeasured was the Chief Joseph Tree (named while we were there). Chief Joseph is 11.05 feet in girth and 146.5 feet in height. I remeasured Tecumseh and got 164.6 feet, probably high by 0.2 to 0.5 feet. I think 164.4 feet is the right height given prior measurements. The pattern of measurements supports that value. We moved up ridge and toward the Ash Queen. I was worried that last winter's ice storm hit the great tree, but that did not happen. I spent a goodl amount of time getting the measurement right. Julia stood by the tree and provided a reliable target for the laser. The ash queen is 10.7 feet in girth at mid-slope and 146.1 feet tall. It is probably the 3rd tallest ash in Mohawk, possibly the second. It is the largest and oldest of the really tall white ashes in Mohawk. We moved on across the boulder field of Clark and toward another important area of charismatic trees. An American basswood was confirmed at 6.1 feet around and 124.0 feet in height. It is an old tree, but hangs on. A slender white ash nearby makes 140.1 feet in height. The canopy is loaded with trees between 120 and 140 feet. But I had another site in mind. So we moved on. The Joseph Brant tree was the quarry. I spent time with measuring every twig, but couldn't get more than 158.8 feet. Alas, the Bryant pine drops out of the list of Mohawk 160-footers. Its location high on the ridge makes it relatively exposed. It has had a major crown break in the past and its recovery is slow. Its girth is 11.0 feet at the spot I chose. Had I chosen a spot on the opposite side of the tree, I would have gotten 11.2 feet. It is a challenge to get the right mid-slope spot on this big pine. The last tree I took the time to remeasure was the Bruce Kershner pine. Its girth is now 9.5 feet and its height is 150.8 feet. Bruce Kershner's pine is the northern most in MTSF. 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
