John,
Good job. I was going to visit Forest Park in Springfield this afternoon, but I'm wimping out. Too windy. Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Eichholz" <[email protected]> To: "ENTSTrees" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 11:13:28 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [ENTS] Rocky Mountain Park, Greenfield MA ENTS: Rocky Mountain Park in Greenfield, Massachusetts consissts of 117 acres located between the Town of Greenfield and the Connecticut River. It is one of three contiguous named parks in Greenfield, the others being Temple Woods (56 acres) and Highland Park (29 acres). A large part of the park is a rocky ridge that rises more than 100' above the river bottom land on either side. From the top of the ridge there are numerous outlooks especially to the west, including the locally famous Poet's Seat Tower. On the town side of the ridge, in Highland Park, is a nice pine stand, which contains several trees over 130' in height and one that touches 140'. I recently explored Rocky Mountain Park, on the steep east facing side of the ridge and bordering the Connecticut River. The forest is notably rich in hickories, both shagbark and bitternut. The shagbark is quite often an intermediate form I see locally, with more of a ropy bark. The characteristic platy bark only occurs in a small range high up the trunk, and is transitional to a completely smooth bark above. I suppose it could be a hybrid of some sort, but it does have leaves like shagbark and not like bitternut. (Maybe I need one of those nice Sibley guides hint hint.) The forest is a typical oak-hickory mix, with red and white oak, some black birch, maple and an occasional white pine or hemlock in addition to the hickories. In the lower reaches I found some shallow coves where beech makes an appearance, but not sycamore, cottonwood or other river bottom vegetation. I found all of the tallest trees this trip at the base of a single cove near the northern extent of the park. To compile a Rucker index, I also included the 140' pine from Highland park. None of the white pine on the east side are anywhere near as tall as the ones on the west side of the park. Tree type height girth White pine 140.5' 7.6' Shagbark Hickory 115.6' 4.6' American Beech 113.3' 8.0' Red Oak 111.8' 6.7' Bitternut Hickory 109.3' 4.3' Sugar Maple 108.7' 4.3' Red Maple 107.6' 5.4' Eastern Hemlock 104.8' 6.8' Black Birch 103.5' 4.7' Red Pine 99.8' 4.5' RI 10 111.5 RI 5 118.1 Including the rest of Highland Park/Temple Woods will likely raise the Rucker index somewhat. I know there is a sycamore and a cottomwood each taller than the red pine. But already, Rocky Mountain Park is on the list of notable public Massachusetts forests. 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] -- 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]
