I like the idea of comparing each species to its own regional maximum. I had tried that for my backyard site (http:// www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/mass/mount_peak_west.htm) . The question that comes up is how to determine the maximum for your region wherever you are. Given how the height of an individual tree fluctuates with age and the seasons, I would think a more stable maximum height metric would be the top 5 or 10 of the species. Would that be the RI – S 5? Maybe its time to dust off the database and try to come up with that number for our region? Using current data white pine ri5 is 165.0 at MTSF, Ash ri5 between 146 and 147, 130 for sugar maple, and for these species other sites are lower. Ice Glen and Petticoat Hill contribute hemlocks to the list , to 130. Tuliptree, cottonwood, red spruce, sycamore would make the list but I don't have data for them.
I found an old report you generated that had the average of the top ten by species for MTSF, which in part follows: Summary Species Max avg hgt avg cir Hgt x Cir H/D Ratio WP 164.2 159.5 9.6 1527 52.3 WA 147.4 142.5 7.0 999 63.9 SM 138.0 129.4 8.0 1037 50.8 NRO 130.6 125.7 7.4 926 53.6 HM 131.0 122.5 9.2 1132 41.7 BTA 127.7 120.0 4.2 504 89.8 BNH 128.4 116.9 4.5 524 82.0 BC 120.9 116.6 4.9 575 74.3 ABW 125.5 114.2 5.8 665 61.6 RM 122.4 113.4 7.6 865 46.7 AB 130.0 110.7 7.6 843 45.7 BB 116.2 107.6 5.2 563 64.6 YB 102.1 99.3 5.5 541 57.3 AVG 129.6 121.6 6.7 809 57.4 It looks to me that from HM down, other sites beside MTSF have examples that would raise the average. John -- 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]
