Russ, Bearhole watershed is 1700 acres. The hike we took covered an area of 100 yards wide by .8 miles long. The first .2 mile is thickly planted with white pines with a fair number of hemlocks. These pines were planted some time in the past hundred years from the time the town took over the area. The pines range up to the 13 foot cbh I measured with alot of them in the 6 to 10 feet cbh. The rest of the area is a mix of pines, hemlock, oak, birch, and some beech. Like you said you won't find expanses of large trees since this area has been used for farming since the 1770's but I did see a 12' high maple stump of maybe 12' cbh. In the watershed you can find the remains of a dam used for a saw mill in the late 1700's and a dam used for a grist mill in the 1800's and 2 old quarries. There is still a grindstone in the streambed. The area we hiked stayed near the reservior and I only saw 2 areas of maybe 10 acres that have been logged in the recent past. There is an area in the watershed east of Morgan Road and near the Masspike that was logged in the last 20 years and if I remember right they were going to build on it but they got shut down. Sam
________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, December 7, 2009 7:32:24 PM Subject: Re: [ENTS] West Springfield, MA trees Sam: I am under the impression that Bear Hole Reservoir has been under some pretty intense forest management for the past 30+ years and I would expect that the likelihood of finding expanses of large trees might be remote. Russ -----Original Message----- From: Sam Goodwin <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, Dec 7, 2009 6:25 pm Subject: [ENTS] West Springfield, MA trees ENTS: Has anyone measured trees in the Bear Hole Reservoir area? Since I am saving up for a laser rangefinder I used the "stick" and tape measure today. The first tree was a white pine, 8' 10.5" @ 4.5' and 115' high. Then a white pine 11' 9.5" @4.5" and 132' high. On the way back I found a multi branched white pine that started branching at 4' where I measured it at 13' 1". I did not check its height. Driving home I checked 2 trees on the side of the road. The bigger one was 18' at 4.5". Due to rush hour traffic I did not check its height. I checked the leaves under the trees and most of them looked like what 2 books call a smooth-leaved elm? Do they get that big? Sam Goodwin -- 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] -- 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] -- 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]
