Those supposed ~200' white pine trees were near Fisher Creek (draining Trout lake into Second Pine Lake) in the Huron Mountains near Big Bay, Michigan, west of Marquette. On Google Earth or http://maps.google.com, search for "mummy mountain, big bay, mi" and Fisher Creek is just south of this hill. Note the hills with prominent areas of stunted growth and large areas of exposed bedrock. The land was purchased in the 1920's by the Huron Mountain Club which is a private club consisting of descendants of early 20th century moguls of industry, such as Ford and Firestone. It is a large, private, hunting/fishing grounds for the wealthy. Part of the land was selectively logged and there is significant old growth within a Reserve Area on the property. Crude details about it are searchable on the web, although the dozens of square miles of land are fenced off, posted, gated, and guarded, and off limits to nonmembers or unapproved guests. As a result, the heights of remaining snags and lengths of fallen trunk sections can not be confirmed.
Lee had researcher's access to the property at one time and didn't recall seeing any trees of great height in the Fisher Creek area. (Lorimer and Fahey, of the University of Wisconsin - Madison are still working there on pine related research: http://www.hmwf.org/index.php ) His experience on the property and throughout the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, along with our observations of the best known groves of white pine within the region make it seem extremely unlikely that trees of that height could have existed within the property. The girths are likely realistic, but the heights are likely way off. This is further reinforced by the discovery of grossly mismeasured trees with exaggerated heights as measured elsewhere by the late Paul Thompson, former Big Tree Coordinator for Michigan ( http://www.michbotclub.org/big_trees/bigtrees.htm http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/michigan/michigan_big_trees.htm). I believe that the best that we have seen for the UP of Michigan is 152', for statutory Wisconsin it is 150', and for Wisconsin, including Indian Reservations, is 167'. The U.P. trees are at latitudes of about 46.8 degrees north while the Wisconsin trees above are at about 45 degrees north. I believe that trees of height of 180'+ are currently only known from significantly more southern latitudes south of about 41 degrees north. Paul J. On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 6:58 AM, Will Blozan <[email protected]>wrote: > Barry, > > > > Read what the reply was addressed to. > > > > Will F. Blozan > > President, Eastern Native Tree Society > > President, Appalachian Arborists, Inc. > > > > *"No sympathy for apathy"* > ------------------------------ > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On > Behalf Of *Barry Caselli > *Sent:* Monday, October 26, 2009 11:01 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [ENTS] Re: Marquette, Michigan white pines > > > > This is the second message in a row in which the sender said "this tree", > when there were actually two of them. Which one is dead? > > --- On *Thu, 10/22/09, Will Blozan <[email protected]>* wrote: > > > From: Will Blozan <[email protected]> > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Marquette, Michigan white pines > To: [email protected] > Date: Thursday, October 22, 2009, 3:59 AM > > Andrew, > > > > This tree is dead- it fell a while ago. The height, as expected, was WAY > off. More like 135-140. Lee is familiar with the grove I think. > > > > Will > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Andrew Joslin <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:32:06 PM > *Subject:* [ENTS] Marquette, Michigan white pines > > > Hello ENTS, > Apologies if this has been covered in the past, a friend sent this > record to me from Michigan. Was this or is this a valid measurement? > Probably from the American Forests database, I looked through it and > couldn't find much except a large diameter white pine in Maine. I gather > that a measurement made (by whatever means) in 1984 may not mean much > now, for instance are the trees still standing? > -AJ > > COMMON NAME EASTERN WHITE PINE > SCIENTIFIC NAME PINUS STROBUS > LOCATION MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN (BOTH) > NOMINATOR PAUL THOMPSON (BOTH) > MOST RECENT MEASUREMENT 1984 (BOTH) > > CO-CHAMPIONS: > > CIRCUMFERENCE AT 4 1/2 FT. 186 IN. 202 IN. > HEIGHT 201 FT. 181 FT. > CROWN SPREAD 52 FT. 64 FT. > > TOTAL POINTS 400 399 > > > > > > > > </table > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
